Refurbished VW TDI ?

[racer]

So, as I look for a 3rd car, I can't help but see the reintroduction into society, the 500,000 or so TDI "Dieselgate" cars out there.

Wondering if anyone out here has bought one? Or never turned theirs back in but did get the retune/upgrades? More interested in the 2.0 tdi (Beetle/golf/jetta/passat/A3) use motors than the 3.0 liter (Porsche/Audi/ Touareg) motors.

Also, it seems like they are mostly pre 2015. Best I can glean is that there must have been some changes for 2015 to begin with, but cant tell if that made them harder or easier to fix. Most I see are 2012-2014 years.

[tomfree]

I had a post-Dieselgate-fix 2015 Touareg TDI for about 15K miles, and absolutely loved it. I bought in Jan 2018 and sold in April 2019 for spousal reasons I won't go into today :-D. Mine was troublefree, but it was a well-cared-for vehicle with only 37k miles on it when purchased. I thought it did most everything well, and was quick enough to surprise you.

Before I bought the Touareg, I had about 700 miles of seat time in a friend's pre-Dieselgate Cayenne, most of it towing an open trailer. The Cayenne's power delivery was better/smoother, and it got better gas mileage when unloaded, but this stuff is mostly splitting hairs.

[Hunter]

I have a post diesel gate 2012 Audi Q7 I bought in July 2019 with 46k miles. That vehicle now has 58k miles and tows incredibly well, brings kids stuff to/from college and to/from DCL. I have not had any issues. With this said I do remember hearing about post fix issues with the 2LT cars so keep your eyes open

I hope this helps.

[edevinney]

2015 is when they moved to the DEF emissions tech that the 3.0s had for a long time. The 2.0 Passat had DEF from day 1 but appears to need the same fix as the non-DEF 2.0s.

I haven't driven one of the post-fix cars, but really enjoyed our series of tdis up until the Power of German Lies got figured out.

[BMAN]

I bought two. My daily driver is ‘16 Audi A8 currently has 109,000 miles (I’ve put 90,000+ on it and has been trouble free. And ‘15 Cayenne Mrs B daily ride with 54,000.

The Audi was never turned in. The Cayenne was and bought from a P dealer.

Audi gets 720+ miles to a fill up! Best car I’ve owned to date.

[DaveInMD]

I bought a '14 Cayenne Platinum about a year ago from a dealer with 34k miles. CPO and all, had a minor coolant leak fixed under warranty. Only sort of downside is you have to change the oil and filter every 5k miles, saves a lot to do it as a DIY.

It pulls the open trailer and car as well as the '13 V8 F150 it replaced. Without the trailer, it's 32 MPG or better on the highway. Great car on the road and I'd buy it again.

[DrFraserCrane]

Echoing what others are saying -- I bought a '16 touareg last year with 12k on the clock and it does everything I ask of it well (daily driver, tow an open trailer, general running around). Never drove a pre-fix Touareg, so cannot compare.

My brother also bought a '14 Sportwagen with 24k on the clock last year -- I previously owned a '12 sportwagen and the differences in how they drive were minimal at best (and I chalk up to I had a 6MT and his is a DSG). His sportwagen, on the times I have driven it, reminds me very much of how my old sportwagen felt (never had the fix done, sold pre-scandal).

on the 2.0 engines, the big change was 2015 with the adblue system getting added. prior to that, there was no adblue system on the 2.0 cars(absent the passat noted above). the 2014s in the golf/sportwagen/jetta were also the 1st year that came with the backup camera if that concerns you.

Personally, I'd avoid a sportwagen with a pano roof -- that is why I ditched mine, 2x replacements under warranty was enough for me to ditch it before I was left holding the bill to fix it myself.

If you are hunting for one, look at the vehicle itself and dont buy sight unseen in my opinion - most of them were sitting in storage lots for 2 years and some have aged/weathered better than others -- ook for standard used car issues -- smells, water ingress, overall condition. Assume it will need new tires due to age.

[Dave O]

We bought two 2014 Jetta tdi sportwagens in the last 12 months. One had 15,000 miles the other 35,000. Wonderful vehicles so far and you gotta love the 2yr/24,000 VW CPO warranty.


We got ours thru Lindsay VW near Dulles. They sold them as CPO so we had some peace of mind. And like others said try to see the vehicle before they clean it up and do the CPO work. We would go look at them and do a test drive before and clean up or engine work. I turned one down due to water damage from a busted window. Whoever ended up getting that one will have issues in the long run and would not know why.