Former TDI owner struggles to find suitable replacement in NA car market

[cuts_off_prius]

Interesting read. A person who owned a 2013 VW TDI SportWagen cashed out and got a check from VW. Lifestyle: lives on a steep mountain with a dirt road, has a dog, takes a bike with her, etc. She found that petrol cars that got decent gas mileage (~40 mpg) were overwhelmingly on the small side (think Honda Civic & Mazda 3). EVs had terrible range and were not suitable for her cold climate. She tried a Prius and it "felt like I was driving a computer." Desperate to find a car so she can just get on with her life, she eventually settled on a Kia Niro crossover hybrid.

The landscape, as I saw it—bleak and dispiriting—looked like this: If I wanted a car that was pleasant to drive, it would have less than optimal gas mileage.

My quest to find a fuel-efficient car.

Just goes to show how our market here needs more efficient cars that are larger and practical. Yes, that means more diesels. CAFE is not helping. CAFE makes fuel economy targets tougher on small footprint cars and makes it more lax on large footprint cars. People overwhelmingly buy large cars here. The upcoming Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain diesels which can haul your small family and are estimated to achieve over 40 mpg highway are a good sign of things to come.

[Draigflag]

Being a car guy, the US car market to me is very bland and disappointing. It's fine if you want a sofa on wheels with sloppy suspension and a wofty auto gearbox, or a truck than can tow a small town, and swallows gallons of fuel and oil in the process, but other than that, it's not very exciting.

Hybrids come close to diesels in terms of economy, like for like size wise etc, however many have automatic gearboxes which is a huge deal breaker for many people who enjoy driving. As I've said many times before, with modern lightweight materials and aerodynamics, as well as efficient engine tech, there doesn't need to be any compromise these days. There are some SUV's with real world MPG reports of 55-58 UK MPG, some even higher. My brother just bought a Ford focus wagon diesel, got over 60 MPG without even trying on a recent shopping trip, diesels just offer great consistent economy, stamina, durability, reliability and performance.

[trollbait]

The new Cruze diesel just got the EPA okay to go on sale, but it is sedan only at the moment. The manual could be a MPG monster.

The hybrid options are starting to grow beyond the power-split type of Prius fame. Hyundai/Kia is using a DCT in the Ioniq and Niro. So does Honda's Jazz hybrid, but I think they aren't pursuing many hybrids in the US with current gas prices. Ironically, so did VW's Jetta hybrid, but loading it to the gills in order to jack up the price lead to poor sales, and the decision to cancel it. Kinda of short sighted seeing how they've decided to cancel all diesels here.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Sounds like they shouldn't have parted with the VW...

[luv2spd]

My dad's 2015 Passat TDI just received the fix. He told me that the transmission shifts a bit earlier to keep lower gears (he has a DSG automatic) and his fuel consumption increased by 0.5L/100km. He will also get $5,000 in addition to the $1,000 that he already received. He wants to keep the car for as long as he can.

My brother plans to keep his 2012 Golf TDI until 2018 when either the fix has to be done or they will have to buy back his car. The '12 Golf TDI doesn't have a urea injection, so the fix might not be possible. I told him that by 2018, maybe the Golf GTE will be available which probably has way more torque than the TDIs. Otherwise he would have to get a BMW or Mercedes Diesel (he doesn't like Chevy interiors and build quality).

The jury is still out if the bought back TDIs will be resold or crushed. As of now, nobody has done a life cycle cost analysis to see what would be the best way to deal with the half a million parked TDIs.

[Draigflag]

This is what's so wrong with the world. Does the EPA/US government not realise all the energy and carbon emissions invested in the current "unsaleable" stock when produced, and that scrapping them, or shipping them to Europe/Asia will cause far much more pollution than each car will over it's life cycle. It's intensely narrow minded and hypocritical.

[trollbait]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

Sounds like they shouldn't have parted with the VW...

I think the entire bit about polluting more than VW said was the main reason for the switch; that matters to some. Though they could have held onto the Jetta for a few more months until the Ioniq and Cruze diesel were available.

Originally Posted by Draigflag

This is what's so wrong with the world. Does the EPA/US government not realise all the energy and carbon emissions invested in the current "unsaleable" stock when produced, and that scrapping them, or shipping them to Europe/Asia will cause far much more pollution than each car will over it's life cycle. It's intensely narrow minded and hypocritical.

Um, the TDI's sitting of dealer lots are getting the fix and going on sale at this moment. If they don't sell, then it is all on VW. They are the ones that chose to cheat the tests for an unfair sales advantage and to defraud customers.

If the US and EPA didn't enforce the rules, what prevents another company from cheating. The threat of punishment is the main enforcement for Western justice. The punishment is stiff because the length of time that the cheating went on, and the level of it was spelled out before VW chose to cheat.

[Draigflag]

Oh I see, the way it was worded above, I had assumed the cars were deemed unsaleable altogether for the US market.

[luv2spd]

Originally Posted by Draigflag

Oh I see, the way it was worded above, I had assumed the cars were deemed unsaleable altogether for the US market.

The TDIs that have urea injection are probably an easy fix and Volkswagen can resell them. The TDIs between 2009-2012 don't have urea tanks and might not be fixable. Due to the extra hardware required and hoses they might be headed to the crusher.

Volkswagen is not allowed to resell the cars or take them out of the country unless they are fixed and meet the regulation that was put in place in 2008.

I think that there should be a compromise made so that the cars headed for the crusher can be saved. Maybe ship them to China or India where they are still within the regulation and use all the money generated by selling them for something good in the states like more public electrical chargers.

The thing I find most interesting about this Dieselgate is that Volkswagen paid out $18 billion, and it barely made a dent in the company. GM sold Opel for $4 billion, which puts things into perspective. Volkswagen had a lot of cash on hand to deal with this.

[Draigflag]

The VW group is huge and I mean HUGE, they own 12 brands all told including Audi, SEAT, ŠKODA, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN.

Factor in that they are responsible for the best selling most successful car in the World, the Golf, and it's easy to see why a few billion is pocket change to them.