Prius over Golf TDI? Mixed feelings

It's very strange with CR's take on VW reliability - in 2011 guide, they show Golf, GTI and Jetta as recommended, but for the Golf 2003 - 2006 show no data at all. Only shown for 07 - 09 with good marks. Then 00 - 02 is laden with black circles, bad.

Whenever I talk to a mechanic about VW vehicles, they have bad things to say about them. VW's generally a rife with CR's black circles, GTI, Jetta, Passat, Touareg, yet CR recommends them. Doesn't make much sense.

 

wxman,

CR's data does appear to show an improvement since the last revision, although cars often start to really diverge in reliability after 3 years so a fair argument can be made that it is too early to tell for long-term owners (or effect on depreciation.)
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This graph is also from CR. They have updated it for 2011, but it looks about the same. VW hangs with the domestic pack out to three years, but by 7-8 years VW has 50% more repairs than Ford.

Another point to keep in mind with CR is that they make no attempt to weight repairs by cost. If TDIs have an achilles heel in the fuel system and transmission, OP would be well advised to find out how much that repair costs. I'm going to guess more than the $88 I spent buying a coolant pump for my Prius

 

CR recommends based on overall test score and at least average reliability. As others have noted, VWs gets props for ergonomics, interior, and dynamics.

 

I wouldn't buy a Golf 'cause it sort of looks like it is stuck in the 80s due to it's overall shape.

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off topic ----

See, some people are checking out the Prius while looking at somewhat sportier cars. But they are questioning the looks and hoping for somewhat fun to drive factor. IMO, Prius only needs to go to 'finishing school' with these improvements -

16" attractive alloy wheels in lower end packages
make the interior / dash / console design more mainstream, attractive

I won't even speak about 'fun to drive' quality, because I don't find driving around suburban areas fun anyway. Motorcycles much more fun than cars. When I had sport bikes, it was pretty boring riding around town. The fun began on curvy backroads in hills/ mountains with no cars blocking the way. This on Swanton Rd. which runs off Hwy1 and back on about 5 miles N. of Davenport.



unfortunately this pic got saved in avatar size Bay Area motorcycle riding kicks nice person though

 

You will find horror stories in every forum.
Since you are putting a lot of miles on the car, the long term reliability should be a concern.

Here are some for the Prius, over 5K repair.
There's more.
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-main-forum/90935-central-florida-h-e-l-p.html
http://priuschat.com/forums/generation-1-prius-discussion/89446-inconsolable-need-gen1-help.html

 

About the same cost as a tranny repair in most cars, but the Prius tranny breaks down perhaps 1% as often.

Do the math, troll.

 

Last year VW salesguy practically begged me to test drive a new GTI when I stopped in full leathers after a group ride.

It was nice, drove like it was on rails. Felt the road, but it was not jarring. Punched it up to 40 mph and it's really quick. Seats in GTIs and Jetta are great, Golf, not so much for me.

I like smart cars though. Prius is a smart car. Less stress in the city. One could make a case that full hybrids reduce stress while driving.

 

On the first link" - "To Respond to: Mr. uart . . . From May to November the Prius sat in the garage as I was helping out my grandmother at her home in Northern MI"

Hybrid sitting 5 months, not driven? That's not good. Owner's manual states "drive the car at least 30 minutes once every, IIRC, couple months".

 

there was an 8-10 mpg hit for automatic transmission (for the 2002 Golf TDI) vs the 5 speed manual.

I never saw any black smoke coming out of the exhaust of the 2002 TDI, Golf or Beetle.

 

I have been driving a Jetta 2002 TDI for all these years. I love the Diesel BUT the cost per gallon here is almost as much as premium gas. Use to be lower than Regular. I have 160K on mine. I average 40mpg. I change my oil every 10K. Just had the timing belt for $1200 changed.
The things that bugged my about my car...
Leg room in the back seat is poor.
Only 3 stations in my area have diesel & one has a pump that is often out of order.
Where I drive a hour to work the county only has 1 diesel pump.
Can not idle to defrost windows.
I ride a Ferry to work. When cold outside, I run heat on low so I do not run out of heat. The diesel will run cool once you park.

I will be getting a Prius because it has more room for stuff & my grandkids.
It gets 50mpg average.
Can buy gas eveywhere.
Having the Tech stuff is cool too.

