Daily commute dropping from 100 miles to 4.

My mileage is being cut significantly. I bought a NOS 2015 gsw back in July. In the last 8 months I’ve run it up to 25k miles. I love it. This is a great car. But I’m moving, and my new job is a short 2 miles from home, so I’ll rarely be getting the car up to operating temp. I know these cars don’t like short trips, but does anyone do have actual experience on problems that’ll come up if I continue to drive it these short distances? I’d love to keep it, but I don’t want it to crap out early.

I'd be concerned about the DPF and the possible lack of regens.

Should be fine as long as you take it on longer drives occasionally.

Don’t let it idle before a drive, the time it takes you to put on your seat belt and turn on the radio is all the time you need for it to warm up. You’re not at heat temps for a warm car but the engine will not get much harm at all from this short drive. In the winter, put a heater core on it for this short distance, summer, and no issue. As JB05 said, the issue might be in the emissions and regen. you’re not going to harm it in any way, well if your trying to get 500K out of the engine, now were talking a bit of a difference but TBO you can do much worse wear and tear on it. It’s not ideal for a TDI to go so short but neither is a gas engine. You’re going to see much more rust development on the exhaust from condensation and lack of heat to dry it out for this short trip. So it would be great if you could once a week, take it out for 20 miles with a hard pull on it now and again.

As above - take it out on a long drive every so often.

I find that I have to buy new brake rotors every couple of years, even though they have only a few thousand miles on them. They rust much more quickly when they aren't being driven much. But if you drive it every day, then maybe you won't be so plagued. I'm working from home, and just don't drive much at all anymore.

Cheers,

PH

I would say you will need to take an active role in insuring that regens happen when needed. This takes some monitoring device to let you know when. Torque and or vag-dpf can be useful. A long drive now and then may help but doesn't insure anything. Regens need to happen on a regular basis especially when short tripping. There are other threads here about doing this. Good luck!

With the warranty on the diesels now you have nothing to worry about.
https://www.vwdiesellookup.com/pdf/VWCourtSettlement_Emissions_Disclosure_Gen3_Final.pdf

Except wasted time and frustration, as one member here has found out. IIRC he is on the third dpf in very little time.

Two miles? Have you considered bike commuting or even walking? I'd rather do that then drive a whole 4 minutes in my TDI.

If you must drive that short distance, consider putting in a FrostHeater and at least when you drive the two miles, you're already at operating temp for the entire drive. May sound insignificant but do the math...

As others stated, give it a highway drive a few times a month and you'll be fine. And no need to idle for warmup, just drive it gently. Despite popular belief, you will not kill the DPF by idling it for a long period of time, you'll just increase the amount of regens that are needed. The car can still make it to over 200k miles with excessive idling before ash will become an issue.

Also, I second the FrostHeater. Using one definitely won't hurt.

I have had to replace several DPFs over the years for too long of idle time, so yes, it most certainly DOES effect them. That is why the trucks now have idle counts in the ECU data. Starts after 30 seconds. And that is why most of them have a high idle option, for vocational use (ambulance, boom truck, etc.).

They cannot stay hot enough at idle, that is the problem. Volkswagen passenger cars won't have that type of stuff in them, because they don't assume anyone with a car will just sit and idle for extended periods of time. But I'm sure their trucks do.

That said, short trips, while not ideal for anything, are not likely to hurt the car all that much so long as it gets a nice run down the highway once in a while.

You can use certain tools to monitor DPF regens, too, if you like.

Thanks for the answers. I'll still be taking it on regular longer distance trips, so it seems like I'll be fine.
And it's 2 miles, but I'll be living on a state highway. Walking or biking would be a good option if I lived in town, but not with texting drivers driving at 55+ mph 18 inches from me.

From my experience with municipal trucks and equipment, I would run it hard once weekly at least. Exhaust failures are common on backhoes, which idle too much too often, and refuse trucks which do basically 100’ drag races all day long. Neglected too long the forced regents won’t be accepted and need to be brought to someone with the proper soft wear. I don’t know if that VW is typical of that. Government mandates DPF warranties on trucks and equipment(autos too?). But manufacturers lose money on that, so minimal appeasement can be expected there. Take it on weekly runs and avoid bureaucratic nonsense. Exhaust regulations are very hard on diesels, and the elements they are trapping just end up in the water or elsewhere anyway. Worth pitching that crap if software allows, in my jaded opinion

Daily driver

Some comments make no sense to me. People think you only use a car to go to work. My drive to work is 3 miles. However on a single weekend I drive between 130 to 200 miles, around and hwy driving.
Also during the week, after work sometimes I go places, 10, 20 miles away. You are fine. Keep you tdi, after all the goal is not to go to the gas station.
Now for sure you will make very few trips to the gas station.
I was in Yakustk Russia few years ago, a guy I know has an old TDi jetta with 180K miles, he only drives few miles once in a while, sometimes in temperatures of -67F below. Only thing he did to the car, oil change once a year, he has never done a timing belt job. Still drives.