We sold our '14 Jetta Sportwagen back to VW on March 21st.
Over the past ~6 months I've been looking at all kinds of options for possible replacements, Saab SportCombis, VW CCs, Mazda 6 & 3 hatch, '80s Mercedes Diesels, Jag X-type wagons, BMW 3 Series wagons, Mk4 VW TDIs, Cadillac CTS Wagon, and anything else that popped up on craigslist or made it through my search filters on Cars.com.
We drove seven or eight cars looking for a Sportwagen replacement, and efficient commuter, but just couldn't find anything we liked at a price we were happy with. We'd decided to wait until the fall, hoping for better deals, and I'd been checking craigslist regularly as well.
Then we found out, that the '15 TDIs were going to be sold. I actually informed my dealer's sales staff that they'd be selling their '15 TDIs before their management did.
Once the sales staff confirmed, that they would indeed be selling their '15 TDIs, they began hounding me about a pair of '15 TDI Golf Sportwagens they had on the lot. We finally got around to stopping by and test driving. Neither were optioned how we wanted, both were S trims, but we were considering dealing with the lack of features, if the price was right. The dealer had a glut of '15 TDI Passats, the salesman thought we might like better. We obliged, and sat in one, no offense to any Passat owners, we weren't feeling it, they're just not for us.
At the end of the row of TDI Pasats was a single TDI Golf SE, nicely equipped, DSG, leatherette, heated seats, sun roof, "Fender" audio, etc. Only problem, it's red.
We sat in it, drove it, talked about it. We knew VW was automatically knocking $5K off of sticker price and decided if the dealer could get to our magic number we'd be buying a red Golf. I guess we should have tried for even less, but being the end of the month helped I'm sure, they hit our price point without a whole lot of push back, $8500 off sticker for a "brand new" '15 TDI Golf.
We closed down the dealership on Friday night, storms knocked power out at my Credit Union over the weekend and Monday, so it took an extra day to get the dealer paid. Since they had an extra day, I had them tint the windows while they had it. We picked it up after work this evening.
So far my only gripe is having to put your foot on the brake to start it, it's not a push button start, it has a key you turn, but you still have to press your foot on the brake to start it.
I've never had paddle shifters before, kind of a novelty, but fun, I doubt they'll get used much in my daily commute though.
I thought the Fender audio was a gimmick at first, but I'm actually impressed, how do they get that much bass from a subwoofer small enough to fit in the spare tire?