For those that have owned multiple VW’s

What made you a repeat buyer?

For me it’s the value for the money, and the torque. Ever since my first VW, an 02 GTI, I’ve fallen in love with torque, I’d much rather have more torque than HP rather than more HP than TQ like you see in all the Japanese cars, I love it in the city and on the highway. For myself, I’ve kept up on maintenance religiously and neither of the 3 models I’ve owned had ever let me down.

The only thing I really don’t care about them is the exclusiveness of the lubrications and fluids they use, especially difficult procuring motor oil for the TDi

I have been around Volkswagens since I was born. Literally, my first ride home was in a 1965 Beetle.

I have never had any issue sourcing motor oil, and in this day of internet and what not, there is no reason anyone else should either.

oilhammer said:

I have been around Volkswagens since I was born. Literally, my first ride home was in a 1965 Beetle.
I have never had any issue sourcing motor oil, and in this day of internet and what not, there is no reason anyone else should either.

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I prefer to have options, I walk into 3 of my local auto parts stores and have zero options in all 3 stores, forced to buy online with choices less than a handful, again it’s my only real gripe

I have only owned VW tdi's since 2004 when I bought my first. The main thing for me has been the fuel economy. When I had a BMW 328i convertible it required premium fuel and every week. My 2006 Jetta tdi was a once a month fill up then.

I have never had trouble with finding oil. The dealers here carry it at a competitive price. Even the parts stores have it or can get it in a day. Online there are a myriad of choices and I have used IDParts for a lot of my needs for services. But when I buy for them I buy multiples, not just one service set to make shipping cost more economical. I may order a two 10k, one 20k, and one 40k kit at the same time. Usually just the filters as the oil from the dealer is a good deal.

Only reason I ever considered a VW as a viable option, TDI.
I know Germans had been manufacturing diesel engines for a long time and most passenger vehicles in DE were diesel. Plus, a roommate had a 1994 that seemed to last forever and gained awesome MPG. 250k miles at over 50mpg before he allowed the timing belt to break. Then after $2k in repair costs, up to 380k before he voluntarily gave it back to the bank (because he was stupid at the time).
Now its sad that VW won't be producing TDIs in the foreseeable future. Also sad that "several German cities, including Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stuttgart, have put in place or are bracing for bans on older diesel vehicles that emit higher amounts of pollutants than later models." (Ref https://www.dw.com/en/german-court-bans-diesel-vehicles-on-key-autobahn/a-46317300)
I survived through dieselgate, purchased and drove a Chevy Cruze Diesel for a year, then searched for another VW TDI Sportwagen with a 6 speed. The style, handling, and general enjoyment I get when driving my Sportwagen was lacking in my Cruze. And although the Cruze was quieter and made better mpg there were no mods available for the VM Motori 2.0L CR like there are for the VW TDI CR.

I also would only consider a VW tdi. The whole reason I rushed out and picked up the 2015 Beetle (new stop sale car) I have now is because of the end of the VW diesels and the incredible warranty that goes along with these.

I'm a little like oilhammer, been around VWs most of my life. When I was a kid our family car was always a VW Bus, I learned to drive in a Bus, and owned several air-cooled Bugs before getting my first diesel, a new '78 Rabbit.

I've always liked VWs. I like smaller cars, and I always appreciated that VWs were economy cars that were a little better than other economy cars. I've owned other brands, too, but I always end up back with VWs.

Regarding parts, I can't comment. I have 20,000 square feet of them across the street.

They are fun to drive, they last forever, there is a huge aftermarket of tuner parts and an enthusiast community of grass roots VW racers.

CheapBastard said:

What made you a repeat buyer?

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Three letters: TDI

1. Love the look and practicality of the Golf
2. Love that I could drive from Vancouver Island (Canada) to Los Angeles on two tanks of fuel (~$100).
3. Aftermarket / OEM+ upgradability (read: make fun! )
4. The support of the great community here on this message board.

I don't know how many of you belong to other message boards, but it never ceases to astound me just how helpful, generous, patient, and just genuinely nice the atmosphere of this board is.
Thanks to everyone who makes it thus.

CheapBastard said:

What made you a repeat buyer?

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n1das said:

Three letters: TDI

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Not all my VWs have been TDIs, so I would add four more letters: VCDS


Have Fun!


Don

n1das said:

Three letters: TDI

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But now that has become:

N L A (No Longer Available)

Although I love all my spark ignited dubs, too.

My Audi was the first "vw" i bought. I liked it. Interior, exterior, features are good, it was good value for the money, practical trunk design and I'm a fan of euro cars.
Later I bought the white car after a bunch of research and reading this site. After that, I got my black car because I liked the white one a bunch. I like simpler volkswagens though. This whole needing a computer to do a simple brake job is a turn off for me. I keep wanting to get a mkii gti and swap a mk4 R32 motor with a supercharger on it.

