How about a tourag with the 3.0 TDi? They are good over all and most are well taken care of.
How about a tourag with the 3.0 TDi? They are good over all and most are well taken care of.
JtspellS wrote: How about a tourag with the 3.0 TDi? They are good over all and most are well taken care of.
I did not see any on CL, what years were those made?
What's the budget here? How many miles does your wife drive in a year?
My wife drives ~28k miles/year and going from 18 mpg to 40+ mpg makes a difference. You might be able to stretch the budget more. She is saving anywhere from $200-250 a month on gas.
We looked and were going to buy a Golf Sportwagen TDI, unfortunately you know what happened. I found a very low mileage BMW 328xd wagon.
Not a SUV but what about a RAM Ecodiesel? Tuned by GreenDiesel Engineering they can get almost 30mpg and avoid some of the costly EGR issues.
My experience as an owner of a modern german diesel and also older VW diesel (I had a 2000 Jetta TDI for a long time and now have a 2011 Mercedes E350 Bluetec which has the OM642 motor also used in the sprinter vans and the suv's) modern diesels in the US are so choked up for emissions and high compression they have a lot of issues with oil leaks. I have had to spend about 7k on my car in the last year and it just hit 60,000 miles. Now I think part of that was a 3k misdiagnosis but could not prove it. On the upside its an amazingly quiet/comfortable vehicle and has plenty of power. Also averages 30mpg as a large sedan, but downside is maintenance costs and costs if anything breaks
As a comparative note. We also own a 2010 Honda Odyssey and have a trailer hitch on it to tow a small camping trailer. With W/D hitch they can tow up to 5k I would not do a lot of towing with one without a massive tranny cooler (I have one to install) but if you are really only going to tow very rarely you don't need a big rig.
The reason I mention the van is while it can get about 26-27 on the highway if doing 65 and the cylinder deactivation is on it averages about 16mpg around town and normal driving which is the same as my 2004 F-150 with the 5.4 V8 got all the time, all the time as in highway/city/towing whatever it just seemed to always get 16mpg
Looking at fuelly as an example of 120 BMW X5 diesels they average about 25mpg so you need to figure out how much actual driving your wife does vs the potential headaches of the diesel vs something more simple.
yupididit wrote: Jonny, modern diesels are not slowIn reply to wae: I think at that point I would see how much a dealer or indy charges to do a trans flush
Oh, hell no! I'm going for the full experience here!
Trans flush is like 800-900 bucks to do the full service with the filter and gasket as well on my Benz Diesel
In reply to Jaynen:
Wow, thanks for the detailed report. That makes me double think my idea of getting a diesel.
Stop by your local gas station and take a hard look at the diesel pump. Around here, they are the nastiest, smelliest pumps at the station. They are the reason I won't DD a diesel.
Now, imagine your wife filling up at a pump that looks like a oil slick.
My father DDs a diesel truck. He keeps a pair of gloves in his truck box for fill ups so he won't smell like diesel for the rest of the day. Make sure she knows what you are getting her into.
Toyman01 wrote: Stop by your local gas station and take a hard look at the diesel pump. Around here, they are the nastiest, smelliest pumps at the station. They are the reason I won't DD a diesel. Now, imagine your wife filling up at a pump that looks like a oil slick. My father DDs a diesel truck. He keeps a pair of gloves in his truck box for fill ups so he won't smell like diesel for the rest of the day. Make sure she knows what you are getting her into.
I said the same thing. But people read what they want to read...
The thing about diesels is you need to drive A LOT for it to really pay for the MPG savings - thumbnail guess is 30K/year, minimum. And you need a bit of luck. My timing was lucky and my '03 TDI paid for the diesel option fairly quickly (pre-post Katrina). It is unlikely I'd buy another TDI today.
If I get a tow vehicle being as much a fan of diesel as I am and an owner of multiple diesels I am going to buy a used GMT800 HD with the good ole gas powered LS motor because its easy to work on, cheap to fix, and runs for lots of miles
Toyman01 wrote: Stop by your local gas station and take a hard look at the diesel pump. Around here, they are the nastiest, smelliest pumps at the station. They are the reason I won't DD a diesel. Now, imagine your wife filling up at a pump that looks like a oil slick. My father DDs a diesel truck. He keeps a pair of gloves in his truck box for fill ups so he won't smell like diesel for the rest of the day. Make sure she knows what you are getting her into.
I used to DD a diesel F250 and mercedes 240D. The pumps here are all clean as the gas pumps if not cleaner (less use). And diesel in California is cheaper than gas. Even in Virginia when I filled up the mercedes, the pumps were equally clean if not cleaner. Never noticed that issue with dirty pumps first time I'm hearing this issue.
In reply to yupididit:
Interesting. I'll have to shoot a picture of the diesel pump the next time I'm at the gas station.
In reply to yupididit:
Diesel pumps are dirty around here too. I want to say it has to do with the larger fill diameter. They just dont auto shut off as well as the gas pumps. Mine will puke all over if I don't pay attention and listen for the gurgle gurlge to know its full. The "fast fill" semi stations are bad.... It may also have to do with diesel not evaporating off like gas will
Diesel pumps in California for me were always a little more gross, the main reason is the diesel fuel is more oily so it seems to linger vs evaporate
The Shell pump by my house is just as clean as the gas one, but they have free disposable gloves just in case.
Others not so clean. But with the 550+ miles to the tank its not like you have to fill up every day.
In reply to Slippery:
I used to keep "pump gloves" in my Cummins for that purpose. The problem was after awhile, the gloves started to stink. One of the many times I wished the truck had a bed-mounted tool box.
Disposable gloves sometimes work, but it's amazing how diesel stink gets on everything.
It seems to be 50/50 lol. I go to Shell and Chevron. Maybe they're known to be cleaner at some places and not so much at others. Shell has always had clean pumps from my experience though. Now I'm going to be staring at pumps everytime I fill up 
I guess, YMMV.
Might depend on how new the pumps are? Most of the stations that have diesel near me have been around for years. The pumps are old. Even if they get fancy new covers once in a while with a brand change. Even the gasoline pumps aren't exactly clean either.
The pump by my house
The gloves are on the top right
Also there is this:
Very new pump compared to those near me.
Price differences between diesel and gas seem to be very area-dependant. In NJ and Pa, diesel is roughly equal to mid-grade gas.
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