Volkswagen cars?

rangerdanger

rangerdanger

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Apr 25, 2008
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Lexington, KY
Curious if anyone has experience/feed back about Volkswagen cars, in specific the GTi hatchback. Like this one

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.j...rds=25&cardist=19&standard=false&rdpage=thumb

Trying to find something that gets better MPG than my Suzuki and is fun to drive around. Went through how much gas I used up since August, and really want something with better MPG, since I'm taking so many trips. On average I figured I'd save $1100 a year in just day to day driving by upgrading to a car with 25mpg vs my 17mpg. Thats not counting any road trips I take, on my upcoming road trip to the west coast I could save $800 at least in gas by upgrading.

Gonna keep the Suzuki, its payed for in full and we're gonna need something for Dad to drive around to do bids here soon so we can have full time use of the 3500. Plus, little bro is gonna be in need of a car here in the next year or two. Also figure a better MPG car is a good investment, with gas prices on the rise.

Looking into the VW GTi and the Honda Civic Si Coupe, want something sporty to drive around, but won't kill my insurance, and gets at least 28mpg highway. I've read some good things about the VW, so I'm leaning towards that one a bit more.
 
Most of the people I know with them... like them.

But VW is considered crap, in Germany. :lol:
 
Not here, though.
I've had a few and always liked them.

The one I have now, the syncro, is the best all around car I've had.
When it dies, I'm buying another one just like it!
 
RD, if you can find one you can afford get a VW TDI. Fun to drive and 40+ MPG. Other than that I would probably go for a honda del sol, they got in the 40s if Im not mistaken, getting old at this point but you should be able to find one cheap.....

correction, the delsol gets 34 combined, it was the civic with 1.5l that got in the 40s, I thought the delsol did better.
 
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Thanks guys, from what I read on here and online I found VW seems to be a solid company overall with good cars.

And thanks Paul. Will definitely look into those two. Saw your thread where a TDI was mentioned, I'll see what I can dig up, budget is between $12 and 14k.
 
The VW cars are great, though when it comes time for parts it can hurt. I have 140k on my Yaris. Solid car, hauls all my climbing gear, gets 40+ on the highway and was only 13k new.
 
One thing about the old Beetles .You don't have to worry about anti freeze in the winter .On the other hand in the winter you'd better wear your foul weather gear because the damned heaters never worked . Those little rascals would go in the snow though .
 
I had an old VW van that I lived in the woods of Oregon with, and a bug that got me around the woods of Maine. Both excellent.
 
Learned to drive in a 61 Bug. Took my test in a 69. I owned an 1800cc truck
images

I miss that little truck
 
I once had an 86 jetta diesel. The drivers door didn't even latch. I used to get in and bungee my door shut. It was a bomb proof car. Got 725 miles to a tank of diesel, and it had a small tank. It was sluggish getting moving and you had to be careful merging into traffic, but once the rpms were up, it would accelerate better.
 
So there we were in the mountains of Colorado the last day of buck season .Been in those montains for ten days .8 inchs of new snow .

About 5:30 AM I hear this noise coming up the old logging road ,VW ? No way but here he came ,waved a howdy as he went by camp and off he went .About a half hour later ,bang .Another half hour here came big old muley buck tied on the roof of a VW bug .I thought WTF .
 
Not to rain on the VW parade but I had remembered reading this:

http://www.businessfleet.com/Blog/A...ual-Car-Quality-versus-Perceived-Quality.aspx

"Enter Volkswagen. It ranks fourth in perceived quality yet is under the industry average in the just-released J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study (IQS).

In J.D. Power's 2009 Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS), which measures problems experienced by original owners of three-year-old vehicles, VW places next to last out of 37 nameplates, just ahead of Suzuki."

I have never had a VW, the ones I have ridden in all seemed like great cars; sporty, quick, safe, nice inside, everything.
 
No conversation of VW should be complete without at least mentioning the infamous micro bus .During the late 60's they were everywhere usually with about 8- 10 barefoot hippies traveling to and fro with no praticular destination in mind .

Looking back on those times they certainly were a hoot .:lol:
 
I had a Scooby-Doo wagon, eons ago. It still ran fine after 300k miles.
 
I only got rid of it because I hit a skunk, and the damn smell wouldn't wash out no matter what I tried. :lol:
 
Well on that I got skunked once myself .Pulled what I thought was a big mink out of a hole .Saw the stripe --too late .Peyew,yuck .:(
 
I have a 2006 TDI and love it. It gets 40+mpg on a bad day in the city. It rawks on the hwy.

I managed to get an employer to pay for mine, but if it were me, cool is money in the bank, not a car. I'd pick up a civic for 6k cash, run the dog shit out of it for a few years and then let the next buyer do the same. I have had great experiences with civics.

VW is well like in Germany. It is far better than many of the other popular cars from Peugot, Renault, Fiat (Fehler in alle teile), or Skoda.
(mine is a Jetta - Mexican car with a Polish engine)

.02
 
I agree with Nate about the Civic's. I put around 74 k miles on mine in 42 months. I spent $400 on tires, $20 on brake pads, and around $180 in oil changes. When I sold the car, the maintenance plus the difference in purchase/sale price was $1800. That's about 24 cents per mile plus fuel.
 
Oh it was almost a sad day in the British empire the day VW almost bought Rolls Royce '98 I think .Come to think of it though I'd imagine we'd be a tad miffed if Yugo bought Ford or GM .

They made the things for a short while in New Stanton Pa .Fact I came close to working on that plant .It wasn't the bug they made though ,Rabbit .Golf and Jetta .

The bug all but disappeared after Ford brought out the Maverick in '69 or '70 for a couple hundred cheaper than the VW Beetle .Like about 2 thou tax, title out the door .

It seems years later most of the bugs got converted to dune buggys or three wheeled trikes using Harley front ends. The last of the original Beetle design was made in Mexico .
 
I've been giving serious thought to a new tdi Wagon. Friend has one that regularly gets 50 mpg. That's a big step from the expeditions 17mpg.
 
We looked at them, but holy moly VW is mighty proud of them. High demand, no discounting at all, the opposite in fact. Costly
 
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