Pat Dolan
Veteran Member
We don't buy cars that often, and then keep them until they are fully used up. As we have a fair number of vehicles, nothing gets the really high mileage that we racked up when we were younger (that is, if 1.8 million kms on my FLD120 can be regarded as 'high mileage"). My wife has only 360,000 kms on her 2003 ALH Jetta Variant, and other than rust on tailgate and fenders, it is about half life (our last two Jetta TDs went 620k and 650k before I retired them).
We bought a farm a couple of years ago (need AWD), and this year inherited a Toyota Venza (2WD, 2013 with 24,000 kms!), and the grandchildren count is about to become a whole hockey team. Well, two of them would squeeze into the back of the Jetta, but works a lot better in our V70, and 3 is simply not doable. The Venza IS that wide in the back seat, but really has zero cargo space, a near white cloth interior (those with little ones and mechanics in the family know what I am getting at) is only 2WD and...HORRORS, uses gasoline!!! (and a fair bit of it at that).
So, we have reduced it to a Suburban (too big for her for daily duty, but the Jetta can fill in), but really want mid size - so that leaves the XC70 Volvo and the Q7. As you may notice, in this market, only one of them is a diesel.
Have no desire to spend a hundred grand on a car, so it means used - plus I really want a diesel. Am I afraid of Audis? Well, used to be a VW mechanic, so YES, the complexity and potential reliability issues are something that threatens my very small amount of free time (had to rebuild CCTA in one kid's Passat last year - don't like some of the shakey engineering coming from the Fatherland lately).
I think our target would be 2015 with low miles (they are around) but I simply know next to nothing about the common rail V6 at all. Did they suffer the fuel pump failures of the 2.0 litre common rails? If so, what years, what fixes, what frequency? What about the gearbox for reliability (yeah, my last Audi diesel was a C2 with the coasting feature - died early). Will 3 child seats fit in the back (2 rear facing?).
Tell me about these things in a view to being long term vehicles. The Volvo option, even a gasser, is pretty tough competition. Gave up on R class as it is just too unfamilar and anything after 2012 is Chinese.
We bought a farm a couple of years ago (need AWD), and this year inherited a Toyota Venza (2WD, 2013 with 24,000 kms!), and the grandchildren count is about to become a whole hockey team. Well, two of them would squeeze into the back of the Jetta, but works a lot better in our V70, and 3 is simply not doable. The Venza IS that wide in the back seat, but really has zero cargo space, a near white cloth interior (those with little ones and mechanics in the family know what I am getting at) is only 2WD and...HORRORS, uses gasoline!!! (and a fair bit of it at that).
So, we have reduced it to a Suburban (too big for her for daily duty, but the Jetta can fill in), but really want mid size - so that leaves the XC70 Volvo and the Q7. As you may notice, in this market, only one of them is a diesel.
Have no desire to spend a hundred grand on a car, so it means used - plus I really want a diesel. Am I afraid of Audis? Well, used to be a VW mechanic, so YES, the complexity and potential reliability issues are something that threatens my very small amount of free time (had to rebuild CCTA in one kid's Passat last year - don't like some of the shakey engineering coming from the Fatherland lately).
I think our target would be 2015 with low miles (they are around) but I simply know next to nothing about the common rail V6 at all. Did they suffer the fuel pump failures of the 2.0 litre common rails? If so, what years, what fixes, what frequency? What about the gearbox for reliability (yeah, my last Audi diesel was a C2 with the coasting feature - died early). Will 3 child seats fit in the back (2 rear facing?).
Tell me about these things in a view to being long term vehicles. The Volvo option, even a gasser, is pretty tough competition. Gave up on R class as it is just too unfamilar and anything after 2012 is Chinese.