Any advice on buying a VW TDI?

[bracohen]

My wife is looking into getting a new beetle (not the new new one) and has no problem going the TDI route which I'm quite excited about for her. Anyone out there with a TDI and any advice for us when looking? Thanks in advance.

[mrdew]

The auto trans are garbage over 100,000 miles the manuals are bullet proof basically.

Listen to the turbo make sure it does not have any weird sounds etc.

The injection pumps never really go bad, personally i have never herd of it going bad.

60,000 mile timing belt intervals

My sister owned a TDI New Beetle Auto Trans and I owned a MKIV TDI Golf 5 Speed

Both are great cars, just the major thing is to keep up on the timing belt service. Also when a timing belt is done replace the water pump with an aftermarket one with a metal impeller.

[bracohen]

Thanks for the heads up about the auto trans. That will be the biggest hurdle, getting her into a manual.

[SteveJ]

Glad to hear some other manufacturers have 100k auti transmissions as well. We are on transmission #2 on our E46. 1st one died at 104k, this one has 106k on it. Taking it to the transmission guy to see if we will be looking at transmission #3.

We had a TDi Golf in France last year. Decent car. Had to keep the revs up for any performance, but that wasn't a problem. When in Rome, ya know?

[bueller]

i also have a mk iv golf, an '06. alas it has the 2.0 with auto. is an "upgrade" to a five speed worth it? or rebuild when auto implodes? wonder how much that would cost. ooof. just turned 100k on the clock last week. it's my commuter getting about 26-28 on the highway but have to rev over 4k to pull up the mountain passes on i-70.

cheers,

matt