OT: sportwagen

[bcroslin]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

The Golf R wagon is coming for those who want a touch more power...

http://jalopnik.com/the-hot-volkswag...ing-1660045142

want. so. bad.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by Ken Robb

We bought a Mazda 3 sedan in June and it is a delightful car to drive and glitch-free so far while averaging 30+ MPG on regular. It has fold-down rear seats that allows bikes to fit with front wheels removed. The hatchback might be better.

More in line with this discussion about wagons I'll suggest giving consideration to the CX-5 that has the same driveline choices as our 3. We chose the 2.5 liter engine and 6 speed automatic. This is my first non-stick shift since 1984 but the auto w/paddle shift is so good I may have bought my last stick. You can also get a 2 liter engine with an excellent 6 speed manual. A neighbor just got a CX-5 and it looks like a winner. They reportedly drive like a slightly taller 3 and they come in either FWD or all-wheel drive and can be had nicely-equipped in the mid $20s.

In my area diesel costs as much as $.50 more per gallon than regular gas so diesels don't make ECONOMIC sense but folks may buy them for their other attributes like extreme range between fill-ups.

Before gas prices here went below $3 a gallon, diesel was only about $20 more. Now about $.55 more but with 25%+ better milage, diesel could be $.75 more per gallon and still cost less....for my JSW TDI here in the republic.

[gemship]

This forum is a riot. I am always amazed how folks put more attention here into their cars than they deserve.

Me a 2002 gmc sierra 1500 z71 owner. The truck looks nice even with nearly bald tires and will absolutely go anywhere with minimal wheel spin. Just gotta know how to drive

[thirdgenbird]

Originally Posted by p nut

Man, I was all gung-ho about the 2015 GSW, but the more I read, I think the '14 JSW would be a better buy for me. No wait, more ground clearance, "last production year" reliability, maybe better pricing, etc. I do like the looks of the GSW slightly more, though.

That's where I was at. I was lusting over the 15s and realized I could pick up a 14 on the cheap. I also liked the sound of the relatively simple naturally aspirated 2.5 over the new smaller displacement turbo engines. I don't drive enough that the milage makes much of a difference, and that 2.5 had been a workhorse for VW. Maybe in a few years I will buy a mk7 to replace our fusion [/dream]

On the tdi front, the 2015 also has a new engine with urea injection. VW obviously knows what they are doing, but they are having to do a lot to that car to meet emissions. Maybe I will jsit get a mk6 golf with another 2.5 down the road.

Originally Posted by gemship

This forum is a riot. I am always amazed how folks put more attention here into their cars than they deserve.

Says who?

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

Before gas prices here went below $3 a gallon, diesel was only about $20 more. Now about $.55 more but with 25%+ better milage, diesel could be $.75 more per gallon and still cost less....for my JSW TDI here in the republic.

It's more complicated than that. The tdi/DSG combo will me more expensive during regular services but it also will hold value better. In the end, I went gas because I know it, and once this car is out of warranty, I wouldn't hesitate to do major repairs to it myself.

[fiataccompli]

Welcome to the club! I got a 6MT/nav/roof JSW earlier this year (took about 4 months as a special order) and really like it. Not as much fun to drive as my small, less efficient, more fiddly Italian cars, but I've always thought wagons were cool & I like VWs & I like TDi so it was a no-brainer all things considered.

I have a vag-com adapter and software that I got rather inexpensively on Ebay while I was helping a friend with a new Beetle. I've used it to diagnose errors on my daughter's '02 Jetta, but I've never tried it on my JSW. I'm guessing the share/freeware version that is limited for the earlier cars probably won't do anything like was listed upthread on my JSW

[thirdgenbird]

Here is a study on total cost of ownership for gas vs diesel that includes the JSW:

http://www.dieselforum.org/files/dmf...ort_dd2017.pdf

The difference for me is that I drive less miles than the study so my fuel costs are lower and I am more apt to work on the naturally aspirated gas car myself. I figure it would have been a crapshoot. The gas engine should handle my shorter drives better as well. If I spent more time on the road, I would have gone tdi.

