After lurking on this site for about a month and spending endless hours reading discussions between Passats vs Jetta, Manual vs DSG, Hybrid vs Diesel, types of diesels, Cetanes, tubo lag, engine lug, engine break in, and the all important HPFP problems, I finally decided to pull the trigger and get a Passat TDI. I traded in my Toyota SUV which I liked but it seems to like the gas pump way too much.
Looking online there were very few Passats available within 200 miles of me. Luckily the dealer closest to me had one TDI Passat available in their inventory. However, when I got to the dealership a trucked pulled into their parking lot with 5 Passat TDIs. It was awesome because I had first pick and went with the Midnight Blue cornsilk interior. Looks awesome BTW. The dealership gave me a very good price for my Toyota and even knocked $800 of MSRP. From what I was gathering dealers had no problems getting MSRP for these beauties.
Since I've gotten a lot of good information from this forum I figure I'll chip in a little. I'll share my experience and hopefully this would help someone else out. Following are the things that I've done and have noticed. Please feel free to chip in with any suggestions/corrections as this is my first VW and my first Diesel.
1. I'm following Drivbiwire's breakin instructions to the tee almost. I drive it on Sport 90% of the time. It's a lot more fun as the DSG doesnt want to change gear until around 3000 RPM. I will drive it on D when the engine is still cold as I don't want the RPM revving to high. After warm up then it's to S mode.
2. My drive way is on a slight slope, maybe 3 degrees. Enough to make the car roll back a bit when you put it in park. It made me nervous the first time as I thought I didn't put it in park properly. So to avoid the roll after putting it in park I just use the Parking break.
3. My first fuel stop was at a truck stop off the highway. I felt kinda weird pulling up to the pumps with all the 18 wheelers. However I didn't want to show that this was my first time buying diesel so I tried to be as cool as I can. This went down the drain as the diesel nozzle did not fit into the fuel tank. The diesel nozzle was the exact same size as the opening to my fuel tank. I had no clue what was going on and spent 10 minutes confirming that the pump was in fact Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel. I must have checked at least a dozen times. So after confirming that it was the right one I just lined up the fuel hose to the opening of the tank and putting very light pressure on the pump so diesel slowly trickled into my tank. I was told later that truck stop nozzles sometimes are bigger so the Riggs can fill up their tanks quicker. Makes sense but I was just going nuts with images of my car going up in flames.
4. So after filling up the average for my first tank was 38.7. Not as good as most other people, but I think I drive it fairly aggressively. I don't abuse it, but I do make the engine work for it's money. I'll be more concerned about MPG after the first 5000 miles.
5. The car handles pretty nicely around corners. I've taken some at a pretty good clip and was surprised at how it handled itself.
6. Trunk space is amazing, I even like the velcro blocks that hold your cargo still.
7. Ride is really smooth and quiet. Can barely hear the engine when you're inside the car.
8. For some reason birds constantly crap on this car. It seems like every day I have to clean it off. My friend gave me some advice when cleaning bird crap off your car, don't wipe cause the bird crap can sometimes have twigs which can scrape your paint. Just wet and dab.
9. I usually don't buy warranties, but since this was my first VW and Diesel car I ended up getting the warranty. The dealer offered me one for $1400 which covers 8 yrs or 100K bumper to bumper, excluding wear and tear of course. When comparing to the other warranties posted here it was a really great deal. Now I'm concerned because it seemed like too good of a deal. The company that the dealership used was Interstate Star Auto. Anyone with experience with this company or thoughts on what I just bought.
Well, I really like this car. The only thing that would make it perfect would be an indash GPS unit. I've read some bad things about the RNS 510 and the unit itself would cost 1750 without installation charges. Was thinking of going with an after market Kenwood because there was thread which someone recommended one that was built for Passat. However that was a European unit and did not have US maps. Does anyone have recommendations? Maybe I should just save myself 1000-1500 and buy a portable unit.
Well sorry for the long post but hopefully it was informative for someone out there.
Looking online there were very few Passats available within 200 miles of me. Luckily the dealer closest to me had one TDI Passat available in their inventory. However, when I got to the dealership a trucked pulled into their parking lot with 5 Passat TDIs. It was awesome because I had first pick and went with the Midnight Blue cornsilk interior. Looks awesome BTW. The dealership gave me a very good price for my Toyota and even knocked $800 of MSRP. From what I was gathering dealers had no problems getting MSRP for these beauties.
Since I've gotten a lot of good information from this forum I figure I'll chip in a little. I'll share my experience and hopefully this would help someone else out. Following are the things that I've done and have noticed. Please feel free to chip in with any suggestions/corrections as this is my first VW and my first Diesel.
1. I'm following Drivbiwire's breakin instructions to the tee almost. I drive it on Sport 90% of the time. It's a lot more fun as the DSG doesnt want to change gear until around 3000 RPM. I will drive it on D when the engine is still cold as I don't want the RPM revving to high. After warm up then it's to S mode.
2. My drive way is on a slight slope, maybe 3 degrees. Enough to make the car roll back a bit when you put it in park. It made me nervous the first time as I thought I didn't put it in park properly. So to avoid the roll after putting it in park I just use the Parking break.
3. My first fuel stop was at a truck stop off the highway. I felt kinda weird pulling up to the pumps with all the 18 wheelers. However I didn't want to show that this was my first time buying diesel so I tried to be as cool as I can. This went down the drain as the diesel nozzle did not fit into the fuel tank. The diesel nozzle was the exact same size as the opening to my fuel tank. I had no clue what was going on and spent 10 minutes confirming that the pump was in fact Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel. I must have checked at least a dozen times. So after confirming that it was the right one I just lined up the fuel hose to the opening of the tank and putting very light pressure on the pump so diesel slowly trickled into my tank. I was told later that truck stop nozzles sometimes are bigger so the Riggs can fill up their tanks quicker. Makes sense but I was just going nuts with images of my car going up in flames.
4. So after filling up the average for my first tank was 38.7. Not as good as most other people, but I think I drive it fairly aggressively. I don't abuse it, but I do make the engine work for it's money. I'll be more concerned about MPG after the first 5000 miles.
5. The car handles pretty nicely around corners. I've taken some at a pretty good clip and was surprised at how it handled itself.
6. Trunk space is amazing, I even like the velcro blocks that hold your cargo still.
7. Ride is really smooth and quiet. Can barely hear the engine when you're inside the car.
8. For some reason birds constantly crap on this car. It seems like every day I have to clean it off. My friend gave me some advice when cleaning bird crap off your car, don't wipe cause the bird crap can sometimes have twigs which can scrape your paint. Just wet and dab.
9. I usually don't buy warranties, but since this was my first VW and Diesel car I ended up getting the warranty. The dealer offered me one for $1400 which covers 8 yrs or 100K bumper to bumper, excluding wear and tear of course. When comparing to the other warranties posted here it was a really great deal. Now I'm concerned because it seemed like too good of a deal. The company that the dealership used was Interstate Star Auto. Anyone with experience with this company or thoughts on what I just bought.
Well, I really like this car. The only thing that would make it perfect would be an indash GPS unit. I've read some bad things about the RNS 510 and the unit itself would cost 1750 without installation charges. Was thinking of going with an after market Kenwood because there was thread which someone recommended one that was built for Passat. However that was a European unit and did not have US maps. Does anyone have recommendations? Maybe I should just save myself 1000-1500 and buy a portable unit.
Well sorry for the long post but hopefully it was informative for someone out there.
