TTAC regular David Holzman writes:
My brother and several of my friends are wondering what to do about their TDIs. There are probably hundreds of thousands more like them! Some issues with keeping them:
- Will they actually be forced to clean up the emissions? (I think this may depend on which state they’re in, but I’m not sure.)
- How much will the fix affect gas mileage and performance?
- Will the fix be a PITA after it’s installed? If so, how so?
- After all the above is considered, what’s the cost/benefit of keeping the TDI vs taking the money and getting a new car?
- Is there any reason not to simply wait and see how the fix works out and not rushing to take the buy out?
For my brother, sportiness is not a priority, but having a wagon is. As is reliability and having a very similar car so that his wife, who does not adapt easily to different cars and drives the TDI exclusively, will be happy. But I think VW has discontinued Jetta wagons, and the latest generation of Golf (which has a wagon) gets lousy marks for reliability from CR. In particular, they consider some fuel system problems to be “fairly serious.”
All the best,
David
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