Any 12, 13, or 14 Passat TDI owners?

[AMink]

We're looking at a new Passat TDI to add to the stable. Drove one today and it was very nice. I was wondering if any fellow TDR'ers have one (or Jetta, Sportwagen, Bug, etc with TDI) and have any comments, warnings, picks, compliments, etc. Thanks

 

[seafish]

After an unfortunate accident last year with our 2005 Passat TDI wagon, we used the insurance settlement as a downpaymant to a 2013 Jetta Sportawagen. It is a MUCH nicer car then the older Passat. I was very concerned with both the HPFP problems, as well as maintenace cost and/or other problems with the DSG transmission, so I DID fold a 7year/100k $100 deductible into the financing (1. 9% @ 66 months from VW) just in case, as boith these parts are extremely expensive to replace if they break. That being said, the Bosch HPFP is on its THIRD itineration, so hopefully they have solved the implosion problem that some owners were having. WAS going to get a manual transmission to avoid the DSG maintenance costs, but due to other more important option choices, settled for the DSG and have NOT looked back... very fun and easy to drive. All in all, VERY happy with the vehicle at 10k miles... . I say GO FOR IT!!!



PS--VW includes the first three 10k maintenance for free at a dealersjip, by my local VW tech/guru urged me to go with 5k oil changes!!! As he has NEVER steered me wrong in the past, so I am doing those myself at my own cost in between the 10 k freebies. Based on his advice, I will continue with 5k oil changes for the life of the vehicle. His opinion was based on sludge build-up he continues to see in VW tdi engines, both CR and earlier models.

 

[AMink]

We looked at the Sportwagen but haven't driven it. I'd like to drive a Jetta and Sportwagen back to back since the Sportwagen is built on the Golf platform. I really like the huge back seat in the Passat. The trunk is huge too. I do like the smaller proportions of the Jetta/Sportwagen though. My wife is on board and I like to get these things out of the way before she changes her mind!:-laf

 

[Simplysmn]

We have a 2012 Jetta Sportwagen and Love it all thou it took a turn for the worse on Sat all I know right now is Dealer say's something in fuel system broke. I am going down to Dealer tomorrow to talk with them we just had our 30,000 mile service and everything was great and less then 3 week's later with no Warning what so ever Car died no CEL or Anything still love the Car thou wife is a Hospice RN and put's alot of Miles per week on car so we will see what happened I will report back with there finding's . For a Diesel car it sure is Zippy and get's great Mpg with her driving our average is upper 40's . Great little car and fun to drive . I would say go for it you will enjoy the Car.

 

[DAN V]

2012 Passat here

i have a '12 Passat and love it. I have the DSG as you do. I am getting around 46 to 48 mpg with mine. I keep my cruise at 55 and just let everyone pass me. I am getting over 700 miles per tank. Have got as high as 734 with the Low fuel light coming on. The only complaint I have is the seats are very thin for big guys such as myself. I have to use a 4" dense foam pad to sit on in order to drive. Other than that I really like the car. This is my first VW TDI and can't complain. Just turned over 32k. On my own now for service.

 

[Jim W]

We bought a new 2011 Jetta TDI with the DSG; the car has all of the bells and whistles on it since it is my wife's car. She has the Keyless start, Sun roof, Nav radio, heated seats and if VW offered the item the car has it. She loves the blue tooth especially since cells phones in IL must be hands free in 2014 in a car/truck. I miss the gages that the older models Jetta and the Passat offer. If the Passat was available in 2011 we would have gotten that model instead of the Jetta.

We'll we have own the car for a little over two years now and it has served us well. The car averages about 33. 5 MPG a year this is a yearly fuel average. The car is mainly driven on city and county roads with very little highway mileage. We use her car instead of the Ram to run errands. She has achieved about 44 MPG when she does drive on the highway. I am 6' tall an easily fit behind the steering wheel. I tend to drive the car in the sport mode and my wife drives the car in the drive mode very rarely do we use the gear shift to shift gears.

We have had two recalls one for seat bolts and another for the chrome muffler tips sticking out to far. The muffler tips are still on. The car is serviced yearly and this has been no cost to us as of yet last free service will be at 30,000 miles. I think this has changed for the newer cars starting in 2012 to 24,000 service free miles; I could be wrong in this statement though.

Jim W.

 

[av8r]

We have a '12 Passat Sedan with the DSG auto transmission. A very, very nice car. We have been mostly pleased with it. My only gripe is thus far the best mileage we have gotten is in the low 40s. I place this deficiency solely at the feet of the EPA and their bull$hit emission equipment they choke modern diesels with. I'm hoping that as we put more miles on this one it will get better, we are almost to the 20k service...

When looking we were considering the Sportwagon and the Jetta sedan due to our very positive experience with our '01 Jetta. I was very disappointed in the "tinny" nature of the new Jettas. The Passat seemed to be a lot more car, quality and construction wise. When we found a 1-year old car with 7400 miles, $6500 less than a similar new one, we couldn't pass it up.

 

[Simplysmn]

Well just be very Cautious the fuel pump problem we all thought that fixed back in 2010 still Isn't fixed our 2012 JSW died 2 week's ago due to fuel pump eating it's self with 32,000 miles .And So Far the Dealer Still doesn't have it Fixed .

