Thinking of a new ride: wagon edition

NURB: Huge premium on the diesel.

Richard: Looking back through Consumer Reports, suggests that VW may be putting their reliability problems to bed. Audi included. BMW has been rising too.

In my experience VW’s are very hit or miss. My wifes Eos was plagued with problems. Most of the people I know who have “reliable” VW’s are also constantly maintaining them - everything is changed on or before it’s intended schedule. They don’t have the “lube it up once in a while and go” like the Acura will. I had my TL for 100,000 miles and literally never had to do any service other than oil, tires and brakes. There was one problem with a power steering hose leak but it turned out to be a recall so it was free.

My BMW already has a bad parking sensor, a bad window roll up sensor, a rear view mirror that never stays in place, and probably a few other little annoyances I’ve learned to deal with. Technology in cars these days is the real killer…too many sensors to go wrong and fudge something up.

I just thought of 2 more.

Just signed the deal on a 2009 VW Jetta “Sport” Wagon. It’s got the big sun roof. Got a great deal and it was the mechanically cleanest car that I had seen so far (including 2011 cars).

Congrats. Sounds great. I’m assuming that’s not the actual car?

R

Dig it!

Buddy of mine has one about the same year. He loves it and hasn’t had any problems!

Good to hear “we” finally resolved that!

Richard: that is not the car, but very similar.

mo-i: me too!

Congrats. TDI, 2.0T or 2.5L?

2.5L tractor engine.

Just wanted to give a quick update on the VW.

  1. In French, no one says V W. They say Volkswagen. Strange isn’t it?

  2. Pretty great build quality. There was a piece of door molding that wasn’t properly de-flashed, but I can accept that. The downside of the build quality and the cloth on the pillars is that it is a pain to clean. Between mechanics and the old owner, the A and B pillars had turned from light grey to medium grey. Some of it popped off easy enough to wash inside the house. The B-pillar can’t be removed without removing the seat belt hardware, so I washed it in place.

  3. The HVAC buttons are horribly small for use in winter. We’ve only had 2-3 weeks of cold and I already managed to get the AC, defrost and recirculate buttons to blink because I hit all three at once! So much for ergonomics.

  4. Beautiful ride. Very relaxing to drive this thing.

  5. Cramped leg room on the passenger side. The only way I’m comfy is with the seat pushed all the way back (I’m only 5’9"). With our baby seat in the back, I have to go a few clicks forward and I feel like I’m licking the dash. Other than looks, I don’t understand why the dash is so chunky.

  6. This is sports-utility to me. My wife was so excited to report that two strollers, two babies, two adults and shopping fits no problem!

Thereby opening the door for baby number 2…

Glad to hear its working out. I’ve long pined for a VW wagon. Jetta or Passat.

It’s the first car I’ve owned that I don’t want to wrench on. Maybe that’s more the baby than the car though;)

?

Wrenching on babies is not recommended. :wink:

R

Wrenching on babies is not recommended.

well … at least not until the warranty has expired.

This morning we traded in our 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer VRX wagon for a brand new 2013 Suburu Forester.
I’m gonna miss the Lancer as it was a cracker and v. reliable (only a few air-con problems) but then it only had 66000km on the clock. It was the car I brought both my daughters home from the hospital in. They were a bit sad:
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Lots and lots of new electronics on the Forester. Its a 6 speed manual but has an ‘idle stop’ - if you are stopped in traffic you put it in neutral and take your foot off the accelerator, the hill lock engages and the motor stops, the display shows a countdown of how long you have had the motor off and how much petrol you are saving, then to start you press the clutch, put it in gear and off you go.
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Cool!

Idle stop is pretty rare in NA. I think Ford is the only one offering it on non-hybrid cars. They are going to make it more available in the future…so they say. I’d love it in Montreal. So many traffic lights here!

My 3 series has start stop, though admittedly I leave it off most of the time. It’s kind of jerky and in stop go traffic it’s a real pain. Kia, Toyota and a few others have rolled it out as well.

I didn’t know they had on/off switches. I was worried about stop-and-go traffic with the system. Learn something new everyday.