A tortured clutch is worth training another manual transmission driver in this country... there are so few of us left!
My two driving-age kids learned on my 2.0T and it was pretty painless. Only one funny story, we were waiting to turn left at an intersection with a protected left turn light, and the left turn arrow turned green. My middle son (16 at the time), tried to launch but stalled it under the pressure of the short light and cars behind him. By the time he'd fired it up again, the light was red. So we waited 'till it turned green again but he was getting really flustered and he stalled it a second time. With a long line of irate drivers building behind us I figured we'd better swap drivers before the next green. Just as I got settled, a cop (about 3 or 4 cars back) came up to see what the problem was. I explained we'd just swapped drivers as my son was having a bit of clutch problems at the moment, we shared a laugh, and I launched us through the next green.
Both of my daughters learned to drive a manual, and it's still their first choice. However, I have a son-in-law who doesn't care for them, so her TDI is a DSG. My other daughter's Beetle is a manual, though.
That old thing was fun, but you really come to appreciate a modern car. I changed the generator to an alternator, and added blower fans to the heat channels under the rear seat. It was the only way to even stand half a chance to defrost the windshield!
40-50 hp--reminds me of my old escort diesel--48 hp,,and NO blower--needed mucho distance to pass anyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but was a fuel sipper!!!That old thing was fun, but you really come to appreciate a modern car. I changed the generator to an alternator, and added blower fans to the heat channels under the rear seat. It was the only way to even stand half a chance to defrost the windshield!
Other than the alternator, I did nothing to improve engine performance, and you really notice you only have 40-50 HP. Still, it was a fun project, and I'm keeping my eyes open for a Karmann Ghia in need of love.
For a teen, A gasser A3/A4 (2.slow)is a good start, easy to get parts, easy to work on and does a teen really drive enough for a TDi?
I would hope not, but imagine so.
I'm shocked, shocked... to see no Polo coming stateside!
The 1.3L diesel is niiiiice in the 500. Even sounds good.
The TwinAir has more torque at 1900rpm (145Nm) than the 1.4 MultiAir's peak at 4000rpm (135Nm).
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The 500 has a tall, upright, minivan-like seating position. Not really a classic "hot hatch" feel.
That's the same issue I have with Mercedes and the Smart car. Bring a small city car over with a gas engine that requires premium instead of the economical diesel available in Europe and then wonder why they don't sell better. Americans would not be so diesel-phobic if there were more options and a much better marketing campaign. I haven't seen a VW or Audi TDI commercial in a long time and don't know that I have ever seen a mercedes or BMW diesel commercial.
But they are selling them, I friend wen to look at them and there no deals to had.
The first-generation Smart (or at least first-gen for Canada) in Canada had the CDI diesel. It was rated for 3.8 L/100 km highway (62 mpg US) on the highway. The current Smart (gas) is rated at 4.8. When even a Hyundai Elantra is rated better, the whole point about the Smart is lost on me.
Maybe in 2007 MB had an E320 CDI race an Eclipse or something similar. (shouldn't it have been called a E300?? Lets see, E350, 3.5 gasser,E500, 5.0gasser)
Agreed.
