Anybody know anything about them? My girlfriend is looking for a car and I found a 2001 VW Golf TDI in my hometown that we might go take a look at. I am unsure about the miles, condition, etc. but I thought I would see if any of you had any experience with these. Ideally she would like a subie, but the fuel mileage isn't the greatest for the size of the car, and she can take my RS or stay home anytime the roads get bad. These little diesels get 40's MPG as far as I have seen, but I was just wondering if any of you had them or had/heard about problems or praises. Don't know too much about the car at this point other than it is an automatic, 4 door, sunroof, pw, pl, etc. Not sure at this point about the miles or overall condition, but I will be checking it out soon. Thanks for your help!
My friend has a relative with 350,000+ miles on her '02 TDi jetta, which I believe is the same engine, and as far as MPG I have heard anything from 40-60. So IMO they are a pretty well built engine
My brother has one and my co-worker has 2, if I could stand wrong wheel drive I would probably drive one. They shure beat the living crap out of hybrid vehicles, I think the timing belt service is due every 100K?
I have had several VW's and I think those engines run a long time but check to make sure all the windows work, (tendency to have bad window regulators) the cruise is ok and the electrical stuff(electrical bugs with this era VW's). Many put up big total mileage numbers so the drivetrains seem to be solid.
i was talking to an owner of a exhaust shop who does a lot of VW work said that one of the TDIs he worked on started to get just over 60mpg after he put a 3in turbo back exhaust on it. crazzzy. im a closet VW fanboy. ive always liked them cept for the new gti's they dont look like a vw to me. id get one if i had the money for the maint work it needs every so often. they can be expensive. just make sure it has a really good service history. some people cheap out on getting their schedualed maint done. youll probably love the car. i really wanted a vr6 golf (yummy exhaust)
You can average over 50mpg while driving like a retard, or at least the two guys I worked with in the Army did, lol. I agree with everything said so far, the 1.9 is an awesome engine, and VWs are an electrical basket case. That being said, I would make sure to have a through inspection done on it before you buy it. The MKIVs can be great cars, or they can be a nightmare, I haven't seen much in between. I rarely had issues with mine, but when I did, they were expensive and time consuming. Pay $220 for a door latch once, you'll see what I mean. That was for the PART, I installed it myself.
the VW 1.8 and 2.0 TDI engines are great. will run for a long long time... However the rest of the VW will drive you nuts with dinky and expensive repairs so look it over carefully and get service records...
That is pretty much the consensus of what I have found... I will have to check out the car in person, but it will be my girlfriend's so it can't be something that needs to be messed with on a daily basis... It really is against my better judgement to get a VW, but there is a chance that we might be going back and forth between Minneapolis and Green Bay often, so the fuel mileage would be nice...
I think a TDI could be the perfect commuter car. My GF drives aleast 60 miles a day for work, and she really wants a TDI in the future.
I drove a 1.9 TDi for about 4 months, it handled well and I never had any problems with it. I drove it well beyond the recommended maintenance period and it didn't seem to care. ~Dan
Those come in SUPER handy if you're the one doing the maintenance, but like all things VW, they aren't cheap either, lol. The TDI is a very solid drivetrain, it's the rest of the car that'll kill you. I don't remember if those were made in Germany or mexico...The cars made in mexico have far more electrical issues than the German built cars, at least from what I have seen. Here's a couple of threads that have the list of issues and some DIYs that helped me out with my old MKIV. All of the DIYs are mod approved and are actually helpful, I did my timing belt on a 1.8t from one of them, along with the golden door latch, lol. http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2409376 http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1835863
Being a Vw tech the tdi's are pretty easy to work on. Only crappy part about the tdi's is the intake getting carbon'ed up and if you dont have a vw scan tool when doing the timing belt you're gonna have alot of issues with injection pump timing. If I ever came across a MK4 tdi in good condition I'd consider getting it as a second car.
The one I am looking at has 130,000 miles, what do you guys think about that? Too many, special things to look for?
Are they as bad about special tools as others? Some friends who are general mechanics won't touch them because they buy tools to work on one or two cars a year. I've seen a few TDI's spit oil across a shop floor, but that might be a rare issue.
i'm pretty sure the golf tdi is the 1.9 liter. I've heard little to nothing bad about those engines. my friends dad drove one until 230,000 miles and sold it after that lol.
A buddy of mine just shelled out like 2g's on redoing his whole electrical system that fried while he was at school in his Jetta. (non diesel), also i know it cost him a pretty penny when he had to have body work done. i'm sure the drive train will go a long time though, they make a great diesel. Even though they've been made in mexico sense 03. (i'm pretty sure its 03 but correct me if i'm wrong) i'd check out all the electrical for sure and look at the gaps the body panels have, my buddy's Jetta had some alignment issues with his.
