Hi everyone,
In our seemingly never-ending quest for automobile nirvana, we're still sitting on the fence between the 2004 Jetta 1.8T and the 2004 Jetta TDI.
I believe the 1.8T requires premium fuel, which is currently somewhere around CDN$0.97 per litre. The TDI, of course, requires diesel fuel which is about CDN$0.75 per litre. Obviously, there will be a huge annual saving of approximately $850 per year, based on 20,000 kms a year.
What about the cost of maintenance. I understand that the TDI requires oil/filter changes half as often, but they're more expensive; about $90 every 16,000 kms vs. $65 every 8,000 kms for the 1.8T.
What about everything else that needs to be done with the TDI? Am I correct in understanding that I would need to add some sort of diesel additive every time I fill up? How much does that cost?
I realize that the TDI doesn't have spark plugs, coil packs, etc. But it does have fuel filters that need to be emptied regularly, and so on.
Excluding any fuel savings, what is the cost of maintaining a TDI for the first 50,000 km? 100,000 km? 150,000 km? 200,000 km? Is it cheaper than the 1.8T to maintain (again, excluding any fuel savings) over a given distance?
This info would be really helpful in pushing us off of the proverbial fence we're still stuck on.
Thanks, Wyley