I have owned a few VW's in my life my favorite being my Rabbit convertable (hence the name Rabbit). Currently my wife has a 02 beetle. For cars i would never think of buying anything but a VW. Most of the problems you hear about are from the 00's and 01's. They had problems with window regulators and switches. This was all due to bad parts from the suppliers. As for quality i think VW is on par with any other car manufacturer in the same price range. Every VW i had was a blast to drive. As for the person who said he used 4 quarts of oil between oil changes that is excessive. Go to your dealer and tell them about your problem. What they will do is an oil change and tell you to come back when it is low to check the mileage. If it is too much they will repair it. My 2.0 Beetle uses like 1 quart in 5000 miles but that is fine considering the design of the engine.

 

Do they currently (04 model year) make a Golf TDI ?

 

Did a quick search, and the answer appears to be "yes".

 

They Sure do make a Golf TDI. The Golf, Beetle and Jetta are all available with a TDI. Thats the engine i wanted for the wifes Beetle but the sales girl made such a good deal on the Gasser we had to take it.

 

Yes, you can get a 96,97, and maybe a 98 Passat TDI, but my point was you cannot get a new Passat TDI. At least not right now. They will hopefully be here soon.

BTW, those 96 and 97 TDI Passats are still very popular among enthusiasts. Great mileage and a solid car are common reports.

 

I'd like to get one of the new Golfs, they were updated for 04 weren't they? I think I remember something about a common rail fuel injection and electronically variable turbo. I've thought of integrating the six speed and quattro system out of an Audi TT. And knowing me i'd be dumping the internals out of the engine and building some kind of a 600 hp diesel gocart, of course it's going to have twins. custom cam, billet rods and crank, billet head, custom fuel system (wonder how many cc's you can get out of a 4cyl P- pump?). Then i'll be trying how to shoe horn a south bend clutch into that sucker......... We all have dreams right? or am I just plain nuts?

 

Well I test drove one yesterday. Fun to drive but not very impressed. Not much power, maybe better with a chip . Not near as peppy as the ol' grand am. I don't think the fuel economy is worth it. Although the redline is verry impressive (4500 rpm's ) Very minimal smoke Thanks for all of the responses. I think for now I will keep the one I have (unless gas prices keep going up )