2013 VW Golf Wagen TDI Comfortline - First Driving Impressions

nakkers

nakkers

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Picked up the Volks with 12 kms on the odo. Went with simple black on black, DSG,

The overall demand for this particular model has faded somewhat as there doesn't seem to be an issue with availability like previous years. And the Dealer seemed open to a fleet sale where prior visits were met with reluctance. I guess it also helps when the current model is getting a little long in the tooth and a new model going to be available at any time.

The last three years, I've been perched up in a CUV/SUV, Ford Escape/Nissan Rogue so, sitting a little lower in a conventional car took a bit to get used to.

Love the driving dynamics of a car. Always have. And VW's reputation doesn't disappoint. Leather wheel, shifter and parking brake feel of quality. The suspension and feel of the controls are excellent.

There are the quirks that I need to get used. The way the car decelerates at slow speeds (5 km/h and under) takes some getting used to. Let off the accelerator at the speed of traffic, no problem. Once approaching an intersection, it just seems to want to stop and I find myself wondering if I should stay on the accelerator instead of the brake. Just a bit weird.

I find myself having difficulty accelerating smoothly from a stop. I'm either crawling from a start or I'm chirping the tires? Don't have a problem when the car is at speed. Midrange acceleration for anything above city speeds and beyond are excellent.

It's not my first rodeo and familiar with turbo lag but, I didn't seem to experience this with my colleague's car or the tester I drove. Maybe things will be different when she is broken in a bit?

A small disappointment. For 2013, the upgrade for bluetooth and ipod connectivity at $775 mates to the base stereo. My colleagues that got previous model years which required the upgraded stereo with satellite radio and better quality sound in order to have bluetooth. So no touch screen for me. Call me a whaaamulance.

No problem getting comfortable and the drive so far has been very good. Looking forward to my first fill up and then see how the mileage is as it breaks in. Trip to Owen Sound this week and my usual runs to the GTA will have it broken in pretty soon.

If anyone has a good connection or recommendation for window tint, send me a pm.

I don't know if I'd drop the coin on the list price for the privilege to own it myself but, I'm looking forward to racking up the miles in this buggy. I believe the list was $27k plus $775 for the bluetooth ipod connection, plus freight and taxes. The leasing company gets a break on it being a fleet sale over and above what I've shown. What they pay, I'm not sure.

Anyways, it's a good car in the first couple of days. Too early to tell about reliability and real world mileage. I'm happy going with the Volks.

Cheers.

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I myself have a 5-speed 2000 Jetta TDI and i'll tell you im very happy with it. I've had it for over 4 years and driven it across the country. Mileage is beyond amazing. I drove from Red Deer Alberta to Toronto and not cutting in through the states. was about 4000KM give or take, and i spent just over 200 bucks on fuel
 
Interested to see how it turns out after a few more km's. Out of the list you posted in the other thread there's nothing that would have made me take a 4 cyl gas version of any of those cars, mazda included. I'm looking into something similar to this myself. I find the a3 is too small to be any kind of practical and the passat is crazy expensive. Nice choice but I'm not sure if you'll like black in a year or two unless you keep it spotless. Either way, nice ride :thumbup:
 
Good write-up. The TDI wagon has been on my want list for a while, just wish it came with 4-Motion.


Window tint is a huge area of knowledge and opinion. There's dyed, metalized and ceramic, and each comes with pros and cons. Llumar, Huper, Madico and Formula One products are available in my area. After a lot of research I went with a 25 per cent ceramic tint for my needs.
 
Audio Heaven in Richmond Hill for tint. I've done 4 cars there, very happy.
 
