The car is plenty big inside, is quite fast, very smooth, and I got around 54 mpg this morning cruising at 65.
I just replaced a base model Subaru Impreza 5 speed. That car was much smaller, had more road noise and wasn’t nearly refined, (though was AWD) and I’d get about 35 mpg if cruising at 65.
I know diesels are big in Europe, but again, I can’t really understand why they haven’t become more popular over here. Is it really due to the early 80s GM diesels (that I’m told were horrific)?
I just don’t understand it. Anyone else drive a GTI?
I also have a Jetta TDI, and I’m quite a fan. I almost certainly would have bought an EOS TDI if they were offered in the US. I notice that in the UK, the difference in list price between a gas-powered EOS automatic and the same car with a TDI is only 50 pounds, and still gets about 30% better mileage. I’ve never seen diesel cost 30% more in the US than gas, especially if the manufacturer recommends mid-grade or premium.
What you’re driving now isn’t what they were selling even a few years ago. Diesels were smelly, noisy, rough, and thanks to the utter disaster of GM’s diesel experiment in the 1980s (which Wikipedia charmingly refers to as “a gamut of malfunctions”), they were considered highly unreliable, as well.
Much like discussions of automatic vs. manual transmissions and American quality, you’re going to have to wait until a whole generation of drivers dies off so they don’t judge current technology by what happened to them 30 years earlier.
I believe Diesels gained a foothold in Europe because Diesel fuel was or is taxed less heavily than Gasoline there. That isn’t, and never has been the case in the US. In addition, smaller car buyers in the US (in the past, especially) generally have had a choice between good gas mileage in a more reliable foreign car (honda, toyota), good gas mileage in lower cost, less reliable domestic car, or slightly better gas mileage in a generally more expensive, less reliable different foreign car (VW) that sometimes required you to get gas at truck stops or parked among big rigs.
I just looked up prices of 2012 Jettas near here. The gas model was $22,049 and the diesel was $26,695. With gas at $3.80 here and diesel at $4.00 with the diesel getting eleven mpg highway over the gas one, the diesel comes out three cents cheaper per mile to drive (I rounded the price difference to four thousand).
Thus, it would take about 133,000 miles of fuel savings to recoup the $4000 higher purchase price if one pays cash for the car. If the car’s financed, it would take longer.
I think people (like me) aren’t buying them because the premium price pretty much cancels any fuel savings. They just cost too much.
The car itself also costs more, no? Taking a quick look at the VW website it appears to cost $3-4 K more than a comparably equipped gasoline model.
Of course, it appears that it maintains a good portion of that premium in resale value, so it isn’t like you have to “make up” the whole price difference in gas savings if you trade it in in five years. On the other hand, it seems that many people don’t take resale value into account when running the numbers in these cases.
I would consider a diesel-fueled car for my next vehicle but the options are very limited. You have big trucks, VWs, and then prestige brands like Audi and Mercedes. If you’re buying new the VW Golf TDI starts around $24k, which is approaching the higher end of what an average family can afford. A gas-powered Golf is around $18k, so there is a big jump to get the diesel version of an already kinda pricey small hatchback.
I would say the comparable gas model is about $2000 less than the amount I paid for the diesel.
And honestly, I never consider resale when buying (I do way too many miles a year for it to work out).
Having said all that, let’s forget VWs altogether for a moment. I’m still surprised that other makers aren’t creating more diesel models and instead are creating hybrids, that frankly aren’t really all that efficient and also have a higher purchase price.
Hybrids have a “green” image, whereas people still think diesels are dirty.
The thing is that with fuel prices in the US, it takes a very long time to recoup the premium paid either for a hybrid or a diesel, so there’s not a very strong financial incentive for a new car buyer to go for one. People buy hybrids basically as status symbols, to flaunt their conspicuous non-consumption. Diesel still has an image problem in this country left over from the horrible diesel cars inflicted on us in the 70’s and 80’s and the smokey diesel trucks we’ve all been stuck behind.
For some people in northern climates, a diesel is less practical. They have a harder time starting in cold weather.
If you have a garage (especially if it’s heated,) then you’re a step ahead, and there are things like block heaters as well, but there’s a lot of apartment dwellers who don’t have access to an outside outlet to use a block heater.
This is my one experience w/ diesel. A friend has one that would NEVER start in the winter. Granted this was 20 years ago and I hear grest strides have been made.
That’s less of a problem than it has historically been. Modern high-pressure injection with internal cold-start aid (glow plugs or intake heater) are much easier to start. in the past I had two diesel vehicles, an '84 F-250 followed by an '00 Ram 2500. The F-250 was an older indirect-injection engine and was an absolute bear to start in the winter even with the glow plugs. The Ram had a higher pressure direct-injection fuel system and an intake heater grid, and was a lot easier to start (though it still usually took a couple of tries.)
Last year I drove a new '12 F-350 with the Ford 6.7 diesel, and even on a cold morning, it fired right up after pre-heat.
I think it’s mainly we are used to gasoline, we know what to expect, we know how refueling is, diesel is somewhat of a unknown. Not that it’s a total mystery, but people go with what they know. This I feel why the hybrids are popular, along with the green feeling.
VW and Mercedes are the only companies that sell diesel cars in the US right now, but almost every imported car sold in the US (and even some domestics) have diesel versions that are sold in the rest of the world. I do think you’re right about VW, though-- the TDI engines weren’t particularly problematic, but the other components of the cars had some pretty serious reliability issues in the 90’s and 2000’s, so they probably weren’t the best ambassadors to reintroduce diesel to the US.