we are considering a vw beetle. we haven't even looked yet. first, does vw offer the beetle in diesel? secondly, what is the mileage comparison to gas and what is the upcharge for a diesel and last, do the diesel engines have a decent track record ?

 

IIRC, The diesel beetle was built on the same platform as the Jetta. I' don't know if they are still availible new or not.

 

VW diesels will not be available until March of 08. The Jetta, Bug and Rabbit will role out first, followed by the Tiguan in May. VW diesels get considerably better mileage then the gassers. You may be able to find and 06 floating around out there. My understanding is there are no 07s, they weren't produced. The 08 will have the new VW common rail design.

 

Uh - used or new? If it's used, the vast majority of them had the very old-tech 2.0L 2-valve gas engine. Its not powerful, refined, or fuel efficient. Pretty much a bargin-basement engine that should have stayed in the basement.

The TDi engine was offered in the bettle, and will be again in '08. Oddly, there's no TDi badge on them, so it's difficult to tell unless the dealer advertised it as such. Opinions differ on TDi's, some of the older ones were problematic, and it seems a little too maintance-intensive (and cost-intensive) to overcome it's rather good fuel economy. It's probably a good choice overall, but a 1.8T (gas) is also a good engine, much more sporting, but definetly not as much of a fuel saver.

I'd head over to www.vwvortex.com and look around. Lots of info there.

 

Also look at http://forums.tdiclub.com

 

My wife had am 02 tdi beetle with 168,000 when we sold it. It was an auto and got 37 city and 42 highway. She has a lead foot so it didn't do as good as some others. If you can get a manual they get as much as 15% better milage and I have heard that the autos were problematic. Also if you get one that is I think 04 or newer that uses the camshaft to pressureize the diesel in the injectors or what VW calls Pump Duece then use only the synthetic oil from the dealer. If you use the wrong oil it will wear out the cam and head. All in all the one we had was a great little car and if she we hadn't had twins the second time around we would still have it but you just can't fit 3 car seats in the back.

 

I have an 06 Jetta with diesel, it gets 45mpg and runs very nice. If you are looking at used, get a diesel.

 

I have an 03 Jetta and hate it (the seat hurts my back). It does handle well and I see average of over 50+ mpg out of it. Makes it hard to get rid of with oil going to over 90 a barrel.

 

Have you considered swapping out your seats? You may loose power function, but there are many options avalible for better seats out there...but my trouble is seat travel - I rarely have enough legroom...

 

This is a bottom of the barrel Jetta. The only power these seats have comes from me. I have actually thought of it. And done some research but cant really find much out there that isnt designed for "ricers" I am not looking for a racing seat, just something with lumbar support and perhaps some heated seats. Power would be nice and not that hard for me to wire (Master Tech so I have some familiarity with cars). If you have any suggestions for seats let me know. I look every once and a while for a totalled Jetta with power seats thinking some lumbar might be nice.

 

an easy way to tell if a beetle is a diesel is to look under the front end,if the skidplate is pretty much flat it's a diesel.the gassers have lumps and bumps all over em.also in front of the pass side front tire,is where the intercooler sets.

 

The new 08 Beetles hit dealerships in March. The only new TDI available is the Toureag, and that thing is about five miles away from being cheap, there were no 07 TDIs produced. You can get used ones, but they are getting harder and harder to find, especially the Beetle. At least around here. My wife has an 06 Jetta TDI w/ 5 spd manual and it gets 40-45 mpg around town. With the TDI you are looking at a 10-15 mpg increase over gas.

 

Might try vwvortex.com and see if anyone has some up for sale, or post a "wanted" ad and see if you get a response. ebay may be another option, if you're into that sort of thing. Good luck - you're right, poor back-supporting seats can be the "dooming" factor for a car in more cases than one may think.

 

We have an '01 diesel Beetle 5 speed and love it other than the seats are uncomfortable. So far my best mileage has been 52mpg on a 300 mile trip at 55mph. Normally, it gets @ 45 with mixed driving and 43 in town. I believe that it's built on an Audi frame and will corner like a porsche; you can scare the be-jeevies out of someone that has no idea how these things stick to the road. So far, no problems to speak of except a few little electical gremlins that I fixed myself and I had to clean the soot out of the intake. I would highly recommend them.

 

I agree with the handling abilities of that car. It was a blast to drive on a curvy road.