Volkswagen Golf TDI

kircher · 09-10-2009, 12:06 AM

Hi all,

My mother is in the market for a second hand car, and I've been tasked with finding one for her and I've narrowed the search down to a Mk V Volkswagen Golf TDI with DSG. She wants fuel efficiency, comfort, good handling, refinement, a good auto transmission and decent performance and the Golf is basically the class leader in its segment. It's also the safest and has best standard equipment and the best stereo. The DSG is an awesome transmission too.

One car we're considering is a 2006 2.0L TDI, with leather upholstery, a towbar and roof racks and it has 95 000km. The car is located in Wollongong. The other car is a 2006 1.9L TDI with the same spec level, minus the leather upholstery. It doesn't have roof racks or towbar either. It has 85 000km. This car is located in Narromine and has been driven purely on the highway as a commuter car. It has full service history.

My thoughts are that the Narromine car will have less wear and tear because it's a country car with all highway Ks, and the other will have more wear and tear because of its use as a city car and tow car.

What are other peoples thoughts on the matter? would you avoid buying a car that has a towbar and roof racks? My head is saying go for the 1.9, but my heart is saying go for the 2.0L because its closer, has leather upholstery and because they have significantly better performance: 105kW and 320Nm vs. 77kW and 250Nm.

Whether or not we end up buying either of these cars, I'm still curious about other peoples thoughts on buying a car that was used as a tow vehicle. It's common knowledge that country cars are better than city cars too.

Edit: Forgot to mention both cars are priced roughly the same.

madmelon · 09-10-2009, 12:44 AM

Removed

mik · 09-10-2009, 12:59 AM

i`d be asking what are next expensive serviceing items and what mileage , for example timing belt/s if applicable etc, turbo service down the track, diesel service, book service, you pay extra for technology, if not now down the track.

Rodp · 09-10-2009, 08:04 AM

Don't know if I'd want a DSG based vehicle that was used for towing.

The price may have gone down recently but to have a DSG box replaced a year ago you were looking at ~19k.. mechatronics was a couple of thou (and I've heard a lot of them being replaced recently).

I plan to sell my DSG Golf prior to it running out of warranty due to the excessive cost of a DSG box failure. Fantastic box, head and shoulders above anything I've ever owned but the replacement price scares the crap out of me on failure. If there's an offer to extend the warranty for another 3 years, perhaps that could be an option...?

Dr Smith · 09-10-2009, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodp

Don't know if I'd want a DSG based vehicle that was used for towing.

The price may have gone down recently but to have a DSG box replaced a year ago you were looking at ~19k.. mechatronics was a couple of thou (and I've heard a lot of them being replaced recently).

I plan to sell my DSG Golf prior to it running out of warranty due to the excessive cost of a DSG box failure. Fantastic box, head and shoulders above anything I've ever owned but the replacement price scares the crap out of me on failure. If there's an offer to extend the warranty for another 3 years, perhaps that could be an option...?

My VW dealer mentioned they can offer an extended warranty underwritten by a major insurer when I was last there.

Rodp · 09-10-2009, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Smith

My VW dealer mentioned they can offer an extended warranty underwritten by a major insurer when I was last there.

Not sure on used cars though, I bought mine from new and I get bored well before 3 years or 100,000kms. ;)

DBourne · 09-10-2009, 08:33 AM

i personally really don't like the leather seats in the golfs.

they feel way too plasticy.. but then again that is what is brilliant about personal preference!!

kircher · 09-10-2009, 09:33 AM

The reliability issues are my main concerns, as others have pointed out. The idea of having DSG failures down the track scares me as well. But we want an auto, and all the other small car autos are crap. The corolla is boring and slow with a bad auto, the Mazda 3 is noisy, The Focus handles well, but is less comfortable and has 4spd auto The DSG is good because it's not a conventional auto. The other car we've seriously considered is the Honda Accord Euro, because its 5 speed is a pretty good unit. It uses almost twice as much fuel as the Golf though. It's Honda so you can expect bullet proof reliability.

We're replacing a manual 1996 Subaru Liberty which has been absolutely faultless for 260 000km, so it's a tough act to follow.

SumoDog68 · 09-10-2009, 09:57 AM

DSG is not an auto but an automated manual with twin cluch. Nice in theory ,nice to drive but you would want it to be covered by warranty due to very expensive replacement $. I would say get another Subaru (not that Subarus are cheap to fix ,but probably won't need much fixing ).

smoo · 09-10-2009, 10:38 AM

I would not want to own a DSG out of warranty. My old man was looking at a couple of Passat DSG tdi to put on the road as taxis, good for the first 300,000km, until the gearbox packs up and puts him out of business. Can't see the ZF6 in the latest Falcons been any different too.

Ever tried looking at a manual tdi Jetta, or Peugeot 307?

kircher · 09-10-2009, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smoo

I would not want to own a DSG out of warranty. My old man was looking at a couple of Passat DSG tdi to put on the road as taxis, good for the first 300,000km, until the gearbox packs up and puts him out of business. Can't see the ZF6 in the latest Falcons been any different too.

Ever tried looking at a manual tdi Jetta, or Peugeot 307?

Yeah, I've been thinking manual might be a better option. I think I'll wait and see how DSGs go in long term reliability before I commit to buying one. We don't buy cars and sell them every 3 years, we buy them and drive them for 200 000km or more. I've thought about 307s, but I think I'd rather a German car if I went Euro. Golfs get more praise than 307s. I've driven a 2.0 Petrol 307 and I wasn't all that impressed either. Very unresponsive engine in the Petrol at least.