Why do I own VWs, especially TDIs? Filled my wagon this morning, 809 miles of mixed commuting and driving, 15.7 gallons went in. 51.5 MPG. That just never gets old.

I have only owned vws.
‘98 2.0 auto bug (3/02-12/07)
‘05 2.0 auto bug (12/07-present)
‘06 tdi manual bug (8/12-8/16)
‘13 tdi dsg bug (10/14-present)
‘14 tdi dsg passat (9/17-present)

I love the way they drive, the logic behind shifters, switches, etc. at work, i drive a ton of different makes and models: i have yet to see anything that i would even consider. If i choose what to drive, it will be a vw

One of my brothers is on his 2nd jetta. 1st was an ‘02 1.8 5 speed, it had an unfortunate incident with a guard rail, my brother walked away from it despite the impact that almost ripped front wheel off the car. 5 days later he bought an ‘04 1.8 5 speed. It has almost 210,000 miles, 50k in 3 years.

Bought '86 and '89 GLIs new. Had a used '90 GTI and an '89 Jetta 2-door which I wish I still had. Bought son an '02 Jetta for landing a full ride in college and grad school. Bought a '12 Golf TDI 2-door. Also bought '93 Mitsubishi Montero. Still have the TDI and the Montero. Otherwise, one wrecked, one stolen, one gone in a settlement, and one stupidly traded. Also had a used '84 BMW 318i for about 10 years. That was a nice car too. Sold it to a car salesman.

because people sell them to me for $500 or so
and the three letters ALH, none of mine are anything but

My second car was a Rabbit GTI. I had lusted after one of those since I was a kid and now I had one. Lived up to the billing, too, though the VW workmanship at the time was -- umm, subpar. Traded that for a four door gas Jetta (car seats!). Then, when it was time to replace that Jetta, I went diesel with a Jetta sedan and now the Wagon I've been driving for 17 years.

They were the (only) affordable European car at a time when the Japanese were offering boring competency and the Koreans were offering Ford Festivas. Linear controls, a long life (as long as you did the maintenance), and at least you weren't driving another boring econobox.

I'm driving the Wagon until it can't drive no more. Not sure what I'd get after that. Maybe another VW. Mazda seem to have taken on the mantle of cheap/fun-to-drive/tech that works. Kia and Hyundai are improving all the time. But in the meantime I'll keep driving the Wagon.

Here's three of four of my current VWs, all TDIs of course.


'97 B4 is not in the picture. And my sons each have a MKIV ALH, one Golf, one Jetta. Average mileage is around 258K. Not bad since the '15 has 13K on it.

Took the whip over the hill to Santa Cruz today and the thing is a torque beast, pulled up the Santa Cruz Mountains no problem, the tranny hardly downshifted at all, gotta love the torque on demand

I got my first TDI in 2002 (Golf). Main reason at that time (and now) is efficiency in a hatchback at a reasonable price I could afford at that time. Then the family/needs grew and I got a used 2004 Passat wagon in 2012 which is what I have tried my best to maintain in very good condition. Oh, I have not forgotten performance! Yes we do a lot of road trips in the mountains and a similar gasoline car would be at least 30% less efficient under full load going 75 MPH in the highway or up/down the mountains!

Paradoxically what I have, an efficient midsize wagon with a light duty diesel vehicle and manual transmission, is what the majority of Americans do not want to drive at all!

The opposite, if I may use this terminology, and what the average person in the US wants is an fairly large SUV with a large (six or eight cylinder) gasoline engine struggling to average 20 MPG when fully loaded going at highway speeds.

tikal said:

...and what the average person in the US [seems to] want is an fairly large SUV with a large (six or eight cylinder) gasoline engine struggling to average 20 MPG when fully loaded going at highway speeds.

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Not to derail this thread, but this has never ceased to amaze me. I figured that once gas got up to the $4/gal level in the US, that people would look for more fuel-efficient vehicles. But it seems to be moving in exactly the opposite direction.

I read this morning that US manufacturers showed sales increases for June solely because of increases in SUV and truck sales.

Pretty much always had VW's, first car was a 1983 Caddy with a GTI engine swap, 88 Golf 1.6 gas, back in Germany. Then moved to Canada and sampled the local cuisine, wasn't impressed other than for some trucks, currently have a 05 Duramax for the big stuff.

Thought to give Subaru a try, bought a Legacy GT wagon in winter but that thing sucks in summer and all it does is guzzle gas @ $1.94 a litre so I went back to my trusty 2000 Jetta TDI. Will probably drive the Legacy in winter again, then sell it in the spring and eventually get a 2016 ish Golf R and be done! [emoji2] Plus keep the Jetta of course.

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I've been a repeat buyer for a few key reasons.

