New guy asking for advice?

Need guidence I will be purchasing a new car (to me) soon in a couple of weeks I'am looking to get the best mpg possible. I know cars very well do all my own work I want to round of my experience with some diesel knowledge what tips and/or advice.

What you need is going to be determined by your driving needs. If you do city stop and go with lots of short trips and no weekend or evening jaunts to Vegas then a small gasser might fit your bill. If you want to zip up through the Mojave Desert at speed and only fill up once on the round trip to Vegas then a TDI might be the answer.

TDIs excell at highway speeds and lots of long trips, the engines, if maintained well, last for 500K plus miles and the cars retain their value. They are fun to drive, look sharp and have lots of available, affordable modifications to make them better.

I like the A4 models 99.5 - 03, and of those I prefer the 03 with is 100K Timing Belt system. All the A4s can be upgraded to the 100K Timing Belt so that is not a major factor. Can you buy your TDI in Mexico and bring it north of the border? They might be cheaper (guess) down there, the fuel definitely is.... You will probably want tinted windows and good A/C, heated seats - not so much....

Welcome to the club, lots of stuff to read in here and lots of info....

Dave

Thanks alot I had already read through that Link I just wanted to get some personal feedback. I'am looking for in particular is a 03-04 Jetta, stick,cloth interior, exterior/interior in good condition thats the basicly I am looking for.

03 will get better mileage than the 04.

mrduece88 said:

Need guidence I will be purchasing a new car (to me) soon in a couple of weeks I'am looking to get the best mpg possible. I know cars very well do all my own work I want to round of my experience with some diesel knowledge what tips and/or advice.

Click to expand...

I assume the car is picked out and you'll be happy with the decision to purchase it. If you looking 2-3 weeks, you should have it found by now - they're not that easy to find.

My advice is to spend about 3 hours a day for the next two weeks reading these forums - especially the ones about your car of choice ( A4)

Best MPG possible - driving styles. Read read read.

rdkern said:

I assume the car is picked out and you'll be happy with the decision to purchase it. If you looking 2-3 weeks, you should have it found by now - they're not that easy to find.

My advice is to spend about 3 hours a day for the next two weeks reading these forums - especially the ones about your car of choice ( A4)

Best MPG possible - driving styles. Read read read.

Click to expand...

I'am, I have been, and I will

Go for the 03 which was the last of the ALH motors, simpler to work on although none of them need much work. It has more modifications available for it if you want to do some tweaking for more power. Gets a little better mileage than the 04+ at the expense of a little power and doesn't need the special oil which the 04+ does, VAG 505.01.
The 99.5-03 can use oil that you can find in Wal-Mart, such as Mobil 1 Delvac but it has to be a diesel rated full synthetic oil that meets API CH-4 or better. I believe we are up to CJ-4 now, just means your oil changes will be a bit cheaper but you only need to do them every 10K miles anyway so its not a big deal....

The A4 has been around a bit longer than the newer A5 04-present and has most of the bugs worked out, if you run into a problem it is likely that someone in here has already solved it and can help you. They are good, dependable and economical cars that are fun to drive and look good when tarted up, a hard combination to beat....