I have always been a car person and do a lot of work on them myself. I just sold my 2009 VW jetta sport wagon with 156,000 miles on it. I drive a lot 50,000 miles a year. I loved the power of the diesel and the mpg. I averaged 42 to 47 mpg. I bought a 2012 3 and so far after 2 weeks I have 1600 miles on it. I am surpurised at how much I like this car. It does not have the power the jetta has but seems to ride better and get better mpg. I live in Tallahassee Florida and have offices in fort Walton Beach Tallahassee and Orlando. I hope to learn as much as I can.
We were looking at a Jetta Sportwagon TDI before deciding on a Prius. Here in Hawaii, diesel costs more than premium gas, so I couldn't pull the trigger on it. I was also afraid after reading about problems ppl were having with the high pressure fuel pump and high maintenance costs of the TDI engines vs the relatively zero additional costs to maintain Toyota's hybrid synergy drive system.
A fellow Floridian is also a high mileage driver (extreme understatement). He's all ready past 125k miles on his 2012 Prius V and had over 450,000 on his 2009 gen II before he traded it in on the V. Prius v: 100,000 Mile Club | Page 5 | PriusChat Rest assured, a hybrid can rack up the miles but with less costs.
The TDI was a great car. I loved it. But they are having problems with the fuel pumps going out and costing 8000 to fix. Also diesel is .70 more a gallon. So I will try may hand here for awhile.
I too sold a Jetta TDI for a Prius, and am very happy. I miss the power, and the actual MPG difference is not that much. Fuel prices are the biggest real difference. I also was very concerned with the fuel pump failure potential, which may have been silly, but was a bothersome.
well attyjeff, based on your description, i suggest you make your way on over to the mods thread. you'll feel right at home. lots of fun projects.
unfortunately it's no typo, the high pressure fuel pump in the TDI engine is very expensive to replace. kind of analogous to replacing the traction battery in a Prius. was reading on forums that the HPFP was failing right after warranty expired.
I'm one of those with both a Prius (2010) and a TDI (wife's Audi A-3 2012). She likes driving the Audi a lot, and I'm very happy with the Prius.
No typo. When the fuel pump goes it sends metal through the fuel system so almost all the fuel lines injectors fuel tank etc needs to be replaced.
There have been a number of revisions to the HPFP, but the buying public will not know if it's actually now reliable until there are years of owner experience.
Prius gets higher mileage with cheaper fuel than TDI. On power, never heard or experienced auto Diesel "power" but if you want peppy Prius performance then PWR mode is for you, with little impact on mpg with the caveat, PWR corrupts.
I got out of a 2009 Jetta TDI. Little pieces of metal were showing up in the fuel filter now and then and the rest of the car was falling apart, but after the DSG transmission was on its third mechatronics unit, I had enough and dumped it for a GenIII Prius.
