I bought a 2013 Passat TDI, one of the dieselgate models, after they completed the recall repairs. I thought I was getting a great deal at the time. Unfortunately, the “fix” seemed to cause some other issues, at least in my case. I religiously used Liqui Moly certified low-ash oil, and kept up with the maintenance schedules. Even still, the turbo wore out at around 100k miles and had to be replaced, and then the new one was exhibiting the same symptoms only ~20k miles later, and would likely have eventually given up as well if the car hadn’t been totaled before it got to that point. Cold weather would cause it to run like dogshit until everything got up to operating temps, and then it would usually run fine the rest of the day. The fuel economy was also never quite as good as I expected, it always struggled to get better than 35mpg.
My mechanic told me that engine was really poorly suited to city driving, which was a lot of my activity, and short trips caused an inordinate amount of carbon buildup, which he cited as the cause of my cold weather performance issues. Anyway, I think it’s probably a great car for folks with a lengthier commute. I learned my habits and routines were likely murder to a TDI engine, but especially those dieselgate models.
Yeah, they do survive better with more long distance driving, but ultimately the newer common rail diesels are complex, fragile, and inefficient compared to the old TDIs. They succeeded in getting the emissions much cleaner, especially after the court mandated retrofit, but at the expense of everything else that made them economical and practical. I could get 60mpg in my 2000 TDI golf with a 6 speed manual.
My mechanic told me that engine was really poorly suited to city driving, which was a lot of my activity, and short trips caused an inordinate amount of carbon buildup, which he cited as the cause of my cold weather performance issues. Anyway, I think it’s probably a great car for folks with a lengthier commute. I learned my habits and routines were likely murder to a TDI engine, but especially those dieselgate models.