#1 is they have small cars that fit my tall frame (6'-4"). I've rented a lot of other cars in the same class as the Golf, and almost all of them are not as comfortable to me (I find a lot of center console stuff interferes with my right shin).

When I was a kid my parents bought one of the first Rabbits in the area. My dad was 6'-2", my mom 5'-2". Both of them could drive it comfortably. We would see other Rabbits on the road and they would honk and wave, it was like being a part of a family. My parents have always had a VW. My first VW was their used VW Rabbit diesel (I used to draft semi trucks with that thing - yes I was young and dumb). My most significant VW is my 02 golf tdi purchased used in 2009.

#2 is this forum. Before I bought mine this forum provided invaluable info on the reliability and serviceability of the different models. I made the right purchase with my 02, even when finding a good used one was tough, and the used prices were high. I still love it!

Because of this forum I have been able to handle most repairs on the car, buy quality parts from reputable vendors, and find great mechanics to handle what I couldn't tackle. So much wisdom, and so many helpful people!

My first GTG was an eye opener. I got my car tuned by Jeff, and it didn't run much better. Matt Whitbred helped log boost, and diagnosed a bad actuator (something that had eluded a really good VW shop). Peter from ID parts had an actuator. Marty had a clean intake. Others that I can't remember had a race pipe, EGR block off plates they sold me and then helped me correct my problem, finishing at 11 at night. They were all hands on deck until it got fixed.

What I experienced was a community that freely gave. It was wonderful. My faith is important to me, and I believe in giving of the gifts that have been given to me (my talents, my experience, my time) but I have rarely experienced the same type of community in a church or faith based organization.

This forum still has that sense of community! I hope it is never lost.

#3 is the tdi. No other automaker had what I considered an effective diesel option for a small car. I love the drive-ability of a turbo diesel. Great torque, great economy. VW nailed it with the early tdis. The ALH is considered in the realm of the 7.3 powerstroke. That says something significant!

Dieselgate was a huge disappointment. I'm a strategist and help organizations align with their vision, mission, and values. VW is now a case study in what can go wrong :-(

We now have 3 tdi's in the family. 2 ALH Golfs, and a b5.5 Passat wagon with a BHW and a 6 speed. Are there better used cars for total cost of ownership? Probably. Are there better used cars for fuel economy AND tons of fun to drive? Not in my book. Are there cars with better resources for doing your own work? I don't think so. And that is thanks to this forum.

JP

J.P. said:

Dieselgate was a huge disappointment. I'm a strategist and help organizations align with their vision, mission, and values. VW is now a case study in what can go wrong :-(

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You can say that again. And what really sucks is, they seem to be unaware of how best to try and come out of it. The social media feeds clearly show this. Every FB blather about the ID Buzz/Crozz/whateverzz that keeps popping up gets better than 50% responses saying something to the effect of "bring the diesels back".

I mean I am Volkswagen's biggest fan, I have probably owned well over 100 of them, and currently own NINE, have purchased five brand new, still have two of those... and will likely never buy another new one again. And I know easily 100 people who more or less feel the same way. What I cannot understand the most is, if they KNOW what they are required to do to make the diesels compliant, why don't they just do that? They got caught cheating, I get it, but then they just took their ball and ran home. Some of us still want to play ball. I have no issue with bringing [more] diverse options into the marketplace, including EVs, but they are not for everyone, not yet anyway. And the fact that there are still a lot of people who are hanging on to their existing TDIs seems to suggest they want them for the long haul. I just did $1k worth of work on a 20 year old 200k+ mile Golf yesterday.

For me the start down the VW rabbit hole was a collaboration between my wife and then 12 year old daughter. They decided that a 2000 New Beetle would be a great first car in another 4-5 years. My wife also decided that it should be a diesel because of her farm upbringing. When I started using it as my DD and could consistently get mid 40s on my 5 mile commute, I was forever sold on diesels. Fast forward 10 years and lots of miles, I let the beetle go and picked up my 10 JSW. Primarily because it was a diesel, but also because the JSW was head and shoulders above the Beetle in both driving and comfort. We liked it so much that my wife traded her 07 CRV in on an 11 Golf. We should have kept the Golf due to lower miles but then would have not gotten over $20k from VW.

I don't know if I'll own another VW after the JSW is done, but diesels will continue to be in my driveway. My newest toy is a 17 Ram ecodiesel. At about 24k miles in 15 months, my lifetime average is around 23 mpg. Bigger tires and higher tow rating axle don't help mileage, and neither does setting the cruise around 75.

Let's face it, VWoA has been lost when it comes to product selection for sale in NA for a long time. I think they could build a great niche market here with the Polo, the T6, Anarok, and some nice cars like the Arteon and Passat Wagon. All with diesels available. But instead they place all their bets on a Explorer like SUV and the Tiguan. I don't get it.

Yep, pretty sad.