VW's TDI position: North America

VW\'s TDI position: North America

I spoke with Robert Schoof yesterday - an employee (and TDI owner himself) of VW's Customer Relations Department (248) 340-4693. He indicated several interesting facts: (1) that VW has no intention of changing the current TDI offerings to either the US or Canada. This general statement was clarified as follows: No TDI Passats, no wagons to either the Jetta or Golf platforms, no stronger engines (neither 110 or 115 hp "pumpe duse") and no 6 speed transmissions! (2) that cars produced in Mexico (Jetta and Beetle) in either silver, yellow or green are "rare" due to paint problems associated with the altitude of the manufacturing plant. Consider that TDI's are only placed in approximately 10% of cars produced of an already rare color. (3) that due to world wide demand, the north american market will not see an increase in TDI imports. After speaking with this individual, my thoughts were that if you are lucky enough to find the TDI equipped car configured the way that you want it - secure it. Demand is sure to continue to grow, and supply will at best remain constant. Incidentally, Robert knew of the VW forums, but not of Fred's site. I gave him the URL and told him VW "owed" Fred a TDI for the interest his site has created on the TDI equipped cars in this market. As for those of you looking for a larger TDI equipped vehicle, it appears your best bet is to look for a well cared for '96 or '97 passat in the used car market. I can offer the following production figures: '96: x 4,951 - US, x 748 - Canada. '97: x 2,319 - US, x 475 - Canada. I could not get a split between wagons and sedans in these production figures. My quess is that wagons were perhaps 20% of production. Can anyone clarify this?

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1996 Passat TDI Wagon; Reside in Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

I would like to replace the family mini-van with a Passat wagon TDI but it looks like that won't be possible in the near future.

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

I get the feeling from reading the posts on either Vortex or here that the people who want those TDI Wagons or Vans for their family should really reinvest that money into Jenny Craig and/or Birth control and/or they want to keep up with the Jones'.

Come on! You CAN raise a family without having big honking cars!

Forgive my poor grammer, this was the straw that broke camels back. Actually, a fellow who "HAS" to sell his Jetta to get a Passat so his little baby won't get too uncomfortable! Face it, you want a bigger car because you want it, not because you need it. And for those who do need it, please take my earlier advice and get some birth control!

Is there anyone who feels like this? It's just crazy!

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

Ever tried to roll a wheelchair into a Jetta? Ever tried to stuff a lawnmower into a Golf? Nobody "needs" a car at all. You could adjust your lifestyle to do without a vehicle. (Move into a condo, use mass transit, etc.) We're making do with our Beetle for now, but I sure miss the utility of our Subaru Legacy wagon we traded to get it. Once you've experienced how handy a wagon is, it's pretty tough to give it up. (The wheelchair thing won't be an issue for my family for another 6 to 8 years, and I hope a TDI powered van will be available by then.) Yes you can raise a family without big honking cars, but why torture yourself?

-mickey

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

nomad, et al

If it makes you feel any better, I've got the minivan/lt truck part covered (Eurovan), and I'd like to downsize to a Golf TDI (if they'd only have some stock!) because it's a real drag driving something that's overkill for day to day commuting (with crappy mileage to boot). On the other hand, it's VERY hard to give up the utility and space of a lt truck after you've gotten used to it.

Personally, the ideal vehicle for an average family of four should be somewhere around a Golf/Jetta/Bora Variant (stn wagon), IMHO, but apparently the NA market will not be getting it anytime soon...

Norman

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

People who buy a Explorer because "a baby is on the way" are just looking for an excuse to buy an Explorer. They should just do it.

I'm not a fan of gratuitously huge vehicles, unless you have a practical need for one. But a Passat or a minivan are not gratuitously huge. With a diesel engine they would be perfectly reasonable, fuel efficient, practical cars. (Little cars are just plain fun, though. One of each is probably best.)

