My wife drives a vw beetle TDI (diesel) everyday to work 60 miles round trip. I drive this thing on occasion and you would think it was a gasser! This is the reason I bought a brand new 5.9 Cummins. I can't beleive the technology and how it works on this volkswagon. I think it is somewhat of a secret or everyone would be driving one. This thing gets about 45-50 mpg.

 

Secret, i dunno. VW for whatever reason does not appeal to the masses. One they get into VW, they usually don't let go, unless VW does not make a vehicle for a given application, i.e. truck, towing, etc.

Commuting in traffic, my wife averages ~38-39mpg. If we can get out on the road, it'll do ~41 for a 250mile run. I'm confident ~45mpg is possible if I can get 500-600mile run out of it at a time. Gotta go see friends in CA!

Tony

 

I don't know anything about them, but the sound of 40+ mpg is good. My neighbor is a mechanic and refuses to work on any german car, says they are diffucult to work on.

 

Depending on the commute you can see over 50. At the moment I am not commuting as much so only see about 48 average. German cars (I have found) are easier to work on then most vehicles.

My biggest complaint is why havent the engines been more refined by VW. Just for point of referance a BMW 335d (diesel) gets low 40's in MPG and over 400 ftlbs of torque. About 290 hp. And its a straight 6 (which we all love). It has the power of a normal gas engine and almost the economy of a 90 hp vw econobox.

 

Don't you guys have the VW Bora up your neck of the woods with the diesel engine in it?

 

You're right as far as I can tell. VWs are just not appreciated or recognized for what they are.

I love my Passat TDI and would NEVER buy a car with a gas engine if it had a diesel option. Those BMWs must be nice.

I find it interesting that people still seem to be so set against diesels but they'll happily accept the complexity of a hybrid. Or they want mileage so they get a gas Jetta.

John

 

My wife got a new 06 Jetta TDI 2 months ago. We found it on Autotrader.com. I really like the car 39-40 mpg and thats with the auto

 

you have to think like a german then they are pretty easy to understand.the germans over engineer pretty much everything they make.

 

I have a 2005 Passat TDI. I can get over 45 mpg on a full tank driving my work commute, and it's much heavier than a beetle. From what I've seen the TDI is pretty maintenance friendly (at least for the routine maintenance that I do--oil changes, air filters, fuel filters etc). Some TDI's require special grades of oil. If you get one be sure to use the correct VW spec (VW505.01 etc) or you could have trouble.

 

wife has an 06 beetle manual with TDI. gets 37mpg. kinda sucks cause everyhting i buy doesnt get the mileage everyone else gets. however, 37 is still much better than the 25 or so i might get with the gasser. plus if you romp on it it puffs a lil cloud of smoke. fun lil car

 

Diesel... no brainer there...

 

You probably wont get the mileage that I do because the engine in yours is different then the one I have. You have 100 ponies and I only have 90, that uses more fuel. But on the freeway for commuting you should be getting better then that! Mid to high 40's at least. How many miles? Tire pressure? A/C a lot? You are getting lower then average (about 23% less) and something may not be running quite right.

 

That's not true. I've got customers getting high 40s to low 50s. I've got a guy with and 05 beetle that gets 55mpg. I've got a guy with an 05 passat that's getting 48. These VW diesels are like these Cummins. The mileage seems to be all over the place depending on how there driven.

 

its got 35k miles on it now. we have tried several different ways of driving. its mostly highway. drive about 80 mph normally but i cant see that dropping it that far. the thing has gotten 37 from the day we got it. tire pressure is as recommended, on the bigger wheels too. even during winter with no ac. yes i agree it doesnt seem right but is it worth trying to figure out? i certainly dont ahve the time and the VW service guys are a bunch of idiots. i will never buy a vw again. its a good lil engine though.