A2 Turbo Diesel Opinions

Jim B.

I doubt that you will have less problem with a TD, and a 14 yrs-old turbo at that! A Carat is much more desirable.

Peter Cressman schrieb:

I've been driving an 85 TD since 1990, and my usual cruise speed is around 100mph (spedo reading) on leveled ground. On leveled ground the speedo will climb up to abouth 110mph. On a steep downhill I had it up to 125mph, that is about redline in the tall-geared fith.

Ingo

I had an '87 Jetta 1.6L TD and I loved it. Had it going plenty fast on the 401 outside Toronto (145?). Routinely ran at 125 km/h, no problemo. Might take a while to get up to speed, but fine once you're there.

Going up steep hills with a full load at 125 km/h won't happen, though. But hey, if your in the sort of countryside with steep hills, you probably shouldn't be doing 125 anyhow.

As far as reliability goes, I had 330k on the clock and I suspect that if I hadn't driven 400 km without any coolant to speak of (water pump blew a long way from home in the middle of the winter... aircooled VWs anyone?) it would have lasted somewhat longer. :) Nevertheless, it did get me home for the cost of a head gasket.

Short story: it was an awesome car and I really miss it. Sniff.

I just bought a 1992 Jetta TD, my first. I like it very much. It's done 375K kms, still very reliable and going strong. I get 900+kms. on a full tank. It cruises nicely and smoothly at 110-120km/h on the highway.

On the flip side, you have to take care of few things when you buy a used diesel car:

1. Timing belt (very important)
2. Fuel filter
3. Air Filter etc.

Amit. Toronto, Canada.

I have a 91 Jetta diesel...non-turbo, which makes it a 1.6 with a whopping 52 ground pounding ponies under the hood. Merging onto the highway requires a bit more forethought, but once you are rolling, it is fine. I still, with 150,000 miles on it, run it at 70-75 mph with the A/c blowing. You ought to be even better off with all that extra horsepower.

Well, so for the most part, the 1.6 TD gets good reviews. The car that I am looking at has 365,000 km on the odometer, which isn't to bad for a Turbo Diesel, however it needs a head gasket. I am told that this will be done before the car is sold....I am thinking it might not be a bad little car...

- Peter

Peter Cressman schrieb:

That's a lot for the first engine, the longest lasting one in my Jetta only went to 240 000km, and that was after replacing the head at 140

That sounds not that good, because from my experience if you're in for a head gasket on that engine usually the mechanic calls you up later that day to tell you where the head is cracked.

Ingo

I have a '91 Jetta 1.6l TD with >250K km. Runs like a clock at 120kph (about 3000 rpm) and gives mileage in the high 40's mpg at that speed. If you keep it down to legal speeds, you should hear a lovely hum at about 2500rpm and get a bit over 50 mpg. At >2500rpm you should have no probs with passing or hillclimbing.

Nothing done to the engine except normal maintenance (water pump, timing belts, adjust injector pump).

Replace air filters regularly, and use good oil and filters (e.g. Shell Rotella 15w40 oil and Bosch/Mann filters). Do these changes 3 times a year or every 5K km.

Just my $0.02Cdn... :o)

How about doing 100mph in the center lane and having your VW shake side to side when someone blows by at 160mph or more. Not fun eh? :)

Over here in europe a 2.0 A3 is considered as a rather powerful car. Best selling A3 was the 1.8 90HP, only slightly more than the 1.8, later

Ingo

No problem. It's been a while since I was in Germany and that was back in 1999. I guess since the Euro took over, things are not the same.

It's just what I noticed while on the (Good part where you can go fast) autobahn back in 1999. Yes I guess you didn't see any Ferraris like I did back then. You must be driving the poor section of the road.

Well, choose a year: 1987-2003 I have been driving on the autobahn myself and before that I've been on the passenger seat several times. ;-)

I don't think that I've driven the "poor section" only, back in the 90s I used to drive about 40 000km a year, now it's down to about 20 000km. I've been on the autobahn from the swiss/austrian border up to the coast. Being overtaken by a ferrari or lambo or such is in fact not a very common situation - whereas around Stuttgart you may see more Porsches than hyundais. But there's a 130km limit all around, anyway. Regarding economic draw-back: The impact can be seen on the road, but instead of the few exotics getting even fewer it's more like the average age of the average car ist higher, and there are fewer DC S-classes and Bimmer 7s on the road than in the 80s and early 90s.

Ingo