RAISING children had better be the central focus of your existence if you choose to make babies in the first place. Too many people make babies just to show that they can, or so they can live vicariously through their children. The kids deserve better than that. If you ain't serious about it, by all means DON'T DO IT!

-mickey

p.s. What am I, Dr. Laura? Sheesh.

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

norman: Your ideal car for a familty of 4 works great while the kids are small. But they don't stay that way for long, and if you're buying a TDI for the "right" reasons you'll still be driving it when they graduate from high school. I'm over 6' tall. If I were a tall, lanky teenager (which I was) I would definitely not enjoy the back seat accomodations of a Jetta or Golf. I sat in the back seat of a '99 Jetta and I had to duck to keep my head from hitting the roof. A Passat would be a much more reasonable solution. (My kid loves the back seat of his Beetle Car, but he's only 3.)

-mickey

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

mickey: It's crazy. I was totally thinking "Dr. Laura" when I was reading your post, and I couldn't even see the "p.s."!

I totally agree with what you said though.

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Kamei Schalthebel Knopf

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

Mickey: I don't know what kind of point I was trying to make. I've just had it up to my eye brows with people getting rid of their cars because a "baby is on the way." I suppose when the truth is what I am after, that is what is wrong. Why the hell does some one need to buy a Jeep Cherokee, Van, or Wagon for one baby!? Am I missing something the joke?

Either I'm getting older or I am turning into a "Tree hugger"...

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

Don't feel too guilty there, bud. There are a lot of us who are getting pretty sick and tired of the current emphasis on children being the be-all and end-all of existence (or used that way at least). Getting a woman pregnant usually isn't that difficult an activity ... or painful.

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

Wow.. just when my mind was made up to get a Golf automatic TDI. If I can't get one, then
ultimately, I might not be even getting a VW!
=(

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

Hey guys,
Can´t you just import some cars from Europe?
I´m portuguese, and I do not suffer from your EPA dictatorship. Is the air cleaner in the US than it is here in Portugal? I surely doubt that... so ... if they won´t sell you the TDI´s you want to buy just buy elsewhere... after all it´s a free market...
It´s bad enough for me not to have the money to buy the TDI I want...
And one thing more... Do you all live in Florida? Tell EPA that european people are also getting sick of them this side of the Atlantic... The TDI range in the US and Canada is not getting bigger because of them... and you have the Vipers, TransAms, and so on....

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

Importing a European spec car to the US or Canada is the closest thing you can get to "impossible." The expense of retrofitting the car to meet OBD II and safety requirements is prohibitive, and the government red tape would take years. (Literally.)

-mickey

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

I'm one of the people who wants a new TDI Passat, said so on the Vortex site, and I don't have any kids!

If you haul bulky stuff from time to time, sometimes a Golf just isn't big enough.String instruments tend to take up loads of space, as do lots of other hobby gear. Some things you don't want to leave in the open back of a truck. And have you tried to find a van with a 5-speed stick shift?

A TDI Passat would fit the bill nicely, esp. chipped or with a larger engine.

Does anyone feel like shipping a container load of big-engine TDI P-cars to the US? Might be a profitable business for someone with the know-how.

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

mickey,

I should have qualified my opinion of the ideal car with the preface that I'm Asian and my kids are not likely to get beyond ~5'10" and about 155lbs or so (but I'm sure stranger things have happened), so for the "average" American, I think a Golf/Jetta Variant is still a good choice for the long run. I'll tell you what though, if my Eurovan had a TDI motor in it, I probably would not be pining for a Golf TDI.

Huntsman,

Don't give up on that automatic Golf TDI! If you ask me, they're easier to find than 5spd TDIs, sans Lux pkg, etc... What color are you looking for? GL, or GLS?

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

Speaking of Golf TDIs.. I must have seen a VERY rare car this past week. At the VW dealership in Cedar Rapids, Iowa had a 1999 Golf TDI GLS automatic in Silver! That's about as rare as they get I think. There were no dealer markups that I noticed... So those of you who are looking, the rare cars are out there. This one just happened to be in my area.

