Need advice on which TDI to buy

Hi, I am about to buy another TDI for my little family of 4(wife and two little ones).

I have 4 different cars to choose from, all automatic, and I am hoping you guys will have an opinion on which one you believe is the best one to buy.

Car 1: 2010 blue golf sportwagon comfortline 52,000kms for $11,000
Car 2: 2013 silver jetta highline w/55,000kms for $14,000
Car 3: 2014 silver jetta comfortline with sunroof w/14,000kms for $15,000
Car 4: 2014 white golf sportwagon comfortline w/75,000kms for $12,000

Right now I am leaning on getting car 4 but I have never had a wagon nor have I had an mk6!

Thanks in advance! Much appreciated.

The jettas are cheapened out. The sportwagens have the quality interior of the MK5's so if you like the Mk5's then go with the sportwagens

Ahh, good to know! I do like the mk5 quality of interior vs. the mk6 Jettas. Thanks!

Car 1 for me. Totally biased opinion, but I think that year has better looks than the other years. I also think that the interior is better as well. 52K on the clock, that's almost nothing which means the car was used sparingly or for short trips. I think these cars have issues with repeated short trips and they do better with longer runs. I would inquire about the type of driving done with respect to the typical trip distance. My second choice would be car 3 with the lowest amount of miles on the clock along with a price that isn't much different from the others. I would caution about the sunroof however. I have some friends who have had issues with the bigger panoramic sunroofs in the krautwagons whether they be TDI or not.

I was thinking the 2014 wagon because of the IRS but then read that the rides are pretty close to the same..so maybe it's not that big of a deal. What are the interior differences between the 2010s and 2014s?

I have owned a 2015 Jetta (non-wagon) from new. It’s a great car with kids, they have plenty of room and the trunk is huge.

However if I had the choice above I think I’d go with car 4, the wagon would be a little more practical. (I really wanted a wagon but we couldn’t justify the price)

Awesome. Thanks for the comment. I love the Jettas too but have heard that you really appreciate the extra room in the wagon. I didn't know they cost a bit more too- more good info!

I would go for either of the wagens. You can cram a lot of stuff into the back. If your kids are still small, make sure to test the car seats and make sure you and your wife have enough room to be comfortable for anything longer than running to the store for milk. That could be the single reason for looking at the sedans. There is a lot more interior room.

Good call. We do have a baby with a backwards facing seat. It was a bit crammed in our mk5 Jetta.

autoblog says there is 35.4" rear leg room in the 2006 jetta and 35.5" rear leg room in the 2014 wagon. So that's good.

treefort said:

Good call. We do have a baby with a backwards facing seat. It was a bit crammed in our mk5 Jetta.

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The seating area in the Sportwagens is going to be the same as your MKV, it's essentially the same platform. And in regards to other posts above, the styling of the JSW (Or GSW in Canada) from '10-14 is the same. And all the cars you're looking at have IRS.

Cool, thanks man. For some reason I thought IRS was introduced in 2014. Good stuff.

Wait, you might be right on the Jetta. That one may have a beam rear axle. But I bet you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference if you drove them back to back.

I find that most of the sunroof issues happen to folks back east.. Cold perhaps?

treefort said:

autoblog says there is 35.4" rear leg room in the 2006 jetta and 35.5" rear leg room in the 2014 wagon. So that's good.

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And the Jetta sedans the OP is considering have rear legroom of 38.1".

I've had two sure roofs shatter on me before so as nice as the panoramic would be, I am good on not having one on this car. Right..I read the mk6 Jettas got a bit cheaper and a bit bigger trying to target the mainstream. I put an offer in on car 4 last night. We will see what he says. I'm stoked for the extra room and quality of interior which looks really similar to the mk5 Jetta I have.

A little update for y'all

Well, I bought the 2014 GSW and we love it. All we want to do now is go for drives. Check out new lakes, visit family, any reason to take it for a drive.

The interior is definitely better than the mk6 jettas. Almost identical on terms of quality with my old mk5 jetta. One thing that is cheaper is the door handles inside. They are no longer soft touch/rubberized and are now the cheaper feeling plastic that that you see on the mk6 jettas. But that's fine because our dog put scratch marks on the rubber handles in the mk5.

I love having the adjustable armrest again, thank god for that. And I really like the contour of the dash around the vents. Definitely an awesome car. We have the car seats in there for the kids now. One rear facing behind the passenger front and I(5'11") can sit in the passengers seat comfortably with my seat back a bit even. Seems like there may be a bit more room than in the mk5 with the rear facing child seat behind you.

We love the extra room in the trunk too. All in all we feel very lucky.

Congrats! That would have been my pick as well. Actually it was my pick - for myself! That is a really great price for a 2014 wagon as well.

Thanks!

Good choice!

Did you tint your back windows kitewagon? If so, any pics? Do you remember what level of tint you went with? I might just fork out the cash to get mine tinted.

congrats @treefort - that was the best choice. I tinted the windows in my wagen and also installed the Windsea ClimAir SonniBoy shades. Both are great separate, but together they *really* keep the back of your wagen darker and cooler, IMHO.

I sold a bunch of gear last night, but still have the Sonniboy Shades for sale.

Anyway, Good luck with the wagen!

Thanks! @msantram

Do you remember what level of tint you went with? I'm still not 100% sure whether to go with 20 or 35% or something in between. I'm only getting the "behind the driver's seat" done.

This shades are sweet. A bit of an investment for sure. How much are you selling them for?