Kinda thinking about moving a bit further away from work (personal reasons) which would make my round trip ~100 miles… it’s 100 miles of highway, 60mph, no stops…
100 miles a day 5 days a week on the STi is kinda dumb as I can’t really speed or have any spirtied driving as State Patrol up here wil stop you for 5 over…
I’m looking for straight MPG here…
I’m torn between a VW TDI… which would net me 50mpgs all day (i’ve owned one before so don’t tell me different) or maybe for cheaper a mk3 jetta 2.0… which will net me maybe 30 mpgs?
Or what about a civic, something like a 98 or something? How do these do on MPG? Like I said it’s sole purpose will be to and from work with NO spirited driving…
the good thing about the TDI, is i can buy a high mileage and put 50k on it, and sell it for about the same price and i’ll be able to find a buyer easily… plus fit and finish is a bit better than a civic…
any other suggestions?
One thing to keep in mind here, 87 oct is ~4.00 a gallon and diesel is ~4.40 or so.
upkeep? The diesel, oil change every 10k and fuel filter every 30k or so… thats about it… how are civics? any problems I should look for?
ALH is the 99.5-02 motors right? Is the PD motor 03+ better for MPG or anything? My tdi had the ALH motor in it I believe, and highway I’d get 48-50 at about 72 mph (w/ 17" wheels) i’d prob rock some 14" steelies
04 was first year of PD.
So ya 98 Beetle was first year of ALH, then 99.5 for jetta and golf.
15" is the smallest you can go on MK4 front brakes.
Edit: also obviously im all for the TDI… even grabbing an older clean AHU (96-99 Jetta) or 1Z (96-98 Passat) I would stay away from the (08+)new ones they have lots of fueling issues and there resale isnt as great as the older ones. the 05 MKV have been haveing some nasty motor failures.
So 03,02,01,00 then 98, 97 then 06… years from best to worse.
the 04,05 passats are ok but only come auto and the auto is garbage.
My 98 Civic DX used to consistently get 38 MPG on the highway. I now drive a 2000 Prizm (same as Corolla) and get 36MPG but it has a bit more umph to it than my Civic did.
My mom has a 98/99 or something civic and has had it for about 10 years now. It gets mid to high 30s mpg and is a tank, worst thing thats happened is the muffler rusted and fell off.
Gas VW’s break too much to be dumping that kind of miles on them. I’d go diesel Jetta over a Civic because you’re spending a significant part of your life driving so you might as well do it in significantly greater comfort. I’d rather spend 3 hours a day in a diesel Jetta with heated leather seats listening to monsoon audio than a tin can civic.
I would add, no way in hell I’d make a long term life plan that involved a 100 mile daily commute. If it’s something you’re going to fight through for a year to get to some next step that’s one thing, but if you’re not planning some life change that gets you away from this commute eventually I think you’re nuts. Even with no traffic you’re looking at 2 hours a day wasted. Every week you’re loosing 10 hours of your life. You’re not getting paid for those 10 hours nor are you getting to enjoy them. It’s like giving away over 20 days of vacation time a year.
I commute 35-50 minutes each way(depending on traffic). It’s not THAT bad.
Just be careful with the maintenance on the older VW. Just because the motor internals are good for high mileage doesn’t mean that everything else around the motor is. It will still take considerable maintenance to keep it in good running order. The good thing is that you will have the STi as backup in case the TDI is down for repairs.