Volkswagen exec reaffirms commitment to diesel: ‘Now it is absolutely clean’

atc98002

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Nov 24, 2006
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2014 Passat TDI SEL Premium (sold back), 2009 Jetta (sold back), 80 Rabbit diesel (long gone)
According to this:

https://www.kia.com/us/content/dam/...ual/warranty-manual/2018_warranty_soul_ev.pdf

It is 120 months/100,000 miles and it is transferable and it includes the Battery pack (“EV Battery).

I presume the "small print" will say something like if you 'abused' it or extreme climate the warranty is either reduced or cancelled.
I must have looked at a link for another country of something, or I overlooked a specific mention of the EV model. I agree, there's always fine print in there somewhere...:p
 

tikal

Veteran Member
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Apr 18, 2001
Location
Southeast Texas
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2004 Passat Wagon (chainless + 5 MT + GDE tune)
There's a 2012 Volt named Sparkie that the original owner got up to 477,625 miles before it developed a problem. He sold it to a shop, which found the problem, repaired it and plans to continue driving it. They tested the battery and found it degraded only 20% after all that use.
Great start.

Now bring data for about 100 Volt vehicles that have reached 200,000 miles or more and give as an average and spread of the battery degradation. Geographical diversity of these 100 vehicles would also be very helpful.
 

kjclow

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 26, 2003
Location
Charlotte, NC
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2010 JSW TDI silver and black. 2017 Ram Ecodiesel dark red with brown and beige interior.
Someone posted here recently that driving an EV is like driving a TDI with the low fuel light on all the time. Not really accurate as EV ranges have increased, but it's not that far off.

There are a lot of things I like about my MKIV TDI, but near the top of the list is the range between fills. Once you get used to 700+ miles on every fill, with some over 800, it's hard to go back to even the 500 per tank my GSW delivers. I would not enjoy recharging every 200 or so miles. And before someone posts "just plug it in at night," I have a 275 gallon over the road diesel tank with a pump at my house. So I can refill at home...in 5 min or less.
I had my daughter and her fiancé in my truck the other day. He asked what my DTE range was because from where he was sitting it looked like I was running on E. I still had about 150 miles left on the tank and had already driven about 400. He just bought a 19 taco with the 4 banger. I think he struggles to get over 350 miles per tank with all city driving.
 

El Dobro

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Feb 21, 2006
Location
NJ
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2017 Bolt EV Premier, 2023 Bolt EUV Premier
Good deal. Thanks. I see there are 20 cars with 100K miles or more.
That list represents roughly 2% of Volt production, so I'm sure there's a lot more high mileage ones out there.
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
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'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
Regardless of what anyone says, I can't agree that the Volt is an EV. It has an internal combustion engine. Regardless of propulsion method, it can charge batteries whenever programmed to do so. That has to improve battery life.

As an aside, Colorado just adopted California's mandate to sell 5% of new cars as "electric" by 2023. That includes plug-in hybrids. Those vehicles are currently 2.6% of auto sales. Manufacturers can buy credits if they don't meet the mandate.
 
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IXLR8

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Mar 9, 2003
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Cushing, ME
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12 Passat Platinum Gray, 02 Golf Black, 01 Jetta Black
I have a 02 ALH Golf, love the car and it's FE. I have 300K miles on it, but Maine winters have killed it. Due to rust through out it will no longer pass a safety inspection. :(
The JSW I replaced it with is a nice car, but I just can't get the same FE.
Our local taxi service has a fleet of Prius, all of them have gotten over 400K miles on them before they get replaced. I think they reported that the highest mile one they had was 475K miles. None of them had their batteries replaced before they were turned in.
My question, can the power grid handle recharging all these electric cars we are suppose to be getting?? How "clean" will all this power be that is going to be generated to charge these "clean" cars??
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
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'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
My son is driving his '02 Golf from Northampton MA to Madison WI today. Trip is just over 1,000 miles and he's doing it all in one shot. He called me at about 5 PM from near Toledo and while we were talking he said he'd stopped near Buffalo for fuel, made a rest stop near Cleveland, but he didn't want to stop again till he got home. I asked him about fuel, and he said, "oh yeah, fuel. I have 385 miles to go and a half tank. Probably too close for comfort." That's the opposite of range anxiety.
 

