Car Shopping This Saturday

Congrats!! I'm not surprised at the mileage, we find the actual mpg's we get are better than the advertised epa estimates. Get ready for 650 - 700 miles per tank!! My best was over 800 miles on a tank when I made a trip to Boston and back and got 56 mpg.

Regarding the CR / HPFP design, it seems to be the general consensus on the discussion boards to use a fuel additive to help the lubrication properties of low sulfur diesel. I use Power Service DieselKleen they have a summer and winter formula. I kept a small stabil bottle since that has a narrow long neck that fits into the tank and put 6 oz in that to use at each fill up.

One user mod I made to our passat was to add a strip of LED lights on the ceiling of the trunk, that dim little light they put low in the corner is worthless at night. It was very easy to do and I have an extra socket plug with leads to sub in the existing light you can have if you want. I thought I ordered 3 but I missed the comment in the product description that they came in packs of 4 so I ended up with a dozen! Cost me less than $10 for everything to do it.

A pic or two is absolutely necessary!

Yes I read up about the low sulfur diesel and lack of lubricity. Today I will reserch the additives for it and buy some this coming week, either the Power service brand from work or other mfg's brands. I do know the low sulfur diesel does have serious isues with geling up and not ungelling afterwards. So winter it will DEFINETLY be getting anti gel treatments seeing how it will be outside (no garage) in the winter. Pics forth coming.

wilder11354 wrote:Well got the car. Looking over engine when I got home, its not the PD engine of last year and earlier TDI injection set-up. it looks like the new EA288 generation "common rail" TDI engine. Saw several articles with VW saying it would be putting that engine in mid 2014 passats and foward into 2015 models. therefore the cam lobe wear issue should be not a problem any more.

Good news.. drove it 138 miles to get home. used 1/8th tank fuel, tank hold lil over 13 gallons. so I got 46MPG approx. driving seconadry roads. Odometer had 3 miles on it when I left dealer.

So you bought new! Good luck with it. Should be a great car for years to come.

You can bad mouth the TDI jetty all you want. I sit here cracking up
Because I just had to put a set of brakes on mine,,,,,after227,000 miles. Yeah, I put the new timing chain on every 50,000 instead of the recommended 65,000 miles but hey what the heck. I figure that ups my cost per mile at $4.00 per gallon from .08 per mile to .10 per mile. I put in 20 bucks worth and drive all over the place for a week! Too friggin sweet

Pics. Ordered a diesel fuel demulsifer additive to increase the lubricity of the ULSD.

Good Job! Even though I'm a huge fan and owner of a 2009 Subaru Legacy,I'll be watching your experiences with your 'Lil Mileage Maker. I do highly recommend the Additive route for your fuel,and it does pay for itself....Here's to you enjoying your new ride!

Also any MB dealer can tell you the complete MB service history of any MB simply by giving them the VIN, plus any used MB has free roadside assistance and towing to the dealer if it does die.

Wow, a complete record of all the work they should have done but were too lazy to do properly all the while paying a kings ransom for parking the merc at the dealers. It omits the things they actively sabotaged to make sure you keep returning. Sorry, mercs are no more after 1991. Don't even get me started about the SUVs made in Alabama. My vote between VW and MB is neither. Fuel consumption is but one part of car ownership.

Any work done at a brand name car dealership is always in record if the VIN is entered on the work order and processed thru dealer network. IF not it won't be recorded. Now this all goes back to when Computer generated dealership work orders were started...before that its strictly customer receiptable to prove.

So I say again, now you have a system that records work that was supposed to be done if they were not all crooks. Or is it that the Hudson Valley garages are the only crooked ones. Even better, the work was done by MY mechanic who is my close friend.... hahahahahahahahaha ... now you are really screwed. Many search for an edge here but few actually get it.

Do I sound like a bitter old man to you? Congratulate yourself on being so astute.

Very sharp looking ride!!!

HHHMMMMMM.....there is some dirt on the driver side floor mat already......please take care of that!!!

What fuel additive did you order?

I used the winter DieselKleen last winter and had no problem starting all through the worst of the cold weather and it sat outside not in a garage because the spousal unit thinks keeping $5 dumpster diving dressers and other crap in the garage is more important than the new car......

I would turn the key to let the glow plugs warm up for about 10 seconds before starting and it fired up with no issues.

I hope the new Passat works out well for you and that they've made improvements. Yeah, they get great gas mileage if you have a light foot - 40mpg was fairly easy to doW even with the 2000 gas/turbo we had. However, the repair bills after 100K eat up any life-of-the-car gas savings and then some.

It cost us $2500.00 just to replace a worn clutch disc. The entire motor/trans has to be removed to get to it. And, VW won't sell just the disc. Had to buy the entire pressure plate assembly as a unit.

AC compressor gave up before 100k and that was going to be over $800.00 to replace.

Replacing the remote locking ignition key wasn't cheap when that died.

Front passenger door window glass dropped down on one end jamming in the door. The glass lift bar was held to the track (only one center track) by a couple of small plastic guide clips. VW wouldn't sell just the snap-in clips. They wanted $180.00 for the entire inner door panel without installation. I formed a new guide clip out of 1/8 x 3/4 inch bar stock from the hardware store and had it fixed in less than an hour.

And we lost use of the drivers side rear window and remote door lock because the wire looms run under the middle of the foot well carpets - right where they stay the wettest from wet or snow covered shoes/boots. Then that corrodes the connections in the harness connectors that are under there too.

Paul

Going with the Opti-Lube XPD http://opti-lube.com/diesel-fuel-improver/xpd-die ... oduct.html
Looked over actual tests from independent teatings, and it is an all in one, but still in winter I will add additional antigel.

VW's are nice, but I'll be sticking with our '86 Grand Marquis.

We've owned it for over 11 years now. Has 216k on her today. Just replaced the ORIGINAL p/s pressure and return hoses this weekend. This car has NEVER been towed home in the 11 years we've owned it. It's big, built well, comfortable, reliable, luxurious with power everything, & still manages 20 -21mpg average out of the 5.0 V8. We take it off the road every winter. Has only seen one winter it's entire life, and I just replaced the rear bumper because of that (thanks Rick! ) . We paid $2,600 for it in '03. Doubt I've spent that in repairs - doubt I've spent HALF that. It owes us NOTHING.

Yep Smitty, that is my type of car second only to a pre 78 truck from Florida (Ocala to be exact). Diesel cars stopped being worth it when mechanical operation left and computers took over. The extra little bit of MPG is just not worth the repair grief especially when gas cars are getting so good. These young whippersnappers, trophy wives and fancy looking rides. Let this old man tell you, they are both not worth it.