No... really, VW? You're surprised? Maybe now you'll put the BlueSport roadster into production too.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/vw-supri...take-rate.html

 

I have a diesel vehicle, and honestly, will never get one again. Diesel is a full $1.50 more expensive than regular here in NYC, maintenance is expensive, not every gas station sells diesel - it just doesn't make much sense to bother with diesel.

 

^^ What model? I was impressed with my friend's 2010 Jetta Sportwagen TDI. It's intention isn't to be a sportscar but for any vehicle that isn't, I can't see why a diesel engine would be a bad thing. Another of my friends has a 5-cyl diesel Mercedes G-Wagen (with a four speed manual transmission, no less) and again... NOT a sportscar but a HELL of a fun off-road vehicle.

VW should release their GTD here with a manual at the very least.

Maybe it's the locale then but I've never seen a shortage of diesel fuel at stations in FL and CA. As for the price, yeah, it's up there with premium gasoline but wouldn't you say you make up for it in fuel economy?

 

Within five years, all VW diesels sound like John Deers. It's garbage and the average person isn't going to want to do the maintenance.

 

 

Not surprised at all by the diesel take rate on VWs considering the awful petrol powertrains they've been offering here. That lousy 2.5L 5-cylinder or whatever it was? I've not seen one positive comment about the engine from anybody, either reviewers or friends that have had them as rentals. Resale is extremely good on the diesels.

 

I've got a diesel ford van with 6.0 powerstroke, and yes it does get significantly better fuel economy vs a gasoline version, but diesel is $1.50 more than regular and $1.00 more than premium here in NYC, plus I put $5 of diesel additive to every tank (highly recommended to avoid injector problems), constant maintenance on the EGR is expensive and annoying, and if I ever get injector or cat converter issues, its going to be super expensive. And with all its torque and noise its not any faster than the same van with 5.3 petrol engine.

 

a ford 6.0 diesel van is certainly way different than a vw jetta diesel.

$1.50 more for diesel? wow. it's about .60 more here.

just wondering, why did you get diesel for the van? that's a stout engine for heavy loads and towing.

 

It's a different engine, but the same concept. If anything, the ford engine is less modern, so it doesn't require as much maintenance and not as picky as modern diesels. The diesel version of the van is a lot more "truckish" than the petrol - it has a much stronger transmission, higher towing capacity, much stronger accessories such as AC and starter, two batteries - but I mostly got it for the cool factor and because that turbo diesel roar under WOT is hard to resist.

But financially it just doesn't make sense - higher upfront cost, a lot more maintenance, and ridiculously high price of diesel at least here in NYC just destroys all the advantages. Just the EGR maintenance alone is beyond ridiculous - when my mechanic removed the EGR valve and had to suck all the soot out of the manifold with a vacuum cleaner, it was pretty revealing.


And on the side note, most modern petrol engines are becoming more and more diesel like with higher compression and direct injection. I have a BMW X5 and Mazda 3 - both have high compression engines with high pressure direct injection, and both already have their exhaust tips covered with black carbon build up (7k on the BMW and 4k on the Mazda). My daughters Suzuki has a more traditional engine without the modern tech, and its got the highest mileage so far around 12k on the clock, and exhaust tip is perfectly clean. Carbon issues caused by these modern technologies are insane, and simply do not justify whatever advantages they may provide. All that carbon will very quickly cause performance and fuel economy deterioration, EGR and catalyst issues, and that's in addition to already notoriously unreliable high pressure fuel pumps and injectors.

 

Pretty much.

The performance and fuel mileage improvements are great, but nobody is really going to "save" any money when all of that is negated by massive repair bills to the tune of thousands of dollars down the road. Even Honda Accords are direct-injected now.

 

you guys are making me content to stick with my ford triton v8

 

I don't know much about the ford engine, but I do consider Toyota's 3UZ-FE 4.3 V8 to be one of the best if not the best engine ever made. My old GS430 was killed by hurricane Sandy with I think over 150k miles on the clocks, and that engine was still running like new, and the car never had any problems besides wear and tear stuff - nothing engine related. The one thing that really surprised me, when I was doing 120k maintenance on the engine I pulled the throttle body to get it cleaned, and to my surprise it was absolutely clean, and the insides of intake manifold were also absolutely clean, with no sign of any carbon. That is one healthy, reliable, bulletproof engine that had plenty of power even by today standards, and still easily returned 28-30 real life MPG highway.

 

I'm a little surprised by the high take rate of the diesel engines. Diesel is usually more expensive and doesn't really end up saving you money in the states.

 

Yes it can, in many cases. A $2k price premium isn't that much, and mileage with diesel can be significantly better especially if you do a lot of highway driving. Thus the high take rate on VW diesels, and insanely good resale value.

 

True, if one can get past the bland looks, the VW Jetta TDI is a compelling package with good value considering the feature content, drive experience and fuel economy.