amafrank
Well-known member
I had to make a cross country trip this month and we had too much stuff to fit in the Golf Sportwagen TDi. We rented a Dodge Grand Caravan which held everything quite well. It was comfortable to drive and got decent mileage but rolling across missouri and up into the western states the thing was always kicking down a gear or two as we went up hills. It sure gets noisy and kills the mileage. It sure pointed out the big difference between the zero torque gasoline engine vs the much higher torque of the diesel. Even loaded down the TDi doesn't normally drop a gear at highway speeds when going up hills. When it does its because the hill is really steep. The gas engines do it all the time. The Dodge engine puts out twice the horsepower of my TDi at 283HP vs 145HP for the VW. The VW torque peaks at 236 lb/ft at about 1800 rpm where the Dodge peaks at 263 lb/ft at 4400 rpm.
We had a good trip overall and I can see where the dodge would have some followers....especially with the 4 back seats folding flat into the floor. I sure like the high torque diesel pull though.
Frank
We had a good trip overall and I can see where the dodge would have some followers....especially with the 4 back seats folding flat into the floor. I sure like the high torque diesel pull though.
Frank