I owned a VW Golf until 1997, when an inebriated turkey in a van ran me off the road and croaked the car. At that point it had 230k miles on it and was running great . Based on the experience of many New England winters, it was easily the best snow car I’ve ever had - I lost count of the number of 4WD vehicles I left for dead in ditches and Interstate medians.
So if you buy a Golf you may find you don’t need the Jeep for difficult conditions.
I really like the Golf. I like its shape, I like it’s size, and I like the seats. Unfortunately, I’ve heard more than one horror story similar to this one and they’ve pretty much put me off new VWs. Nevertheless…
I’d consider it. If only it weren’t an automatic!
Thanks for the link, Johnny. It seems like all that guy’s problems are related to the dealership rather than quality of the car. Since the car I’ll be buying is going to be out of warrantee, hopefully I won’t need to deal with dealerships and can take it to reliable gear heads for issues.
MacTech: From what I understand, VW has made great strides in an effort to not even know you’re driving a diesel. There’s no plug hanging out the front end, and it starts cold fairly easily from what I’ve read. scout1222 should be able to answer that better than I can, of course.
Thanks for the advice everyone. The Golf is way out in front in my consideration of my next vehicle. Now is the hard part… waiting a month and a half to buy it.
A bad dealership does not a bad car brand make.
Don’t get me wrong, VW’s are not without their glitches. But neither is <insert favourite car brand here>. Some people drive just to get from A to B. Others enjoy the journey and the driving experience. I’ve had more fun driving my VW’s than any Asian or Domestic (US) brand. My Volvo AWD Turbo was a kick ass car but I hated the isolated feel it gave me. I never got in trouble with it, even under the worst conditions, but I never really enjoyed it like my VW’s.
VWVortex is a great VW/Audi enthusiast site. Bookmark it for any questions you may have when you finally buy your car. Like any board, it’s got some flakes and some really informed participants. I’ve always got the answers to questions I posted.
My friend owned a diesel bug for 4 years. Living in Montreal, he never had a problem with starting in the winter.
Enjoy the car. Keep it shiny side up.
True. But that’s not the only instance of bad dealer service I’ve heard of. Then again, you only tnd to hear the bad stuff because people often complain loudly. As I said, the complaints I’ve heard have pretty much turned me off of VWs; but I’d still consider a Golf.
If you are looking at models, I assume you already thought about this, but if you didn’t let me ask you is it worth it?
You have one car (jeep), which gets poor miliage - OK, I can understand wanting more MPG, but you are not going to replcae your jeep, but add a second car, registering and insuring both. Also the less you drive cars, especially if one sits for long times, the more maintance each will require to keep them up (to a certain point, but owning 2 cars for one person usually reached this point). Not to mention the cost of the extra car in the 1st place.
I would WAG that if you took into account all expenses involved in this 2nd car you will find that you won’t break even even with gas at $5/gal.
Now if you have someother person (i.e. a S.O.) who also has a poor MPG car it may make sense to buy a 3rd fuel efficent car depending on yoru drivign patterns.
As for VW Golfs, in general I think VW has slipped a bit from maybe 10 years ago, for the money I think you can do better.
New Beetle TDI owner here… Have had it since 2002 and had no problems at all… Had a TDI Jetta before that for 15 years… Finally had to get rid of it when the body totally died… The engine was still going great though…
The only thing I regret is buying an automatic… My mileage is about 32 mpg… 5-speeds actually DO get around 45 mpg… and as they age, the mpg goes UP…
I’d trade this one in for a 5-speed in a second if I could…
I bought this car during the short time when TDI’s were for sale in California… People who want them now have to buy used or get a new one from out of state…
Good question. Let’s say the Jeep gets 18 mpg, and Car X gets 36 mpg – twice as much. Let’s say that gas is $2.50/gallon, and you drive 1,500 miles/month. The Jeep would burn about 83 gallons of gas in a month, and Car X would burn about 42 gallons. Savings would be about $52/month.
Let’s say Car X costs $16,000. Assuming a constant $2.50/gallon for gas, and a saving of $52/month, it would take about 25 years to ‘break even’. (16000/52 = 306 months, or about 25.6 years.) Clearly, it’s not worth buying a new car just to save on gas. Better to find a $1,000 beater and ‘break even’ in a year and a half. (FWIW, I recently saw a Chevy Sprint for $650. It would pay for in a year.)
But there are other reasons to get a new car. A Jeep Wrangler isn’t very big, so this might not be a factor; but my Cherokee – even though it’s about as long as a Honda Accord – is, I feel, too big. I prefer very small cars. They’re more fun to drive, and they’re easier to park. For me, the ‘fun factor’ is as important as fuel economy.
