The biggest downside about diesel I've found so far is doing oil changes. I put oil in the car, but I only retrieve black paint when I do the oil change ... it sucks.
The biggest downside about diesel I've found so far is doing oil changes. I put oil in the car, but I only retrieve black paint when I do the oil change ... it sucks.
I have wanted one of these for a long time (since the first generation) and we almost purchased one last go around. I need a tow vehicle and for the same reasons you mentioned, don't necessarily want a big truck. Watching closely to see how this goes, but fingers crossed you have a good experience.
In reply to jr02518 :
i don't know the details, but a friend has an X5 diesel with a tune and some hotrod parts on it. he says it's a friggin' rocket. he also did some trans re-cal or something. i can get details if you'd like.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
There are a couple of companies that have tunes that push the HP over 300 and the torque up to 490 which is pretty amazing for a 3.0L diesel. Maybe in the future, I'll look into it. At the moment this one is still covered by the Dieselgate extended emissions equipment warranty. I'll leave it alone until the warranty is up at a minimum.
Everybody knows that the Germans build the best cars. It's just that not everybody is willing to admit it.
Angry,
Thank you, It's my wife's DD and she does not need any encouragement to melt tires any faster.
As a side note, the state of California is requesting a smog test for the license renewal.
Yep!
David
Smart cars are pretty smart. I had to run a 24" x 10' sheet of 1/8 3003 to a shop to get them to run it through their slip roll. I loaded it in my utility trailer to haul it. The VW was nice enough to tell me that the right-side trailer light was burned out.
Toyman! said:Smart cars are pretty smart. I had to run a 24" x 10" sheet of 1/8 3003 to a shop to get them to run it through their slip roll. I loaded it in my utility trailer to haul it. The VW was nice enough to tell me that the right-side trailer light was burned out.
I could have brought that in the trunk of my S2000 
Slippery said:Toyman! said:Smart cars are pretty smart. I had to run a 24" x 10" sheet of 1/8 3003 to a shop to get them to run it through their slip roll. I loaded it in my utility trailer to haul it. The VW was nice enough to tell me that the right-side trailer light was burned out.
I could have brought that in the trunk of my S2000
Edited original post. That should have been 10', not 10".
Even the Ridgeline couldn't have hauled it.
In reply to Toyman! :
I'd only deal with Malone Tuning for a tune. They're well known, they're stuff works and you get a flash loader so you can easily swap files.
Toyman! said:Smart cars are pretty smart. I had to run a 24" x 10' sheet of 1/8 3003 to a shop to get them to run it through their slip roll. I loaded it in my utility trailer to haul it. The VW was nice enough to tell me that the right-side trailer light was burned out.
Heck, old school mechanical flashers would do that, sorta.
Flash super fast when ya plug the extra trailer lights in. If one side flashed normal, there is some bulb out on that side!
OK, not really the same thing...
Today is day 7. It's the last day I have a chance to send it back. I've put right at 300 miles on it. It has done everything I have asked it to without complaint. It does have a few quirks that will take some getting used to.
If the engine is running, the rear hatch won't open. I'm sure this is some safety nanny. It's kind of stupid but expected with newer cars I guess.
Every time you start it up it turns on the radio. As a rule, I don't listen to anything when I'm driving other than the engine. I have dug through the settings and haven't found a way to turn it off.
The navigation system is clunky to the point of uselessness. Why all the OEMs don't buy their navigation systems from Garmin I will never understand. I've never used an OEM system that was half as good as my 10-year-old Garmin. I'll be keeping my Garmin handy for nav.
All of these are minor quirks. On the plus side, this thing is a beast when it comes to towing. It's almost as good as my old 96 F350 with the 460 gas motor.
As a test, I put about 40 miles on it towing the boat. I crossed two of Charleston's tallest and steepest bridges. With the cruise control set at 65, it dropped from 8th to 6th and climbed without an issue. 6th at 65 had the engine turning 2400 rpm so it wasn't screaming its guts out. No excitement, no drama, just doing the job without complaint.
Later in the day, I hooked up the trailer and hauled my son's Colorado to the transmission shop. That's probably around 5200 pounds and it towed the load without issue as well.
