PureGin.org

I just took our 2004 Golf TDI in for service, to fix a coolant leak. This is the first significant maintenance we've had to perform, other than routine things such as oil and filter changes and brakes - quite amazing since it's been two year less two months that we've owned the vehicle.

I'm fully expecting additional service will be required soon - the vehicle has 217,000km (mostly highway) on it. I'm sure that the clutch, timing belt, and various pumps and such will need some attention at some point. Still, this car has been amazing. I've been religiously tracking fuel consumption (to Pamela's amusement, at first - I think she's accepted it now :), and we routinely get 900km per tank. That's about 5 litres per 100km, or 47 mpg (that's US gallons!) in everyday driving.

This has been great, but is even more so now that Diesel prices are lagging again below gas prices, a sign a still-flagging economy.

People are often surprised when I tell them that the car is powered by a Diesel engine - somehow in North America we still have a 1980's or even 1960's conception of a 'Diesel'. The TDI is quiet and peppy, starts beautifully in all temperatures I've experienced, and doesn't produce plumes of smoky, diesel smelling exhaust, (except on a cold-start when the outside temperature is quite cool, then only for a few seconds while the engine warms up.)

The TDI engine is also incredibly green - even better in some cases than the increasingly popular hybrids. Interestingly, as of the beginning of the year, our car is now "5% cleaner" than before, since by legislation, all diesel fuel sold in BC now has 5% minimum biodiesel added. Many people run unmodified TDIs on 25%, 50% and even 100% biodiesel, so there's no particular reason that this mechanism for reducing transportation based carbon can't continue as biodiesel production capacity increases.

I'd buy another in a second! And the new TDIs look even better than the generation I own.