I'm holding out for a 2000 Jetta GLS TDI in silver with 5-speed

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

All: I didn't appreciate the anti large family comments...HOWEVER, the vast majority of larger vehicles purchased in the US are NOT necessary. As an experiment, I took measurements of back seat widths of SUV's at an autoshow. The moronic Ford Expidition/ Lincoln Navigator twins have a back seat that is only TWO INCHES wider than the back seat of my Passat. What has really happened in America, of course, is that the families have gotten smaller while the vehicles have gotten larger. I wonder if it will be a requirement to have NO kids to purchase the 7,700 pound, 10mpg (if it's lucky) Ford Excursion.

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

Detroit has always been very talented at producing vehicles that are huge on the outside and cramped on the inside. If you take a troop of boy scouts camping in the hills on a regular basis, or tow a boat to the lake with the whole family and a weekend's worth of gear stuffed in the vehicle with you, then a Ford Expedition makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, most of them are driven by housewives with one or two kids in the truck with them. THAT is a total waste. Someday I aspire to have a huge, immensely powerful diesel pickup for use when I need a pickup, a minivan for hauling the family and our stuff around (preferably TDI powered...I can dream, can't I?) and the Evil Beetle for everyday sort of "running around" when the bigger vehicles aren't needed. My wife and I could just pick whatver is actually needed at the moment from the "stable". (We both hate driving huge cars on a regular basis.)

-mickey

p.s. Okay. Evil Beetle for me, a Golf GLS TDI for my wife (auto trans), Ford Powerstroke or Dodge Cummins for towing/hauling, diesel powered wheelchair-accessible minivan for the whole family, 240Z for me to tinker with, some kind of gnarley Jeep or something for the hills...the list is growing. Hey, maybe all we need is a giant size Ford Powerstroke 4x4 van. We could live in it, too!

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Hey Nomad, you sound like a child hating, self-indulgant....never mind. The new Jetta is WORTHLESS for anything more than two people. I had a jetta 3 and sold it when my twins reached 3 years of age. NOT ENOUGH ROOM FOR THEIR STUFF OR LEGS. I bought a Passat TDI. I get 44.5 mpg doing 80 to 100 mph on the interstate. Sure it is a big car and we are comfortable. Is there something wrong with being comfortable? Maybe you commies can make us all drive something you think is appropriate. I get better mileage than lots of the tiny $hitboxes you zero population, Sierra Club Donating, Honda and Subaru Driving, Wine Sipping, Whale Loving, tofu eating, massage getting, Thank You Jerry Bumper Sticker Slapping, vegetarian family hating hippies drive. Your sarcastic comments about "his little baby being uncomfortable" and "birth control" made me wanna puke. You will never know love until you have a child. BTW, If VW sent over the big diesel in a van or SUV I would buy it so I could haul my family and tow my racecar.

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

Well, just to add my 2 cents worth. I would love nothing more than to have the ABILITY to own a Passat TDI. I'm happy with my A4 Jetta but for me it is a bit on the tight side, and I make no apologies for me being on the big side (5'11", 220lbs). As much as it disturbbs others that people are complaining about the use of children as an excuse for everything is probably as much as it angers me that VW has what I REALLY want and won't give it to me. I'd bet that if VW really wanted to sell more TDI's (Jetta, Golf, Passat, Van or whatever) they would triple sales with a few TDI television adds. I had no problem paying the $1300 premium to own a TDI and can't imagine many others would. I also feel good I made the choice knowing all the benefits I'm getting out of owning one (I.E. Fuel mileage, maintenance Etc.) and the help I'm giving cleaning up the environment. Am I a green freak, absolutely not, but I like feeling like I'm doing what I can. All I ask for is the ability to ride in a little more comfort and style. As such, when my wife and I are ready we will proudly purchase a Benz E300 diesel. And, it's fun owning something that's DIFFERENT..

Re: VW\'s TDI position: North America

RabbitGTI:

Thanks for the humor! You brightened up my day