The fuel economy is pretty impressive. I've been pushing it pretty hard putting it through its paces, plus the towing, and am still averaging right at 21 mpg for the tank. At a guess, towing the boat it gets around 14 mpg. General around-town driving will probably be in the mid-20s. That's about 10 mpg better than the Honda around town and it should be a touch less than double what the Honda was on the interstate, 30ish to 17.
So, this guy will be sitcking around for the foreseeable future. While I certainly hope to have zero issues with it, it may well be worth a little extra maintenance over the Honda, and it certainly can't be much worse than the Silverado. I put about $1500 into the Honda beyond oil changes. The Silverado sucked up about $5500 in repairs over the two years I had it.
If anything happens, you know y'all will be the first to hear about it.
Owning a German car is an addiction of sorts. When they are working they are glorious machines. When they need service or maintenance you hate them but all is usually forgotten once fixed again.
I am about to pull the trigger on a fully optioned GL or GLS 450 for my wife. The local lot has both one year apart. I had my wife test drive them and she is sold on the GL. The GLS just did not seem to have that connected to the road that Merc's should have. The GL is lower millage and a higher spec car and the color combo she wants so it will be the GL. The deal is all but done I should pick it up when I get back from vacation. It should be with my local mechanic where they are going over it for me.
I'd rather work on my wifes cayenne diesel vs my daughters nissan xterra. The germans build things logically and generally put stuff in accessible positions. I haven't found that to be the case on the xterra
Well E36 M3. That didn't take long. It got all kinds of pissed off on the way home. No power and threw a check engine light. Low boost and egr overflow.
I think Carvana is going to have to own this one though. They claim they did the last service. They might should have checked the air filter.
I'm betting a chunk of paper ended up in the turbocharger inlet. I cleaned the maf checked the turbocharger for crap in the inlet, cleared the codes and it's back to normal.
Something tells me I probably need to go ahead and change the oil too.
In reply to Toyman! :
They obviously put a high flow air filter in there when they serviced it.
So where did that paper go? In the cats? I would be bringing that back with that filter in it and have a discussion with them about an extended waranty.
In reply to dean1484 :
At a guess it got chewed up and is stuck in the intercooler.
My X5 has thrown a code a couple of times, once was for a loose fuel cap. They have all cleared them self after a few miles, I know wishful thinking.
Toyman! said:In reply to dean1484 :
At a guess it got chewed up and is stuck in the intercooler.
Ahh ok forget about intercoolers!!!
docwyte said:I'd rather work on my wifes cayenne diesel vs my daughters nissan xterra. The germans build things logically and generally put stuff in accessible positions. I haven't found that to be the case on the xterra
Maybe Porsche or VW. Not Mercedes no way. I've worked on a modern Mercedes and regretted it.
In reply to dculberson :
I worked on a 80s BMW and hated it. They seem to purposefully mount things in the worst possible way. Like the distributor cap that couldn't be removed because the fan shroud was in the way. I really liked the way the sunroof drains stopped up and fill the ECU with water and the ECU is mounted in such a way it actually holds water. If they had just turned it over it would have never gotten wet.
A Toureg TDI is one of the few SUVs I'd consider buying. VW diesels don't scare me too much, although European automatic transmissions do. If I bought another VW diesel, the first thing I'd do would be to change the oil since I have zero confidence in most shops using the correct oil (unless the car came with good service records).
TDIclub.com is your new best friend.
FCPEuro and idParts for maintenence and repair items.
In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :
From what I have read the Touareg has a Japanese Asin transmission. They are supposed to be pretty bulletproof. This one shifts very well.
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:A Toureg TDI is one of the few SUVs I'd consider buying. VW diesels don't scare me too much, although European automatic transmissions do. If I bought another VW diesel, the first thing I'd do would be to change the oil since I have zero confidence in most shops using the correct oil (unless the car came with good service records).
TDIclub.com is your new best friend.
FCPEuro and idParts for maintenence and repair items.
I've bought a bunch of stuff from idParts and they're pretty good, but watch their prices. Sometimes they're surprisingly high compared to FCPEuro or AutohausAZ. They claim to have a price match policy, but my price match requests have never received any answer. Upside, though, they do a rebate/holdback/rewards program. I bought a bunch of stuff when they were running a double-points sales and saved the second half of the order to use my points.
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