LOL - sure a good way to look at it. But the car is suspect as it stops running for a reason that could not be determined. Not fun.

Peppy - how many miles? What year?

I would try to keep running it until the warranty is up. Decide if that's 36k or 60k miles for you. Selling after 3 or 5 years is perfectly fine in terms of depreciation. They are good points in the curve IMHO - the next best chance would be 90k and then 180k. ;)

My car hasn't had any problems and I will keep it for 5/60k knowing that likely any HPFP issues will be covered. After 60k it will be a good time for me to look for a new car anyway.

G

The jetta is a 2011 with 34K miles.

my wife wasn't stranded the issue was in the driveway. I think her confidence was shaken a little, but I don't think she is scared of it. Now if it does it again that may change.

We had long term plans for this car to replace my 2001 TDI that has 342,000 miles. I know it won't last forever, and I thought the new jetta would be as durable. I guess we will have to waite and see.

You have got to be kidding me you have a TDI w/ 342,000 on it and your 2011 didn't start once and you are willing to give up on it? Man.... define what it takes to earn your loyalty or goodwill to me. It appears TDI's have served you well.

Apples and oranges ? AFAIK, and I'm no expert, the 2001 was 1.9 turbo D, old style.
The 2012 is a 2.0 direct injection, with higher fuel pressures, a different fueling system prone to total destruction when contaminated, and believe you me, if you surf the TDi boards, it feels like a lot more than 1% failures ;-(

That's like saying my 911SC had 200K mi without any issues but I don't trust my
996's IMS. That would be a fair statement too, in my book.

I see your point but it is not a fair comparison we are speaking of a 1% failure rate.

Let's face it what % of total owners make it to the boards. Based upon my Pelican experience, it only takes a few to make quite a bit of noise.....

People who do not have serious problems with their new or late model cars are a LOT less likely to wind up on a web forum that primarily discusses mechanical issues with the cars. I would think that this is common sense. In my quite wide cross-section of friends and acquaintances, I do not know anyone who is not a "car person" or owner of a lemon who has spent any time on a car board like we do.

I acknowledge that there is some issue with some new VW TDIs regarding fuel pumps but it seems like the type of thing that would rear its ugly head in the warranty period if it truly is some serious design flaw. I'm going to research it further and I am still very interested in these cars. As a road trip machine + DD in the modern world, I don't see much that's better. At least in the USA, in Europe their are myriad choices of similar cars. You could call me a diesel fanatic.

Every TDI VW, (and every other modern diesel for the last 20 years), is high-pressure direct injection. What did you think that TDI stands for? :confused:

A 996 is a massive departure from air-cooled 911 engine technology. Not a good analogy at all. And as someone who has owned more air-cooled 911s than most on this board, (and rebuilds them myself), I think that the fear of IMS issues is hugely over blown and 996s are great cars mechanically for the most part. :cool:

Absolutely. Having an expensive issue with your car could very easily spur you into looking for either help or a place to vent. It's pretty common to see someone's first forum post be looking for help with a problem. Non-enthusiasts don't waste hours posting about how awesome their grocery getters are.

Denis, you're a gambling man....

How about I give you 97 to one odds that you'll pay me $10,000 and I pay you $10 for that bet?

Buying a new/newer TDI (or older, actually) is like playing very expensive roulette. The stakes are high, but the benefits of taking that risk are pretty low. How much will you save overall buying a TDI over, say, a similar high-efficiency gas car? Forget TDI resale value, that's likely NOT going to be true in 5-10 years. Industry analysts are cutting the TDI's residuals like crazy right now, not just because of these issues, but due to the cost of diesel, the closing efficiency gap of gas powered alternatives, hybrids making gains, and more diesel competitors coming to market (soon!).

So you get to save a few pennies in fuel costs (maybe) and take the risk that you'll have a $6000-$12,000 repair that affects a good number of cars, and may affect more as time goes on -- they're still relatively new.

I know you love diesels. YMMV

Here, the diesels have been around forever and have been fairly indestructible...until lately.
Manufacturers went to great lengths to wring out the very last MPG out of the car, which has led to some very complicated and daring designs.

Personally, I would rather have a tad older tech with 10% worse MPG than pay trough the nose for latest and greatest and then risk a general failure.

Most of cars with HPFP-troubles mentioned on VW forum had less than 30000 miles FFS! That's really bad.


Here in Sweden, VAG decided to stop offering DSG Passat's to Taxi companies as many drivers munched two/three transmissions before the end of drivetrain warranty. It must have cost a fortune for factory to cover this...