[fiataccompli]

my work commute offers no awesome advantage w/ the TDI JSW (10 miles, suburban...clearly I need to move out to the country to realize the value of my TDi)...per my phone app, I'm getting 35ish MPG when most of the driving is in-town commuting with lots of stop & go. Road trips see tank MPGs in the high 30s and pretty much any time I'm out of stop-go traffic my discrete MPG effortly goes to 41-43 w/ in-trip MPGs on Interstate as high as 53. That said, longevity (which I hope is there...having owned a several older diesels with mileage ranging from 250-430k) and the fact that until this spring I rarely saw MPGs with anything more than "1" as the first digit (unfortunately, I don't use the Fiats as much as I could for utility and in truth when I do the combination of a carburetor and the fun factor of a high revving Italian engine don't make for awesome fuel economy anyway) so the fact that I can drive the JSW completely with complete indifference to fuel economy and still be getting 30something MPG seems pretty luxurious to me.

[mkbk]

Bikes are why we are here, but holy cow, there is a huge range of experience and knowledge available here and our opinions beat marketing any day. I happen to have an irrational anti-VW prejudice, but that is just my opinion. I like bikes and wagons. Here is a pre-snow photo of my dogs new wagon from a week ago. Riot on please! I have cold and need entertainment.DSCN4107.jpg

[thirdgenbird]

Hot

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by thirdgenbird

That's where I was at. I was lusting over the 15s and realized I could pick up a 14 on the cheap. I also liked the sound of the relatively simple naturally aspirated 2.5 over the new smaller displacement turbo engines. I don't drive enough that the milage makes much of a difference, and that 2.5 had been a workhorse for VW. Maybe in a few years I will buy a mk7 to replace our fusion [/dream]

On the tdi front, the 2015 also has a new engine with urea injection. VW obviously knows what they are doing, but they are having to do a lot to that car to meet emissions. Maybe I will jsit get a mk6 golf with another 2.5 down the road.



Says who?



It's more complicated than that. The tdi/DSG combo will me more expensive during regular services but it also will hold value better. In the end, I went gas because I know it, and once this car is out of warranty, I wouldn't hesitate to do major repairs to it myself.

Don't have the DSG, 6s manual. Plus Jetta gas is less than 30 mph, my mileage mixed city/hwy always 38-40.

[znfdl]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

Don't have the DSG, 6s manual. Plus Jetta gas is less than 30 mph, my mileage mixed city/hwy always 38-40.

I have 26K miles on my 2014 JSW and have averaged 42mpg in mixed driving since I bought the car.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by thirdgenbird

Here is what I did:
-Turned on the ability to roll the windows up and down with the key fob
-Turned off the cold diagnostics on the interior lights (for LED use) hot diagnostics still functions.
-added the daytime running lamp selection to the dash display (I can now turn the feature on and off using the dash display)

Took eight years for me to get around to enabling the key fob windows, now 4-5 months later I just disabled them because, as you said, "snow tires". I'm always getting the windows open just a notch (or all the way) without realizing it as I unlock, so now that everything is covered with snow I thought it best that we not let that into the car. Next spring it'll be set again!

Oh, and VAG-COM is handy for things like noticing that one of my doors has an intermittent lock malfunction so I need to double check it. Yay for extensive computer diagnostics.

[buck-50]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

Don't have the DSG, 6s manual. Plus Jetta gas is less than 30 mph, my mileage mixed city/hwy always 38-40.

I've had my Gas JSW for 2 years now and my average gas mileage has always been above 30 if I'm doing more than just driving in town, and even then, 31 isn't hard. I've been averaging 32-36 mixed, 38-41 on the freeway...

Switching to ethanol free made a big difference. It seems like the Germans do not like ethanol.

[Mikej]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

Before gas prices here went below $3 a gallon, diesel was only about $20 more. Now about $.55 more but with 25%+ better milage, diesel could be $.75 more per gallon and still cost less....for my JSW TDI here in the republic.

Just divide gas mileage by per gallon cost and you will get miles per gallon. Its easier to relate for me! Diesel price typically lowers in the winter. Wisconsin diesel =4.00 unleaded = 2.8

Example -diesel in Boulder = 3.60 per gallon, 40 mpg/$3.60 = 11.1 miles per gallon
unleaded in Boulder = 2.89 per gallon, 33 mpg/$2.89=11.37 miles per gallon.

[Ken Robb]

Originally Posted by buck-50

I've had my Gas JSW for 2 years now and my average gas mileage has always been above 30 if I'm doing more than just driving in town, and even then, 31 isn't hard. I've been averaging 32-36 mixed, 38-41 on the freeway...

Switching to ethanol free made a big difference. It seems like the Germans do not like ethanol.

Nobody likes ethanol except farmers and their congressmen.