DJM said:
Good write-up. The TDI wagon has been on my want list for a while, just wish it came with 4-Motion.
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I forgot this point too. It's why I started looking at Audi. I wish the jetta could have 4-motion

Fingolfin said:
Hope your TDI treats you better than mine did. I've owned 2 in my life, a 1993 TD and a 200 TDI, both of which required more than their fair share of fixing (more because it they were Volkswagens). I'm not terrified to own a VW again, but I did love the diesel.
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I've had two mk3 tdi's and both were amazing. Sure a bit of maintenance but nothing out of the ordinary. The 2000-2003 had some issues indeed but have long been addressed. The new tdi's are nothing like the 4th gen
 
I run winter tires. AWD isn't something I look for or need. If a vehicle comes equipped, I'd take it. Just not a deal breaker to me. Got some quality seat time in this weekend and more to come this week. Just hoping the VW reliability gremlins steer clear. Otherwise it does a lot of things very well for driver comfort and experience. Cheers!
 
Good choice on the car I love them! Couldn't justify the price myself but I love wagons. Wish there were more options out there for decent wagons though! When I looked at a used A3 I couldn't believe how little space there is in the 'trunk' and the back seat.
 
check out TDIforums...dudes live and breathe TDI's over there.

Number one for that gen is to make sure you keep all receipts of fill ups and keep record. The HPFP on the common rail diesels absolutely cannot be fed gasoline. One bad fillup and you have a ticking time bomb on your hands. VW is i think on 3rd revision of HPFP due to high rate of failures and at couple of grand a pop, VW pushes back HARD on warantee replacements.

BrianP should be feeling a disturbance in the force soon and come and give you hi 2c (worht a lot more). Listen to him and you'll do good.
 
BrianP provided good advice on my previous post when contemplating what vehicle to go with. Signed up for the tdi forum and found a lot of information.

Thanks to everyone for the feed back, suggestions and pm for window tint recommendations. Boy! A lot has changed since the last time I got my old Saturn VUE done in 2003 I think?????

I think I got used to the characteristics of stop and go stuff. I love the ride on the highway.

I know manufactures calibrate speedometers on the optimistic side but, this one is off by 8km/h.

With a fresh tank of fuel, the read out indicates 5.8 L per 100 km. The Rogue averaged 10 L per 100 km.

As for going with black, I keep it clean and in general don't own a car long enough for it to look too shabby. Although, this is one of the first company cars that I'm considering to keep when it's time for a replacement. A lot of factors wont be answered until it's time to replace anyways, so just going to drive it and enjoy.


Cheers.
 
+1 for TDIclub.com its a great forum with a wealth of info, I think Brian P is on there as well.

Red_Liner740 said:
check out TDIforums...dudes live and breathe TDI's over there.

Number one for that gen is to make sure you keep all receipts of fill ups and keep record. The HPFP on the common rail diesels absolutely cannot be fed gasoline. One bad fillup and you have a ticking time bomb on your hands. VW is i think on 3rd revision of HPFP due to high rate of failures and at couple of grand a pop, VW pushes back HARD on warantee replacements.

BrianP should be feeling a disturbance in the force soon and come and give you hi 2c (worht a lot more). Listen to him and you'll do good.
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nakkers said:
I know manufactures calibrate speedometers on the optimistic side but, this one is off by 8km/h.
Click to expand...

With the golf, the MFD has a winter tire setting that allows you to calibrate the speedo in 5 km/h increments. You probably have it too and can use it to fix your speedo.
 
GreyGhost said:
With the golf, the MFD has a winter tire setting that allows you to calibrate the speedo in 5 km/h increments. You probably have it too and can use it to fix your speedo.
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I'll check it out. Thanks.
 
GreyGhost said:
With the golf, the MFD has a winter tire setting that allows you to calibrate the speedo in 5 km/h increments. You probably have it too and can use it to fix your speedo.
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The winter tire adjustment in the MDF has nothing to do with calibrating speedo.

It's only to give you a speed warning if you exceed a certain speed (winter tires have a lower speed rating than all seasons).

You need a Ross Tech cable to calibrate the speedo through VCDS:
http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/a5/speedometer-read-fast-adjustment-VW.htm
 
DJM said:
Good write-up. The TDI wagon has been on my want list for a while, just wish it came with 4-Motion.