/I'm the one with 20 year old daily driver in his pocket...

I had the 30k service today on my TDI. I spoke to the jr. service guy and he knew nothing about fuel pump failures. But he only was on the job for 8 months. He went and inquired with the Sr. service guy. That one apparently had heard. Their policy (verbally) is that they will repair a blown fuel pump under the drivetrain warranty. He did mention that the tank pump will not be covered if affected. So, this sounds like a 80% covered under warranty policy.

What I also got is a bunch of new stickers. VW had sent these about 6 months after I bought the car with the instructions to install them. I ignored it, as I am the only one ever filling up my car. Now they apparently check every TDI at service time and get you the stickers installed! This is a strong indication that VW doesn't just make an excuse for failed fuel pumps when claiming that the affected cars were fueled with gas, they apparently try to reduce the false-fueling with these stickers.

Anwyay, I am TDIng away and will re-evaluate the situation at 60k / 5 years.

G

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-J...0/DSCN0168.jpg

We've changed our filler caps on all our diesels so that they can't be misfueled.

Grab one of these, or something similar.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1361347325.jpg

Caparo RightFuel — RightFuel is a revolutionary new device that prevents motorists putting the wrong type of fuel in their cars

Update on our car
 

The dealer finally got our car running. The high pressure fuel pump exploded. It took the lame dealer 10 days to figure it out after taking the cyl head off and finding nothing wrong with it. The dealer doesn't know how to read trouble codes yet.

The bill came to @ $2100. VW would take $300 of the pump job and the dealer would take $300 off the cyl job. I told them since they misdiagnosed the problem I shouldn't have to pay for the cyl job. I argued with the idiot service writer for a short time and then I told him to buy the car from us. So they did. The Time Bomb/Death Trap is gone. We were very sad to see it go. The car fit us very well. I love the low speed torque of turbodiesels. And the size of the JSW was perfect for us. But VW's stink in terms of reliability. At least the last two Jetta's that we had were terrible in terms of reliability.

It was hard to find a replacement car that fit us. We ended up with a Ford C-Max hymen. I hope we like it. We pick it up today.

I hope that one doesn't break.....could be messy.

Once you get the first time out of the way, it will be smooth sailing.

Good luck!

Yeah it will only need breaking in.

Is it a tight squeeze getting in?

Built Ford-tough!

Got the car. I have nicknamed it the C-Hair. For some reason the wifey doesn't like that name and she calls it Maxipad.:)

Update -

VW now installing fuel necks that don't allow the gas nozzle in the diesel car. I am going to get mine soon. If nothing else, this really will help if the pump goes and VW claims it was misfueled.

Volkswagen TDI diesel to get modifications to prevent gasoline misfueling - Autoweek

From that article:

Cheers,

G

I had a 2001 TDI with the dreaded automatic the transmission. First one went at 60000 miles. VW said since I was the second owner I was on my own. Second tranny started to go at 80000 miles so I unloaded it. Lots of issues with the automatic tranny from those years and VW would not stand behind their product. I am done with VW.

I sold my JSW not too long after it passed 30K miles. Still had a bit of warranty left so got a decent (though not great) price for it. Great car but made me nervous about the prospect of owning out of warranty and at 40K miles you have a relatively expensive DSG service. Will be switching to BMW and hopefully their 2L turbo is well behaved. It will be a lease though so kinda doesn't matter...

Sorry for your loss and congrats at the same time.

Going back to my VW Golf 1986 Diesel which I sold in 1990. I do not miss the failing CV joints, failed head gasket.................so on and so forth.

Once you lose that I'm invincible 50 mpg euphoria the fun is gone. IT WAS 80,000 MILES THE HARD WAY.

I'll never trust a VW again.

Corrected typo

wow, this is good, quite the businessman.

I drove a rented Golf in May for a week and really liked it. Thought a GTI would be a nice, fun little car and considered owning one. Sounds like that would be a bad idea. Right??

My wife has over 80k mostly trouble free miles on her 2010 Golf Two door auto, the next thing up from this car was a GTI. But it's gas not a TDI. She had a new CD player and a new AC compressor put in but they were both warranty. I like driving the car.

Missed the bit about it being a death trap. Why was it a deathtrap?

Because if a car ever stops running while you're driving it, you die.These new models are tied directly into your respiratory system. Didn't you know this? :cool:

My 1986...........(long time ago) blew it's head gasket right around 80k.