After getting 40mpg all these years I will never get a car that gets less than 40mpg. My wifes Honda civic seems like a gas hog.

Also the quality of VW & european cars have gone down. Read the Consumers Mag on the new cars.
Just my 2 cents...

 

Have you considered the size difference or is that not something you care about? The Golf looks pretty sweet and handles extremely well compared to the Prius but it is much smaller, gets worse average fuel economy and in many cases diesel is more expensive than regular unleaded. I drove by Arco today and diesel was $4.21 vs. 87octane at $3.82. Arco generally has cheap fuel. Chevron or Shell would have been much more.

 

+1...in fact I'm raising the bar and saying nothing under 50MPGs.

 

A couple of decades ago I promised myself I would demand a 50% increase in fuel economy every time I replaced my car. I've come close. The mpg is my actual, not EPA.

First car (Mitsu Mirage): 30 mpg
Second car (Honda Civic): 40 mpg
Third car (Prius): 55 mpg
Next car: I want 100 mpg!

 

I was also looking between Prius and Golf TDI. Then I realized that nearly every single Golf I saw, there was some kid driving it with his hat crooked. Since I don't want to drive with a crooked hat, I went with the Prius. Also, better reliability, better mpg, cheaper gas, more comfort helped with my decision.

 

Think you're gonna have to keep the Prius for a really long time I'm afraid!

 

I test drove the TDI Wagon and quite liked it except it was tight inside, and the narrow seats, and the way they wer constructed, bit into my legs uncomfortably. it was also thousands more then the Prius AND in the real world is not delivering the stellar MPG of the older TDI's (so much more emissions stuff now).

I'm happy with the Prius, though I wish it had more cargo room (taller room, for the dogs). The Prius V fixes that though so maybe next time we'll go with that.

 

Don't do it!!!
I just traded in a 2009 Jetta Sportwagen TDi with 24k miles. This can be a very long story, but...
Pro's: Handling, acceleration, high MPG (40).
Cons: Lots of problems with the new CRI engine (Google: TDi HPFP failure).
Two weeks ago my relatively new TDi died on the road. Since it was still under the 3 yr/36k mi warranty, VW paid for tow to the stealership.
The next day, I received a call from the service manager claiming that they "smelled" gasoline in my tank, and my warranty would not cover this repair. I was told that I would have to pay 7k for a complete fuel system rebuild. No matter how much I insisted that I did not do that, they did not care and kept to their story.
I left the car there, and did some "Googling" and found many other 2009 and newer TDi owners with the same problem, and also being told the same line all over the country.
After two weeks and numerous letters to the BBB, the FTC, MD Attorney General, Centers for Auto Safety, etc, VW Corporate finally agreed to fix under warranty. I picked it up on Friday, and drove it on Saturday for trade-in. I know this will happen again since they are replacing the High Pressure Fuel Pump with the same model. There is a serious design flaw with this pump, and they are grinding themselves internally.
And all this was merely the icing on the cake since I had to take it in for a DSG Transmission recall at 5k, and four times back to the dealer service for an improper oil change at 20k mi that kept leaking (they kept pinching the o ring).
There are several assumptions as to why this is happening to the new common rail injection systems, the most popular being that the ULSD sold in the US does not provide sufficient lubricity and therefore the metal grinding.
The decision is ultimately up to you.

 

Funny, I have never found myself wearing a crooked hat while driving. The car does seem to make me smile a lot though

 

Interesting... This sounds related to http://priuschat.com/forums/diesels...es-probe-into-100-000-vw-diesel-vehicles.html.

To me, VW/Audi has seemingly gotten almost a free pass for a long time in terms of # of recalls likely because they sell so few vehicles here in the US and thus it's difficult to get enough safety complaints to NHTSA to spur a recall (they claim they don't have a specific #/threshold). It always struck me as odd that they'd have few recalls yet their have such a terrible reliability reputation.

It is possible that gas stations have diesel contaminated w/gasoline...

 

just do the test drives and make your decision on what you like... Personally I have no problems with driving in Gen3 Prius, you can always get one with 17" wheels if you really want it to handle better but imho it handles fine and it is comfy due to the longer wheelbase.

I would also read up on 2.0TDI... they seem significantly less reliable than old 1.9 PD's. At least thats the impression here in Europe.