Window tint is a huge area of knowledge and opinion. There's dyed, metalized and ceramic, and each comes with pros and cons. Llumar, Huper, Madico and Formula One products are available in my area. After a lot of research I went with a 25 per cent ceramic tint for my needs.
Click to expand...
4 motion and manual and they'd have a sale to me. Been waiting for one since I wrote my 01 Jetta about 3 years ago.
 
Red_Liner740 said:
Number one for that gen is to make sure you keep all receipts of fill ups and keep record. The HPFP on the common rail diesels absolutely cannot be fed gasoline. One bad fillup and you have a ticking time bomb on your hands. VW is i think on 3rd revision of HPFP due to high rate of failures and at couple of grand a pop, VW pushes back HARD on warantee replacements.

BrianP should be feeling a disturbance in the force soon and come and give you hi 2c (worht a lot more). Listen to him and you'll do good.
Click to expand...

Haha, I'm tired out after riding in the Deals Gap area for the last week. I'm beat ... and taking a break in the motel room!

Towed 2 bikes down here on the trailer with my '06 Jetta TDI, which crossed 427,000 km on the way down. It's soon due for timing belt and water pump, the clutch is pretty much done (judders on engagement) and the EGR cooler is leaking and the check engine lamp is on (suspect burned-out glow plug ... they're original) but honestly, with the mileage on that car, I really can't complain. It has been good. Once you get past the grabby clutch engagement, it drives the same as it always has.

I have not decided whether I want to fix this one and keep going - it probably needs $3k to $4k of work at an independent mechanic - or replace it with something else, but then comes the question of what to replace it with. There's not much out there in my opinion that is as nice to drive for the money as the Mk5 - Mk6 VW cars. BMW and Mercedes are much more $$ and they make you buy automatic transmission if you want the diesel engine. If there is any four-doors-with-big-trunk car in the same price range as a Mk5 Jetta that equals it in terms of steering, handling, ride quality, etc., I don't know of it (although I daresay that the current Ford Focus comes darn close).

As you can probably guess ... I like the original poster's vehicle choice. Keep your fuel receipts in case the HPFP goes for a crap - and don't buy diesel in the US if you can possibly help it. Canadian fuel specifications are a lot better and HPFP problems are rare in Canada, so you should be okay filling it here. (My "pumpe-duse" TDI isn't as fussy ... it makes black smoke on American diesel, but doesn't break.)
 
Didn't know the newer ones were so fussy with fuel....
 
Just turned 2222 km on the odo, MFI says 5.8 L per 100 km. Trying to vary the driving for a decent break in but, it's hard to do when I have to drive to where I need to for work.

Ride nice. Well see how quiet it is when the winter tires go on later.

DSG does the job well.

A lot of small things the VW does well. Express up and down windows for all doors. The fuel door locks when the vehicle is locked. The 3 blink indication for lane changes, you don't need to read the manual to do anything. Whatever you need to do, you just do it.

I prefer intermit wiper adjustment to twist the end stock instead of clicking the dial up top. I'd prefer the cruise control on the steering wheel instead of the left control stock. And the view of the control stock is blocked by the steering wheel.

Everything functions with quality. Where as some other vehicles feel like a video game console and have cheap plastic bits. (ala Ford)

Anyways, I like the base 16" alloy wheel design over the previous years. Just my initial thoughts.


I'm looking forward to taking a drive up to the Soo in a bit.



Cheers.
 
Roomie said:
I forgot this point too. It's why I started looking at Audi. I wish the jetta could have 4-motion



I've had two mk3 tdi's and both were amazing. Sure a bit of maintenance but nothing out of the ordinary. The 2000-2003 had some issues indeed but have long been addressed. The new tdi's are nothing like the 4th gen
Click to expand...

My 93 had so many minor issues, thankfully nothing major... fuel filters, glow plugs, glow plug fuse, wiper motor siezed, locks froze in winter, washer fluid pump failed etc etc

the 2000 wasn't has bad, but still have annoying stuff happen, radio died, rear hatch latch broke, antenna broke off (i think a bird may be guilty for this one), a million blown taillight bulbs, premature wheel bearing etc

i know the new motors are night and day differences but hows the build on the rest of the car?
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