first car bought

OK... I was looking around at cars again, I saw a 2003 Jetta TDI wagon
for 16,900 dollars with 30,000 miles- 2,000 below Blue Book MSRP. I
decided I ought to give the diesel a go. I went for a test drive. I
thought it handled pretty good, although the handling was responsive and
hard compared to the Japanese cars I had test driven, which was sort of
nice..

So, after having looked at a Matrix and been unimpressed (no side curtain
airbags, no cruise control, etc., on all the models they had in stock), and
finding a station wagon, and diesel at that, at 16000 dollars in apparrently
good condition, I thought it was a good deal, so I bought it (I also asked
the chief mechanic if biodiesel was OK in the TDI engine, and he said
technically he was suppossed to say "no", but it could be done, at least if
it was a small part blended into the tank). Now, the only downside I
believe are the Michelin low rolling resistance tires, the same type they
put on the early model Prius and Insight that people bitched about, and I
can see why- it does seem to be a rougher ride once I get off the highway.
So I'd like to get some good all-weather tires that aren't low rolling
resistance.

"C.H." > wrote in message
...
> You claim you want to save the environment and buy a Diesel that is well
> known for high levels of particle emissions?

Diesel engines are very efficient and for a typical car, will produce
alot less CO2 vs. using a gasoline engine with similar horsepower (about 1/3
less), especially if the gas engine isn't V-TEC, etc. The particulates that
diesel engines make, while nasty in theory, will eventually fall to the
ground and biodegrade. And we aren't talking about a city bus or big
truck- the engine is small. When it was running, it didn't smell like my
idea of a diesel at all, though it does have a bit of a growl to it in the
sound (there's also a bit of a speedboat type thumpy, clacky sound to the
engine). The ride was a little rough once it got off the highway, but I
think that's due to the tires used (high fuel economy/long life Michelin
Energy Plus)- I might consider some tires built more for handling (probably
Goodyear Comfort Tread).

In some areas you can also buy biodiesel blended fuel to use, it lowers
the emissions and particulates alot. The nearest biodiesel seller is about
two hours away (Tampa) or so, but I go that way occasionally (my dad has a
rental house there, and me and my mom go over there to work on it
occasionally). The US's largest manufacturer of biodiesel is over in
Lakeland, which is only about an hour or so away. Bush's budgets in the
last few years have given significant tax incentives for companies to blend
biodiesel into fuel, and Willie Nelson is trying to start a biodiesel chain.

The Jetta wagon has an automatic transmission, but reading the manual, it
says it has an adaptive automatic - meaning that if you tend to accelerate
more gradually it switches to the economy program which tries to upshift
sooner and keep RPM low. If you accelerate harder and are driving fast, it
switches to the sport mode, which upshifts later. (I have driven stick, but
I hate it and I'd never buy a stick car if I had the choice- maybe because I
don't do alot of highway driving).

If it weren't for the 2,000 dollars off the KBB I likely wouldn't have
bought it. But just from my perusing the car lists, diesels hold their
value really well, especially the automatics (manual diesels seem to
plummet), so I thought it was a bargain. Also, compared to the Matrix wagon
I was seriously considering, the VW's come loaded with stuff right off the
bat, whereas the local Toyota dealer preffers to be cheap and sell Matrixes
and Corollas without even cruise control (let alone side curtain airbags).

"C.H." > wrote in message
...
> In other words if you think you are getting a deal your treehugger ideals
> disappear. Which doesn't surprise me at all.

No, what a bunch of crap. Even if the description "tree hugger" did
describe me, there's alot of people who are environmentally conscious people
who drive diesels. The little turbodiesel is far better than some gas
guzzling V-8 or V-10.

Secondly, a diesel engine is not that bad. Especially if we had really
good diesel fuel in the US, like they have in Europe (higher cetane, low
sulfur), we could have very good catalytic converters. Currently, all those
sulfur compounds will murder a diesel catalytic converter (it's like why we
needed unleaded gas). You can use a biodiesel additive or cetane booster
in the meantime, and the engines will run cleaner.

Magnulus wrote:
> OK... I was looking around at cars again, I saw a 2003 Jetta TDI
wagon
> for 16,900 dollars with 30,000 miles- 2,000 below Blue Book MSRP. I
> decided I ought to give the diesel a go. I went for a test drive. I
> thought it handled pretty good, although the handling was responsive
and
> hard compared to the Japanese cars I had test driven, which was sort
of
> nice..
>
> So, after having looked at a Matrix and been unimpressed (no side
curtain
> airbags, no cruise control, etc., on all the models they had in
stock), and
> finding a station wagon, and diesel at that, at 16000 dollars in
apparrently
> good condition, I thought it was a good deal, so I bought it (I also
asked
> the chief mechanic if biodiesel was OK in the TDI engine, and he said
> technically he was suppossed to say "no", but it could be done, at
least if
> it was a small part blended into the tank). Now, the only downside
I
> believe are the Michelin low rolling resistance tires, the same type
they
> put on the early model Prius and Insight that people bitched about,
and I
> can see why- it does seem to be a rougher ride once I get off the
highway.
> So I'd like to get some good all-weather tires that aren't low
rolling
> resistance.

