OT: looking to get a Golf TDI, any advice? Yea or nay? Options

[Jenny]

Below is a lovely cut n' paste from Brian.

Hi Everybody,
(....hi Dr Nick)

Jenny and I are considering buying a used VW Golf and wanted to get some feed back on some of the things we've been finding out. First of all we are interested in getting the TDI model which I'm well aware is slow as molassas. I like the TDI for a bunch of reasons but most of which is the better mileage and durability (we are also slightly green as our other car is a Prius and we just sold our other Prius). I believe the engine that we'd be looking at for a late model Golf would be the 1.9 L Turbo Diesel (manual transmission, which seems to be pretty rare but definitely in existence). I've been driving small cars my whole life so I'm not really affected by the cramped conditions (I'd prefer to have the Golf over the Jetta due to weight).

We are pretty much just going to use the car to get around town and as Jenny's daily driver.

My questions:

- Is the 1.9L TDI motor as is to be expected with most other Diesel motors (ie reliable, I'm expecting a life of 200-300k miles)?
- Is power (about 100 hp) sufficient for the chasis? We are used to pretty lack lustre acceleration in the Prius and in our 4cyl 4 runner. It looks like the curb weight is 2900 lbs which is about average for a compact car.
- VW has been advertising the safety of their cars, would this hold some what true for the Golf? It's smaller but should have a marginally comparable safety shell as the Jetta.
- Does anyone know anyone that runs them on biodiesel? Supposedly they are 100% ready to run, but I don't think any stations sell the real deal, maybe in Berkeley we can find a B5 mixture, but I don't think the US allows anything higher than B25 right now (and I believe it voids the warranty).
- Anything else that we should be weary of?

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions!!

TIA,

Jen

[horizontally-opposed]

Jenny,

You'll be surprised by the torque. Once you tune into how to use it (not hard) those TDIs are surprisingly quick in urban situations, even in stock trim.

So, I dig 'em! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

Only thing that causes me pause with the late-model VWs is the electrical systems. Seems to be a total hit and miss, with good cars and bad cars. I guess you could try to get records and see if it's a lemon! Better yet, see if a dealer can bring its history up before you buy.

pete