My brother has driven a Jetta TDI station wagon for a number of years. He bought it just before the retail price of diesel jumped to more than premium gasoline, which was a real disappointment to him as diesel had been less than regular almost forever. He says he really likes the power of the TDI and that it is a great road car, capable of getting great mileage at very high speed. But for the turbo diesel to have any power, the turbo needs to be "spooled up", providing boost. My brother has had a couple of instances where he thought the car was really slow accelerating from a stop, like when he was stopped up next to a speed bump. He has a 5 speed manual transmission and has said he did not think the car would perform nearly as well as it does with an automatic.
All in all, the Jetta has been a very good car. I think they have somewhat over 100k miles on it and have needed to do very little to it mechanically. But maintenance is lots more expensive for the diesel than for the same car with a gas engine. Even with mileage approaching 50 all the time, my brother has wondered if his overall cost per mile is any better than it would have been with a gas engine. The expensive diesel option, the expensive fuel and the very expensive maintenance offset the great mileage. They do not drive the Jetta in the winter, as where they live they need 4WD almost all winter. Diesels can be hard to start in cold weather and if you do not have enough additive in the fuel when it is really cold, the fuel can jell and make the vehicle nearly impossible to get to run unless you put it in a heated building or the weather gets warmer. Oh, and then there is the stink from the diesel exhaust.
While my brother has really liked his Jetta TDI, I expect that his next car will be powered by a gas engine, and it might be a hybrid.
When he decides that it is time, I think he will see what is available, and then do the best cost analysis he can to try to get the best cost per mile and still do the job he wants the car to do.
There are lots of small cars that can get impressive mileage and performance. You might want to study the ratings in Consumer's Reports for reliability and how well customers have liked that model. Good luck HTH!
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Today's Featured Article - Restoration Story: Fordson Major - by Anthony West. George bought his Fordson Major from a an implement sale about 18 years ago for £200.00 (UK). There is no known history regarding its origins or what service it had done, but the following work was undertaken alone to bring it up to show standard. From the engine number, it was found that this Major was produced late 1946. It was almost complete but had various parts that would definitely need replacing.
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