Happy June
 

I'm furthur, from southern Oregon and I'm new to your forum. I'm interested in getting the best fuel mileage I can.
To pull my teardrop trailer better, I traded my Subaru Forrester 2.5 L, for a VW Touareg, V6, 6 spd Tiptronic. The Subaru, a very nice car, was getting 21-24 mpg typically, but on 6% grades was in .3rd gear and going 45 mph. The Touareg , so far has gotten over 19 mpg - best- and pulls those same grades in 5th, occasionally down to 4th, at 60-65 mph.
So I pull the grades much better, but it cost me a few mpg.
My hope, here, is to try to get a couple of those back.
I'll be watching and reading for a while.
Thanks for letting me come aboard.

Welcome to the site! Did you consider the VW TDI when car shopping. That would have yielded mileage and torque. It is pricier than the gasoline model though.

I do have a TDI Jetta. I know, it would give better mileage, but with the boondock camping pulling the teardrop,
often down forest service roads or way back on trails in the desert. I need the higher ground clearance and AWD. The Jetta is my wife's daily driver.

I think he meant the Touareg TDI instead of the gasoline model. I just got the Mercedes ML350 and the diesel puts out 455 lbs/ft of torque. I'd bet the VW TDI produces lots of torque too.

Welcome to the board! I also tow with a Touareg gasser and it does well. I agree the TDI is torqier, but the cost differential and limited availability made this an impractical choice for me.

Yeah, I think so, too.
The V6 TDI is very torquey. Very. That will likely be my next one.
But the Jetta TDI would do a nice job of towing my tear. Loaded, with water, the teardrop is 11-1200 pounds. And lots of the trails and Forest Service road I drive, the Jetta TDI would work. It's the unknown factor driving those roads. I have been up some that I have to ford streams close to mid door. No room to turn around. Keep moving.
So, for the tear towing, the gas V6 does very nicely.

I'm hopefully picking up my new diesel at the weekend. According to the ratings, it will do over 80 MPG, but I'll believe that when I see it!