The rougher ride, as you put it, may or may not be due to the tires -
VWs generally have sportier tuned suspensions than American or Japanese
cars. That's a Good Thing, sports fans! Personally, I can't see how
you would consider a Jetta's ride "rough" - I had an '02 GTI 1.8T for a
while, and while it has a stiffer suspension than a Jetta, I thought it
was a bit softly sprung and had way too much body roll. But that may
just be me. Besides, if you are so concerned about saving the
environment, why would you consider removing a perfectly serviceable
set of tires before they're due for replacement just to replace them
with new, less efficient ones?

nate

In article >,
Magnulus > wrote:
>
>"C.H." > wrote in message
...
>> In other words if you think you are getting a deal your treehugger ideals
>> disappear. Which doesn't surprise me at all.
>
> No, what a bunch of crap. Even if the description "tree hugger" did
>describe me,

I believe "environmental kool-aid drinker" is more like it. You've
taken in, unexamined, all the premises of the modern environmentalist
movement. To be fair, you have shown no capacity to examine anything
in any case, so it's hard to blame you.

>there's alot of people who are environmentally conscious people
>who drive diesels.

Of course. Because they're unpleasant to drive and unpleasant to be
around. They know they are violating their ideals by driving, so they
deliberately make it painful for themselves.

>The little turbodiesel is far better than some gas
>guzzling V-8 or V-10.

It's better than a dump truck engine too, but ain't saying much.

Matthew Russotto wrote:
> In article >,
> Magnulus > wrote:
> >
> >"C.H." > wrote in message
> ...
> >> In other words if you think you are getting a deal your treehugger
ideals
> >> disappear. Which doesn't surprise me at all.
> >
> > No, what a bunch of crap. Even if the description "tree hugger"
did
> >describe me,
>
> I believe "environmental kool-aid drinker" is more like it. You've
> taken in, unexamined, all the premises of the modern environmentalist
> movement. To be fair, you have shown no capacity to examine anything
> in any case, so it's hard to blame you.
>

This I'll agree with.

> >there's alot of people who are environmentally conscious people
> >who drive diesels.
>
> Of course. Because they're unpleasant to drive and unpleasant to be
> around. They know they are violating their ideals by driving, so
they
> deliberately make it painful for themselves.

Never driven a newer VW Diesel, have you? Not to mention that they
also get 2X the gas mileage of a similarly performing petrol-burner, in
some cases. That's a Good Thing(tm.)

>
> >The little turbodiesel is far better than some gas
> >guzzling V-8 or V-10.
>
> It's better than a dump truck engine too, but ain't saying much.

Never driven a newer VW Diesel, have you?

nate

"Matthew Russotto" > wrote in message
...
>
> Of course. Because they're unpleasant to drive and unpleasant to be
> around. They know they are violating their ideals by driving, so they
> deliberately make it painful for themselves.

With the right fuel, no, not at all. In Europe where they have lots of
good quality low-sulfur diesel, diesels make less pollution than you think.
Volkswagens there are also getting fitted with particulate traps to reduce
the soot greatly. If and when the US ditches sulfur in diesel, our
catalytic converters will run alot better and diesels will produce very
little nitrogen oxides and soot. They will never be as "clean" as gas, but
then again the cleanliness of gasoline is a bit deceptive, except for
nitrogen oxides and soot, diesel can be lower in all other forms of
pollution. And diesel will not cause carbon monoxide poisoning.

Here in the US diesel fuel is crappy quality (thank the trucking
industry), but you can add a cetane booster or biodiesel to the fuel and it
will really help a high-performance diesel engine to get better economy and
reduce emisisions. Unlike a gas engine, where fuel additives are mostly a
waste of money because gasoline is already heavily refined. When I first
tried driving my Jetta TDI it did produce more noise, but after I added some
cetane booster/lubricant it really reduced the vibrations and the engine got
a little quietter and smoother.

"N8N" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Never driven a newer VW Diesel, have you? Not to mention that they
> also get 2X the gas mileage of a similarly performing petrol-burner, in
> some cases. That's a Good Thing(tm.)

Today I averaged around 40-45 mpg doing suburban driving in light
traffic. And that's with a 4 speed automatic. That's about as good or
better than some of those hybrid cars. All I did was go easy on the
acceleration and I drove the speed limit. Even then, it's got plenty of
power in reserve (for instance, I ended up doing a couple of fast left-hand
turns).

VW has an aluminum/composite European 2-door car called the Lupo that gets
90 mpg- it's not a hybrid but it does have an integrated starter generator
and a 3 cylinder engine. Audi created a diesel-electric midsize steel-body
car that gets 85 MPG.

"N8N" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> The rougher ride, as you put it, may or may not be due to the tires -
> VWs generally have sportier tuned suspensions than American or Japanese
> cars. That's a Good Thing, sports fans! Personally, I can't see how
> you would consider a Jetta's ride "rough" - I had an '02 GTI 1.8T for a
> while, and while it has a stiffer suspension than a Jetta,

On the plus side, the sport suspension means I can take turns I probably
couldn't in a softer ride, because there's very little body roll (unlike my
dad's pickup truck, his Crown Vic, or the Civic and Prius I test drove). I
don't have to brake so much on those tighter turns when driving through my
suburban neighborhood- that saves on needless acceleration/deceleration. On
the downside, the road out of the neighborhood has alot of rough spots and
potholes. The suspension is definitely better on a highway or mantained
road.

You bought a ****ing DIESEL which spews known carcinogens into the air?

And you claimed to want to be "environmentally responsible"!

Did you at least take good advice and avoid a dealer?