Car and Driver: 2008 TDI Jetta named one of 2008's most fuel efficient surprises

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PlaneCrazy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 3, 2000
Location
Province of Quebec, Canada
TDI
Gone...
Actually the Renault 5 (Le Car to you guys), was a pretty indestructible and fun to drive little vehicle. It was the favourite of college students in Quebec and was their "VW Beetle" of the eighties. They even came standard with E-code headlights in Canada for a while. Their biggest weakness was the timing belt replacement; the engine was mounted backwards and the timing belt was at the cabin end, and had to be changed, I think, every 60k or so (forget if that's miles or km).

It was the only really decent car that Renault ever sold over here!

When they first came out, the base version was actually built on the R4 chassis and had an 850 cc engine with a stick-shift mounted in the dash. Most people bought the mainstream version with the 1289 cc engine.

I know I used to see a lot of them on the road long after they stopped selling them but you rarely see them now.
 
N_D_v_22101

N_D_v_22101

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2001
Location
Virginia - the east coast
TDI
2001 MK4 2001 -REFLEX SILVER and now a MK5 JETTA Platinum Grey NON-TDI Tho.
2001 4dr golf here. approx 126,xxx miles and i have an auto (yes, i know, but don't even go there) transmission.

avg tank gets me 500 miles and a range of 36-38 mpg. obviously 600 miles and a solid 45 when on highways.....

i hope to get more as the car (and myself) get older..... :confused:
 
tdisky

tdisky

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2004
Location
Middletown, Rhode Island
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL (hers)
PlaneCrazy said:
Actually the Renault 5 (Le Car to you guys), was a pretty indestructible and fun to drive little vehicle. It was the favourite of college students in Quebec and was their "VW Beetle" of the eighties. They even came standard with E-code headlights in Canada for a while. Their biggest weakness was the timing belt replacement; the engine was mounted backwards and the timing belt was at the cabin end, and had to be changed, I think, every 60k or so (forget if that's miles or km).

It was the only really decent car that Renault ever sold over here!

When they first came out, the base version was actually built on the R4 chassis and had an 850 cc engine with a stick-shift mounted in the dash. Most people bought the mainstream version with the 1289 cc engine.

I know I used to see a lot of them on the road long after they stopped selling them but you rarely see them now.
Click to expand...
(Music playing) "Thank hay-vun for lee-toh cahs"
 
frugality

frugality

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 19, 2003
Location
Spring Lake, Michigan
TDI
none, 2016 GTI
VeeDubTDI said:
LOL @ Grateful Dead edition TDI. ;)
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Yeah, the "Dead TDI" or "TDeadI"... that would rank up there with the top marketing blunders ever :D....along with selling the Nova in South America ('no va' in Spanish means 'no-go')
 
J

johnson_ben@me.com

Active member
Joined
Jan 30, 2008
Location
San Diego, California
TDI
2009 Jetta TDI
'09 Jetta TDI Economy

FYI I have spoken to folks both at the Detroit Auto Show and others who work for VW here in MI and they are stating the test vehicles which are being driven are averaging mid 40's city and mid 50's hwy - with some touching 60 MPG. I am on a list for one. Supposed to see a "demo car" (not for sale but can be test-driven) in June/July with vehicles on the lot beginning in August.

Ben
 
TDIMeister

TDIMeister

Phd of TDIClub Enthusiast, Moderator at Large
Joined
May 1, 1999
Location
Canada
TDI
TDI
bjohnson said:
FYI I have spoken to folks both at the Detroit Auto Show and others who work for VW here in MI and they are stating the test vehicles which are being driven are averaging mid 40's city and mid 50's hwy - with some touching 60 MPG. I am on a list for one. Supposed to see a "demo car" (not for sale but can be test-driven) in June/July with vehicles on the lot beginning in August.
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http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=2007188&postcount=29
 
N

nougat98

Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Location
Philadelphia
TDI
none yet
I thought the '09 was going to be a substantially better design, but I am beginning to think I should just buy a used tdi. It sounds like the emissions stuff will make this jetta more inefficient and unreliable than those of previous generations. Am I being paranoid?
 
D

Dave_D

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2003
Location
Gaithersburg, MD, USA
TDI
2015 Passat Titanium Beige six speed manual & Jetta, 1999.5, Tornado Red
Given a new engine with new feature, etc. there are likely to be "teething problems" with this model year. If you are not willing to be a test pilot for such issues I would suggest you sit out at least one model year.

Of course you can see that I own a 99.5, which had its own set of initial model year issues, so I felt it was worth dealing with the issues to have the car.
 
C

chewy

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2006
Location
CA
TDI
None
The EPA ratings will be higher. The CR design itself easily brings 10% better fuel economy (PD vs. CR data in the Audi A4) And the EPA test likes more powerful engines.
 
I

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
How do you have comparative EPA numbers for Audi A4s with PDs and CR engines, since the neither engine has been sold in an A4 in the US?
 
C

chewy

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2006
Location
CA
TDI
None
IndigoBlueWagon said:
How do you have comparative EPA numbers for Audi A4s with PDs and CR engines, since the neither engine has been sold in an A4 in the US?
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I don't. The European figures show a 10% fuel economy increase between PD and CR. And the EPA isn't too kind to weaker engines. A more powerful version with proper gearing (someone said that VW looked at that) can give you getter EPA ratings than a smaller/less poewrful engine.
 
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