Bossxr8 · 10-10-2009, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smoo

I would not want to own a DSG out of warranty. My old man was looking at a couple of Passat DSG tdi to put on the road as taxis, good for the first 300,000km, until the gearbox packs up and puts him out of business. Can't see the ZF6 in the latest Falcons been any different too.

Ever tried looking at a manual tdi Jetta, or Peugeot 307?

I think ZF's are about 4k to rebuild, which is a bit odd as parts are supposed to be reasonably priced and they are supposed to be fairly easy to rebuild due to the low number of moving parts they contain.

Dr Smith · 09-10-2009, 07:56 PM

VW is switching to 7sp DSG boxes on their Transporter/Multivan's replacing conventional A6 boxes. I would imagine on commercial vehicles such a decision wouldn't be taken lightly considering they sell hundreds of thousands of them.

TURBOTAXI · 10-10-2009, 09:58 AM

They are a great drive!

banarcus · 10-10-2009, 01:31 PM

No dramas with our Mk V Golf. Very reliable and capable little car. Although mine is a petrol and six speed manual, nil problems with our drivetrain.

GK351 · 10-10-2009, 04:41 PM

Its the worlds best selling small car so its got to be pretty good.
I have a 07 2.0tdi DSG just clicked over 20,000km's in the 2 years i have had it.
2 kids the wife and a bootfull of stuff still go's nicely on trips.

No problems so far but the bloody right brake light always packs it in for some reason.

Bossxr8 · 10-10-2009, 06:59 PM

Just being the highest seller doesn't necessarily make it good, the Commodore is No1 most months and we all know how garbage they are.

But the Golfs are pretty well built, Focus and Fiesta outsell them in Europe but.

CHEETR · 11-10-2009, 07:59 PM

i worked for volkswagen through 2006-2008, and those cars are great!

if i was you, i'd track down a Golf 2.0TDI pacific instead of the 2006 comfortline.

also, i would never ever own a 1.9 tdi, they are rediculously under powered and the gear changes are not all that great.

the DSG however in the comfortline carries a gear change of 4 one hundreths of a second.

could not recommend the 2.0tdi any higher, i had one as a company car for 6 mmonths followed by an R32 haha but in my first few months i had the 1.9tdi and that was so slow and rough

eb2fairmont · 16-10-2009, 09:48 PM

Got a 2005 TDI comfortline with DSG. Love it. Cloked up 103,000 km and feels like new.

Last set of tyres lasted 55,000 km and serevicing hasn't cost me more than 700 bucks since new.

Spudz27 · 17-10-2009, 12:48 PM

Some good reading here. My boss is buying a 1.9ltr TDI auto caddy (the extended version) and I will be driving it on long trips. They are based around the golf aren't they?

kircher · 17-10-2009, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDfutura25

Some good reading here. My boss is buying a 1.9ltr TDI auto caddy (the extended version) and I will be driving it on long trips. They are based around the golf aren't they?

yes, the front end is golf I believe with leaves in the rear.

**Mechan1k** · 17-10-2009, 09:30 PM

Work colleague has a 2L TDi in 6-sp manual form (Comfortline with Leather).

Found the leather actually not bad at all in it ... it 's a nice vehicle to drive .... he had an issue with gearbox bolt coming loose within warranty period.

And just had an issue fixed due to a bad batch of Diesel as well (claimed it through insurance against the service station) ... the Diesel had ULP in it for some stupid reason. As soon as ULP gets through the pump in the car ... the vehicle is screwed literally ... also need a new turbo from it is as well and part of the exhaust replaced too. I thought it was a bit weird .... did a bit of reading and found this has happened before with others.

It's a $10K fix too ... so just hope you don't get a bad batch of diesel is all i can say.

eb2fairmont · 19-10-2009, 08:31 PM

Yeah they have some pretty horrendous costs associated with them. But Volkswagen Australia actually give a and have been known to fix cars outside of the warranty period - so you have to be pretty unlucky to incur them. (If you have a full VW service history.) Consider:

Mine's 4 years old but they paid half the cost for a replacement starter motor.
Others have had the mechatronics in the DSG fail (a bad batch @ $4k ea) and got it fixed for nix.
Air conditioner comrpessors (faulty batch with Sanden type compressors) 2.5K fix most get this done for nothing.

I'd like to see a ford dealer match that! Then again my wallet doesn't get raped when going to VW (unlike ford) and I'm treated as a member of the human race.

Other random factoids:

Replacement DSG gearbox 18K
Replacement DSG clutches 700

the 2.0 TDi motor turbos fail if you chip them up over 170 horsepower (125Kw)

Turbos are a variable vane type - but the one of the 125Kw 2.0 TDi is straight fit and will support 220 hp...

Tuning the 1.9 TDi is easier as the yanks have more to do with them, they never got the 2.0 TDI

The DSG gearbox has a "official" input limit of 380Nm...but has been exceeded in many cases easily.

Cheers

David.

kircher · 19-10-2009, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eb2fairmont

The DSG gearbox has a "official" input limit of 380Nm...but has been exceeded in many cases easily

380 officially yes, but I've heard of them taking 500Nm without failure, so they are over engineered. They used a version of it in 24 Hours of Nurburgring I believe too