marcusku

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2003
Location
Madison, Wisconsin
TDI
Golf Sportwagen, 15', red
My son is driving his '02 Golf from Northampton MA to Madison WI today. Trip is just over 1,000 miles and he's doing it all in one shot. He called me at about 5 PM from near Toledo and while we were talking he said he'd stopped near Buffalo for fuel, made a rest stop near Cleveland, but he didn't want to stop again till he got home. I asked him about fuel, and he said, "oh yeah, fuel. I have 385 miles to go and a half tank. Probably too close for comfort." That's the opposite of range anxiety.

The TDI range sure is nice. In a Mk4 if you slowed down and didn't have a headwind you could make that on one tank!

We recently bought a Chevy Bolt for my wife and will primarily get used around town. The range is advertised as 240 miles which seems realistic with a mix of city and hwy driving. In town it would actually go much further but straight hwy going 70 the range seems to be closer to about 200 miles. Although I love my TDI it sure is a fun car to drive. It has 200 hp and you can sure tell, faster than my RC4 Mk4 Golf was.

Electric cars make a lot of sense for most people's daily driving but they will have their shortcomings for quite some time for those you put a lot of miles on or take long trips.
 
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BeetleGo

TDIClub Enthusiast, Pre-Forum Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 21, 1998
Location
Cambridge, MA
TDI
5-door, 5-speed Golf GLS replaced BeetleGo.
I have a 02 ALH Golf, love the car and it's FE. I have 300K miles on it, but Maine winters have killed it. Due to rust through out it will no longer pass a safety inspection. :(
The JSW I replaced it with is a nice car, but I just can't get the same FE.
Our local taxi service has a fleet of Prius, all of them have gotten over 400K miles on them before they get replaced. I think they reported that the highest mile one they had was 475K miles. None of them had their batteries replaced before they were turned in.
My question, can the power grid handle recharging all these electric cars we are suppose to be getting?? How "clean" will all this power be that is going to be generated to charge these "clean" cars??
Now? No. But electric chargers, particularly high output American Tesla chargers are multiplying VERY quickly. Tesla knows that this is a crucial component to electrifying. And if your a competitor, Tesla has left the door open for other carmakers to use the same system! Few are taking this offer up.

Just wait until you can charge your car with induction (Mercedes is already offering it on their electric S Class), where you park over a charge point and the car rejuices without lugging in! It’s not far off. I intend to sell my TDI in 3-5 years for a Model Y. I love my diesel, but with induction, I will switch.
 

tikal

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2001
Location
Southeast Texas
TDI
2004 Passat Wagon (chainless + 5 MT + GDE tune)
I have a 02 ALH Golf, love the car and it's FE. I have 300K miles on it, but Maine winters have killed it. Due to rust through out it will no longer pass a safety inspection. :(
The JSW I replaced it with is a nice car, but I just can't get the same FE.
Our local taxi service has a fleet of Prius, all of them have gotten over 400K miles on them before they get replaced. I think they reported that the highest mile one they had was 475K miles. None of them had their batteries replaced before they were turned in.
My question, can the power grid handle recharging all these electric cars we are suppose to be getting?? How "clean" will all this power be that is going to be generated to charge these "clean" cars??
As another data point regarding Priuses used as taxis (and not necessarily to contradict your information). When I traveled to Spain some few years I learned that the Pruises used in the city of Valencia were experiencing issues but I do not have specifics.
 

turbobrick240

Top Post Dawg
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Nov 18, 2014
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maine
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2011 vw golf tdi(gone to greener pastures), 2001 ford f250 powerstroke
As another data point regarding Priuses used as taxis (and not necessarily to contradict your information). When I traveled to Spain some few years I learned that the Pruises used in the city of Valencia were experiencing issues but I do not have specifics.
The Prius would not be the vehicle of choice for large taxi fleets (like nyc) if there were reliability or maintenance issues. It's not my cup of tea, but I think it's pretty hard to argue that they aren't rock solid at this point.

