They get fantastic milage and the diesel engines last long plus are turbo. So Ive beent thinking about one over a Honda Civic, Mazda Miata, Ford Mustang.
Clearly the diesel gets the best milage of the bunch i know that…….but i just wondered how they were on the insurance spectrum.
call your insurance company
My 2001 VW Golf Diesel is relatively cheap to insure but I have a long incident free driving record and I live in a state where insurance companies don’t have to pay more than they should. There isn’t any feature of the Golf that would make it a greater than average risk to insure, I don’t believe. It’s not a glitter machine, just a simple econobox.
I like my TDI. I routinely get over 50 mpg for a whole tank. I measure every tank and the least I’ve got is 43.7 and the most was 57.8. A tank will easily last 650 miles, 750 if you take it easy and 800 if you genuinely baby it. Where I’m living at the moment diesel fuel is expensive, 4.60 a gallon where regular gas is 3.89. But with the mileage the TDI gets, you’re ahead of the game somewhat. When you factor in the added cost of the diesel, you may be down a few bucks. But if you keep the car for it’s entire life, you’ll definitely be ahead of the financial curve over the life of the car.
It helps if you are a DIY’er when the maintenance items raise their ugly heads. With the turbo charger you need to use only full synthetic engine oil. And with the diesel you have to have specific CD, CG, CH or CI API ratings on the oil. The quick oil change joints will sell you mainly the oil you shouldn’t be using. VW even has an approval system for oils that meet their standards.
Another expensive undertaking is replacement of the timing belt. This is an item you cannot overlook because those belts will break at some point and when they do, your engine could swallow a valve and choke to death or at least break internals such that the repair bill will resemble the national debt. Having work done at VW dealers is very expensive which is probably why the name stealerships seems to stick.
I’m giving you a lot of negatives but you should be informed before you write the check. My Golf is a 5 speed manual which I bought brand spanking new in 2000. It has 212,000 miles on it and it drives like it did when it was new. I baby the clutch, change my own oil, brakes and light bulbs. I believe if this car is maintained right and aimed right it should easily last me 20 years.
Good luck with your decision.