Volkswagen

2016 Volkswagen Touareg Lux V6 4MOTION

New Volkswagen

Vehicles, Volkswagen / By / / , , / 2 minutes of reading

Thanks to the diesel emissions scandal, and the uncertainty of what kind of “fix” would be required to meet emissions, this seemed like the best time to try trading in my 2011 Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen TDI. While I have loved the Sportwagen for it versatility, and have loved the 2.0L turbo-diesel for its power and fuel efficiency, we had been thinking about getting an all-wheel drive vehicle so that my wife wouldn’t be snowed in while I’m traveling. In order to take advantage of the trade-in opportunity, we limited our search to Audi and Volkswagen. I wanted something with similar storage to the Jetta wagon, about 66 cubic feet, which eliminated the Q3 and Tiguan, leaving us with the choice of a Q5 or Touareg. We decided that we would meet at McDonald VW, drop off the Jetta so that they could do an appraisal on it, and we could go to Applebee’s for some dinner. While I was stuck in traffic on the way there, my wife arrived at VW. She talked with the salesman a bit, and made some headway toward making a deal. She wasn’t sure how it would work out, so she suggested that I stop at the Audi dealer on the way there. While I was working with the salesman at the Audi dealership, they took the car down the block to the VW dealer, so the guys at VW knew that I was talking to the Audi dealer. In the end, McDonald VW was able […]

New Volkswagen Read More »

Driving in the Mountains

Diesel, Travel, Vehicles, Volkswagen / By / / , , , , , / 2 minutes of reading

We’re spending the weekend at our trailer in Buena Vista. It was too windy yesterday to ride our bikes that we brought up, so we decided to drive down Highway 50 over Monarch Pass down to Gunnison. This weekend has been my first chance to drive my new VW Jetta SportWagen TDI in the mountains, so I was interested to see how it handled the higher altitude and steeper grades. The 2.0L TDI makes plenty of power to ascend even a 7% grade at 11,000 feet. What I was even more impressed with, though, was how well the DSG transmission worked on the descent. I’d already noticed that when braking, the DSG will downshift to help slow down using engine braking. What I had not thought about was how nicely that would work when descending a 7% grade. When coming down from the pass, holding the brake for a moment would cause the DSG to downshift one or two gears. It would hold that gear until I touched the throttle again. It worked perfectly to control the speed coming down a steep grade. I know that I can use the Tiptronic mode to do this manually, and that it will even automatically match the engine speed, but I was impressed that in automatic mode it did this so well on its own. My previous vehicle, a GMC Sierra K-2500 truck with the Duramax Diesel and Allison transmission would do downhill engine braking, but I think only when it was in Tow/Haul mode. It also worked quite well to control the speed, especially

Driving in the Mountains Read More »

VW Jetta SportWagen TDI

Diesel, Travel, Vehicles, Volkswagen / By / / , , , , , , / 6 minutes of reading

Last week I bought my new 2011 Jetta SportWagen TDI, the day before we took a 3,200 mile trip from Denver through Missouri to North Dakota, and back again. The TDI was the perfect car for the road trip, roomy and comfortable, and up to 43MPG on the highway. Based on fill-ups, my best mileage was 39.67MPG, with 486 miles on one fill-up and still a 1/4 tank left. My overall mileage has been about 37MPG, combined city/highway for the first 3,500 miles. There are quite a few things that I really like about the new Jetta: The fuel economy is fantastic. Even in the first 3,500 miles, I’m getting at least 30 MPG driving to and from work, and over 43 MPG on the highway, if I keep the speed down a little… The TDI makes plenty of power, especially for an engine that gets such great fuel economy. Although its only 140 HP, the diesel makes 236 ft-lbs. of torque, which is really more important. Plenty of power to accelerate onto the highway, or for passing. I’m anxious to get up into the mountains to see how it does at higher altitude. Even though the fuel tank holds only 14.5 gallons, with the great fuel economy that’s enough fuel for a range of about 500 miles on the highway, so you don’t have to stop to fill up so often. After much internal debate, I finally decided on the DSG automatic rather than the manual transmission. While my previous Jetta has a manual

VW Jetta SportWagen TDI Read More »

Scroll to Top