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1099135_toyota-prius-taxi-logs-more-than-600000-miles-batteries-last-apparently-video
 

atc98002

Veteran Member
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Nov 24, 2006
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Auburn WA
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2014 Passat TDI SEL Premium (sold back), 2009 Jetta (sold back), 80 Rabbit diesel (long gone)
Not me, I'm waiting for the bus!
Yeah, the VW Buzz would be my choice over the Model Y. But I think the Crozz will be what I end up with. Reports are now calling it the ID4x, so we'll just have to see what VW does. :p
 

bizzle

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May 21, 2013
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2015 GSW SEL (totaled), 2013 Touareg Executive
We'll be keeping the Treg so I'm thinking Buzz over Crozz for my family.

Not sure when we'd be driving the Treg under those conditions but if it keeps the wife happy...
 

jackbombay

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Diesel knows best
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A4 Jetta
As another data point regarding Priuses used as taxis (and not necessarily to contradict your information). When I traveled to Spain some few years I learned that the Pruises used in the city of Valencia were experiencing issues but I do not have specifics.
This is some premium grade exceedingly vague completely unverifiable information.

My son is driving his '02 Golf from Northampton MA to Madison WI today. Trip is just over 1,000 miles...
Intermediate level long distance driver, not bad ;-)
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
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South of Boston
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'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
Intermediate level long distance driver, not bad ;-)
I'd agree with that. I'm headed out there in October, and am considering taking a couple more days and heading to Bozeman to visit my brother before he leaves the area. That's a little more serious.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
We help service a lot of cabs, many of which are Prius or hybrid Camry models. They overall hold up OK but are subject to a few things with higher mileages. Batteries are common (we do these on non-cab Toyota hybrids frequently).

Camry getting a new battery:



Prius battery (note how the entire interior aft of the B-pillars must come out... these are not service friendly AT ALL):



Transmissions here and there:



Not that the transmission itself fails, but they leak coolant from an o-ring in the bellhousing (there is coolant running through the transmission case to cool the motor/generator). The o-ring, because of the design of the transmission, would require complete disassembly to fix... and Toyota doesn't even sell any parts for these anyway. Fortunately used units are readily available.

We seem to be doing a high number of Prius (and other Toyota) evaporator cores lately:





And of course the common coolant pumps, valves, etc. of their complicated dual cooling system:

 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
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Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
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'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
Why's he leaving Bozeman?
His wife has a new job in Alexandria VA. He's moving there later this fall, somewhat reluctantly. But he says he'll go back to Bozo if the opportunity arises. He's been there since college (mid 70s). Really likes it there.
 

redbarron55

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Jul 10, 2010
Location
Navarre, FL.
TDI
2012 Touareg TDI Executive
The only thing I had to replace in 197 K miles was that electric inverter coolant pump and the battery. 14 years and 197 miles, not bad.
I found a pullout "New" Battery that had been replaced by Toyota right before it was wrecked in Mississippi.
New tires, New battery, New pump in the 2002 Gen I Prius. Mom gave it to our son for the last two weeks of it's like.....
Normal death sentence for my cars.
 

atc98002

Veteran Member
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Nov 24, 2006
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Auburn WA
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2014 Passat TDI SEL Premium (sold back), 2009 Jetta (sold back), 80 Rabbit diesel (long gone)
@Oilhammer, that picture of a completely disassembled dash is scary!
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
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South of Boston
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'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
The only thing I had to replace in 197 K miles was that electric inverter coolant pump and the battery. 14 years and 197 miles, not bad.
I found a pullout "New" Battery that had been replaced by Toyota right before it was wrecked in Mississippi.
New tires, New battery, New pump in the 2002 Gen I Prius. Mom gave it to our son for the last two weeks of it's like.....
Normal death sentence for my cars.
I think the admirable thing about this is you managing to drive a Gen 1 Prius for 14 years and 197K miles. I test drove one before I bought IBW and after a short highway run decided I wouldn't be able to tolerate it on a daily basis. And I wanted to like the car. My recollection is it couldn't hold 75 MPH without the transmission going nuts.

