Hello

[Pugle1]

New to Fuelly. Just wanted to say hello and introduce myself. I'm here looking for ways to improve my fuel economy. I have 2 VW's. One is a 2001 TDi Beetle, and the other is a 2000 1.8 Turbo Beetle. I'm currently just going to focus on the diesel vehicle as that's the one I mainly use.

Been Browsing the forum, and I see a lot of good advice and some great questions and ideas posted. I think I'll enjoy belonging to this forum as I'm always willing to learn.

Cheers!

Pugle1 (Paul)

[Jcp385]

Welcome! I hope you can find the info you're looking for. I'll be happy to chime in, but diesels aren't my area of expertise. Driving techniques will take you further than anything else, but aside from that, air up the tires, keep up with maintenance, and use synthetic fluids wherever you can. That'll be a good first step.

[Pugle1]

I already get decent mileage, but My car has a big issue. I need a brake booster. The vacuum leak isn't allowing my turbo to perform as it should. However, even with the poor turbo performance, it seems to get decent Km's per tank as most of my driving is highway / fairly flat terrain. I'm getting about 850 Km per tankful, even though I know it could be closer to 1000.

A friend of mine drives a diesel Jetta with the same engine and same sized tank. He averages about 1000 to 1100 km per fill-up.

[Jcp385]

Not bad. I'm in the 850km range myself during the summer. TDis are born leaders for fuel economy. Were it not for the upkeep I would absolutely love to have one.

[Pugle1]

In all honesty, they're not that bad. I've been a VW / Audi guy for quite a while. I've never owned a new one, but all the one's I've owned, the TDi Bug has been pretty reliable. Not much to a tune up. Oil changes, air and fuel filter changes and the timing belt every 100 to 150 thousand Km. That seems to be it. I've had no injector or glow plug issues at all, and I do about 50K a year just commuting. maybe another 8 to 10k a year for personal driving outside of my commute. I'm sold on VW's for their reliablity. My wife has the 1.8 Turbo that I've dubbed the "Thunder Bug" and I love that car, but it's just more economical for me to drive the diesel to and from work (100 Km each way) as the 1.8 uses mid grade (winter) to premium (summer).

[Jcp385]

My Ma had a 1.8t Beetle. Fun little engine, I adored the midrange punch. But it was bar none the most unreliable car I have ever seen. We had three things going for that car:

1. My Ma loved it
2. It was leased, so we were expected to give it back anyway
3. We had maybe the best service department in the history of dealerships

My dad, incidentally, also had a V6 4motion Passat wagon leased at the same time. It was positively bulletproof and set a lot of bencarks that I find few if any midsize cars live up to to this day.

I have read that NA VWs, assembled in Puebla, Mexico, are hit or miss. Either they are bulletproof reliable, as was the Passat, or stupidly awful, as was the Beetle. But the more I read, the more I feel there were more misses than hits. Parts ain't cheap here either as they are in Europe. Particularly after I have a 400kkm Echo sitting in the driveway which has needed nothing but consumables, catch-up on super basic maintenance items, fuel, and oil, I am quite frankly scared to get a VW. Total running costs (got the car for free) are less than 13 cents per mile...including insurance, registration, fuel, all maintenace and replaced parts. Too bad as I adore TDi VWs. A 4-door Golf or Jetta wagon with stick would make a fine companion.

[Pugle1]

I suppose it comes down to the engine / tranny. Just saying. of the ones I've owned, they've all been pretty good. I know that several generations ago there were a lot of electrical problems with VW's, but I think those for the most part have been overcome. My best car by far was my good old 87 Audi 4000 Quattro. The thing was bullet proof. Best car I've ever owned. Loved carving new snow on back roads with it. It just wouldn't "un-stick", and that 5 cyl normally aspirated engine was so good. It was basically the same engine my 4 cyl 1.7L VW Rabbit had with an extra cylinder. Performed amazingly well.