Just did the 40K mile service on my wife's TDI. It wasn't too hard but I was a little nervous changing the fuel filter.

My 01 TDI just turned 360,000.

Our GTI was in the shop more than in our garage. All under warranty, thankfully, but it was still a huge POS. No more VW's for us. Which sucks because we've had several.

Having owned a 2002 Camry for over ten years and my wife would have preferred a Jetta I wish we had got the Jetta but not the TDI. At least it would have been fun to drive. I know the quality/reliability is not in the VW but they are more fun to drive.... The problem is the Camry only has 30k miles .....

2014 Volkswagen Passat Gains More Efficient 1.8T Engine - Rumor Central
The 2014 Volkswagen Passat gains a new engine that will return considerably better fuel economy than the car’s current base engine. A new 1.8-liter turbocharged inline-four engine replaces the 2.5-liter inline-five as the Passat’s base engine this year.
The 1.8T engine produces 170 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque, which represents an increase of seven lb-ft compared to the outgoing 2.5-liter engine. It will also be offered in the 2014 Volkswagen Jetta, Beetle, and Golf. The turbo engine is more efficient that the five-cylinder it replaces, and also includes electro hydraulic steering, which consumes less energy than the full hydraulic power steering on the old 2.5-liter.
As a result, the 2014 Volkswagen Passat will return 24/35 mpg (city/highway) with a five-speed manual transmission, and 24/34 mpg with a six-speed automatic. By contrast, the 2013 Passat 2.5-liter managed 22/32 mpg with a manual and 22/31 mpg with an automatic transmission. Although the new 1.8T engine will initially be offered only on the 2014 Volkswagen Passat SEL, by the end of this year it will fully replace the 2.5-liter as the base engine in all Passat variants.

Because the fuel pump can fail anytime anywhere. Around here the entrance ramps are very short. What would happen if your car died when pulling onto the highway or across a busy intersection in front of a heavy truck.

That's a freakin' stretch, bud. Better chance of choking on a pretzel.

I work in the industry at the manufacturer level, and we consistently see German car components being needlessly complex for no apparent reason. "Just because we can" seems to be their reason. Not better, not smarter, not an elegant design solution...just overly complex. Which often times means prone to failure.

Every German car we've owned has been fairly unreliable, with silly designs and complex parts. And overpriced parts, too.

Luckily our 911 is (mostly) devoid of stuff like this, and we rather enjoy it. But it's likely the last German car we'll own, except for possibly a 996 TT which seem to be almost bomb proof. Otherwise, too much trouble. We even have a joking term among my car enthusiast friends for German cars: "FGC...F****** German Cars".

We've always had at least 2 Lexus in our fleet because they are supremely reliable, build quality peerless, are fast and fun (the models we drive anyways) and are cheap to maintain.

Aww come on. You need to try and get out of your bubble more.

Pretty funny that their "new" engine is a 1.8T. You know, since they started using a 1.8T in 1998 and eventually replaced it with the FSI 2.0T. Great little motor though, I had a 1.8T 1999 A4 that had decent pep and easily surpassed 30 MPG.

VW's suck. They still have timing belts when nearly everyone else have gone to chains. It cost @$1k to do the belt every 100k miles.

Our 2010 Jetta TDI quit running when my wife was pulling out onto a busy highway. It was 5:30 AM on the coldest day in Feb. -6 Degs F with a wind. Luckily she was able to coast to the underpass and no truck was coming. VW only covered $300 for the repair. Did I mention they suck.

Our 2002 TDI would die randomly. Have you ever been in a car that quits where ever. It is rather frighting. VW dealer said they couldn't find the problem. So I did the lemon law thing on them. They finally replace the instrument panel and that fixed it.

VW's have been the most unreliable cars that we have ever owned. I like how they ride and the features of the cars but they suck. And like the guy above M-B's aren't much better. My 911 has been very reliable:)

Any vehicle can be considered a "death trap" and suddenly stop - Timing belt, ECU failure, IMS failure, HPFP failures etc.

Almost got creamed in my 2006 Mini Cooper the other day when the Harmonic Pulley separate in two pieces on the entrance ramp of the freeway; felt like a hit a brick wall when I lost all power at full throttle.

None of the VW's I have left me stranded while the vehicle was in motion except for the VW Thing when I ran out of gas (fuel gauge and odometer were out of service)

Porsche left me stranded in motion twice - rear axle let go and a blown fuel pump fuse.

Regarding the TDI timing belt, local indy by me replaces the belt and WP for $750, servicing Audi's is his real cash cow.