The Gen 1 is still my favorite, followed closely by the current Gen. A lot of people think the current Prius is fugly, but I think it steps over the line of being so ugly it's beautiful.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
I cannot stand to drive them long enough to get the coolant up to temp after service. I make one of the porters do that. That is always a fun PITA, because they are awful to bleed the cooling systems on. The one's with the coolant going through the catalyst are not as bad, they warm up much faster.
 

redbarron55

Veteran Member
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Jul 10, 2010
Location
Navarre, FL.
TDI
2012 Touareg TDI Executive
While I was driving the Prius our other car was a 2009 JSW and I did enjoy it much more.
The Prius was a good bit cheaper to own and drive, but all it had to do was get me to and from work.
By the way my wife hated it as well. but I noticed that almost without fail I ended up where I wanted to go and got back.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
Yeah must've had some schmutz on the camera lens.

The job isn't all that bad. I have done just about everything you can think of to a Prius. Engines, transmissions, HVAC case stuff, steering racks, axle beams, and COUNTLESS batteries, inverters, water pumps, intake manifolds, control valves, thermos bottles.... you name it. Not a bad car to work on really. Toyotas in general are not too bad, but they for sure are not really made to be taken apart and put back together due to all the cheesy little plastic expando-clips everywhere. Where Volkswagen would use a gauntlet of Torx screws (fender liners, bumper covers, splash shields) that are super easy to R&R, Toyota uses those darn clips that have a 50% chance of breaking upon removal. Plus, they'll use four different ones to hold one piece on the car. And some of them are frightfully expensive. The four big ones on the bottom of an RX330 for instance ar $18 apiece! :eek: Also, Toyota does not seem to bother with good corrosion resistant fasteners, especially on things like steering/suspension/exhaust/brakes.

My boss, who when I first met him way back in the '80s, was a big flag waving GM fanboy. And he took no breaks from ribbing my friend and mentor at the time about Toyotas. Now, the boss is a total Toyota (mostly the hybrids) kool-aid drinker. And bad mouths GM like they are the spawn of satan. :rolleyes: So to that end, he seems to solicit a lot of Prius work here. We get loads of them that the dealers just price the repairs out of orbit for any mere mortal, and we come in and do the job for FAR less and get them back on the road. So that's cool. Even the only Toyota specialist shop in town won't touch any Toyota hybrid aside from simple oil changes and stuff. So we stay busy with those for sure.

Only downside is, Prius drivers crash. A lot. And those cars are very fragile on the outside. You can, literally, with your bare hands, tear a bumper cover right off the front of one (reference cheesy plastic clips above). And the low hanging fragile bits behind them, like the thermos bottle, the dual radiators, condenser, etc. are all ripe for smashing. Steering racks bend and break if you drive over a dead squirrel. Control arms bend easily. And a deer strike.... yeah, those usually cannot be fixed. So we are constantly dealing with cobbling broken stuff back together, and I swear every Prius driver must carry a roll of duct tape in the glove box, because they often come in here with that as the only means to hold whatever fragile plastic bits on the outside of the car that came loose on to the body. :p
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
I was behind a Prius entering the freeway the other day and the entire rear bumper was covered with duct tape. The car was silver and the tape was gray. You'd think at least they could have matched the color.

There was a Peach Parts member whose sig said "Lumpy duct tape is a sign of poor workmanship." I like that.
 
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