I also like the idea of Diesel. The cool thing is that they’ll run on vegetable oil or other renewable fuels. (I asked the question a while ago, and the concensus was that if everybody wanted to use biodiesel we mightn’t have the agricultural capacity to do it.) The bad thing about Diesel fuel is that it seems it’s more expensive than petrol. A gallon of regular in my neighbourhood costs $2.50. A gallon of Diesel costs about $2.67. But the cost difference is counterbalanced by the greater mileage (given the same vehicle with different powerplants).
As for multiple vehicles, I’ve always believed the vehicle should fit the mission. My Cherokee fit the mission I had for it when I bought it – hauling gear, off-roading, and towing. I still need its cargo capacity for my film gear, but I no longer go off-road because it’s a poor use of fuel. I still need it for towing my boat. But I don’t need it for everyday driving – which gets back to fuel economy.
As I calculated, better fuel economy in and of itself doesn’t make financial sense. On the other hand, sometimes I have to make long trips. Sometimes I get the urge to drive to California. What stops me is thiking of a $500 fuel bill that month. Psychologically, it’s better to have a ‘spare’ fuel-efficient car so that my fuel bill will only be 250 for the trip even though I've spent XX,000 on the car itself.
So at the end of the day, it’s an emotional thing. It’s unlikely that I’ll drive the same car every day for 25 years. But every day I do drive it, it’s paying for itself just a little bit more. And, as I said, it’s just more fun to drive a small car.
That’s the only regret I have with the Cherokee. It’s not the mileage. I don’t expect much out of a six-cylinder untility vehicle. (Although it gets better mileage than my mom’s Mercury saloon!) The thing of it is, I’ve never gotten the hang of automatic transmissions. They never shift when I want them to, and they do shift when I don’t want them to. From now on, I’ll only buy cars with standard transmissions.
I live in Southern California. We don’t know what weather is here. I have no experience with cold starts or anything like that. 
I had no idea this was the case. No wonder the guy called to try and get me to trade it in!
Could be; but I went to a car-selling seminar, and this may just be a sales tactic. ‘The better to suck more money out of you, my dear!’ 
I think Johnny summed it up pretty well, actually. Its true that it doesn’t make financial sense to go with a Golf simply because of gas mileage.
But the thing is… I can’t drive this Jeep forever. I’m getting older and more “professional”, so to speak, and the Jeep is terrible on the road for other reasons than gas mileage. It’s incredibly loud with the canvas top flapping in the wind… I take back roads when I can to avoid going highway speeds. It’s small and not suitable to lug around my nephews in with their car seats. And someday there will be a little guy in my family.
But, I also love the car to death. Its the first car I bought with my own money, and I just feel “connected” to it when driving it. I can’t imagine giving her up.
So, by buying a new car, I’m only out the original down payment I’d normally have with a trade in. That’s why my budget is more more like $12K.
Yeah, I know there’s the whole “upkeep” issues, and insuring more than 1 car. But the Jeep is fairly maintenance free, and the maintenance it needs, I’m going to try to take care of myself. It’ll be a good learning experience for me, and with another car I won’t feel bad letting the Jeep sit half-assembled for a week or 2 while fixing her. Insurance isn’t a big deal, since I own the Jeep outright and can insure it for $20 or $30/month on the minimum amount of insurance with a multiple car discount.
But Johnny also summed up my other feelings… I love the idea of owning a car that can run on vegetable oil if I’m in a jam, or biodiesel if they actually start selling it around here. I’d feel like I’m “supporting the cause” of higher gas mileage cars and gasoline alternatives. Plus, hopefully it would be comfortable and suitable for road trips and would probably fit more groceries in it than my Jeep does.
Keeping the Jeep as my only vehicle just won’t do… my needs are changing. Selling the Jeep won’t do… too much emotional attachment (and I know from selling my Camaro a few years ago that I would regret selling her for years). I’m trying to think of a car that “makes good sense” for my second vehicle. The Golf seems like it fits the bill.
Johnny, I’m sure there’s that, too. He’s probably hoping I’ll upgrade to a Passat.
wasson, car buying is such a loaded issue. For me the primary concern is gas mileage. Secondary is how much I’m spending on the car itself. Third thing is looks. But there’s also just the whole “does this car feel right to me?” Even though I’m not a car person by any means, we live in a car culture, where cars play a really important role.
Yesterday I was thinking about your views on the Golf being ugly. I tried to think of the ugliest car out there, and for me it’s the Pontiac Aztek. If that baby got 60mpg would I be able to bring myself to drive it? After a brief pause, I said “DAMN SKIPPY!”
In the end buy what you like. If you can rationalize it to yourself, that’s all that matters.