 

[seafish]

Well just be very Cautious the fuel pump problem we all thought that fixed back in 2010 still Isn't fixed our 2012 JSW died 2 week's ago due to fuel pump eating it's self with 32,000 miles .And So Far the Dealer Still doesn't have it Fixed .

Sorry to hear that it happened to you on a 2012…I was worried about it when you posted a couple weeks ago about "something wrong with the fuel system", but did not want to venture a guess.
Glad that the car are still covered under warranty…this is one of the two very reasons that I opted to buy 100k, 7 year extended waranty from VW on purchase. I REALLY hope that they figure this out and do some sort of recall, but somehow I doubt it. PLEASE continue to update as you find things out!!

 

[Simplysmn]

Well what makes me the Madest is No CEL or Anything the car died in the middle of Traffic while my Wife and Daughter were driving it .how they claim they found out what was wrong is the pulled the fule filter top and it was full of metal shaving's the dealer the Car is at claim's to have 1 car a Month with this problem still . I am contacting VW to see what they are going to do about this remaining Problem.Hope to have the car back this next week so I will update then .We ought the car because she drives it roughly 5-700 miles a week so we wanted something with good fuel econ.

 

[seafish]

You know part of ghe problem well may be US diesel lubricity standards being up to Euro/Bosch standards. I run TDR-s in my storage tank, but my wife aso buys diesel out and about. I am THINKING about using some sort of tanklubricity additive, but need to decide which one if any. Here are a few links if interested-- note that some of them are olde, but

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=268198

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=196059

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=286380

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/threads/no-hpfp-failure-threads-here.7768/

 

[WCPoe]

We're looking at a new Passat TDI to add to the stable. Drove one today and it was very nice. I was wondering if any fellow TDR'ers have one (or Jetta, Sportwagen, Bug, etc with TDI) and have any comments, warnings, picks, compliments, etc. Thanks

Back in Feb we picked up a 2013 VW Passat TDi SEL Premium with the DSG transmission to replace an aging 1997 Infiniti Q45 with nearly 200k miles. We went through the Costco Auto Buy program to avoid all the stress of negotiating with the sales vultures. It proved to be a great overall purchase experience and we would probably use the buying program again. We also opted for a 7 year / 100k mile warranty just because I was unsure of how the emission stuff would hold up.
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That being said, we think the Passat TDi is a stellar vehicle. It took a little while for the wife to really appreciate all the features the Premium model offered and to get used to the DSG type transmission. I can't get her out of it now. Been getting 37-38 mpg around town and 45 plus mpg on the road. I do think the recent colder weather has tempered the mileage 1 to 2 mpg but it's simply amazing to get near the highway rating overall. (It's rated 30 city 40 highway.)
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We opted for the up level version because of the "Sport" seats, which I thought offered a better fit for my aging body. Those have 3 heat settings on them and heat up rapidly. The seat and mirror memory settings save a bit of time when we change out drivers. We still haven't explored all the capabilities of the systems on the vehicle yet, (hard to teach old dogs new tricks).
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I think the best features of the Passat are the interior room and the secure handling it offers. The old 1997 Infiniti Q45, although a large luxury sedan had significantly less room inside and wasn't that confidence inspiring in the handling department. The Passat is more of a drivers car. Definitely easy to drive. The low end torque and the "pull away" from a stop will make you smile. The TDi rarely needs to drop down gear on the Interstate when negotiating an incline, a feature us diesel nuts cherish.
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Anyway, we're more than pleased with ours. I would highly recommend the Passat in the TDi configuration if you are shopping for a roomy 4 door sedan. Good luck on your quest.
Oo.

 

[kcv67]

My wifes car 2011 Jetta tdi dsg is doing realy well she averages right around 44 mpg. The free services at mountain imports at Bozeman were great. I got the cold weather after cooler update done there too. It is a fun little car to drive it really gets after it if your right foot asks it to.

Casey

 

[Wayne M.]

I have a question about the DEF fluid fill. Not to hijack the thread, I apologize in advance. I overheard a coworker who like German cars, and I'm not sure if he was referring to the tdi's or BMW's but the dealers push the free maintenance because they don't want owners filling the SCR tanks. Eliminating the possibility of contamination. Does that sound possible? Also, I heard that these cars have two tanks. One a holding tank, and another that is dosed from.
I'd love to get a diesel family veh. A Passat perhaps, but finances prohibit.

 

[av8r]

My Passat has one fill port for the DEF fluid, located in the trunk on the right side. I don't know of a second "header" tank for operations or if there is only just the one. Refilling it is part of the warranty's 30k mile free service program. Every 10K you get a vehicle fluid service including a fill on the DEF.

 

[DShore]

2012 VW Golf TDI with DSG transmission & 22,000 miles. We live on a dirt road in north central AZ. At 3000 miles, had so much dust in the car I could write my name on the dash with my finger. After many tries to locate the dust, found the right rear shoulder belt had so much dust on it I could not tell what color it was. I took it to the dealer where they found several pounds of dust behind the right rear trim because the body plugs were not sealed. They siliconed them, this cut down on the dust considerable, but did not eliminate it. I called the Factory Rep, he looked at the problem at 10,000 mile checkup; he found that the doors were not adjusted properly, this was taken care of and was told to take it to a local detailer to do the interior and send them the bill, $100 in 3 days received their check.

I returned it to the dealer for a 20,000 mile service and a recall to install a misfueling guard in the neck of the fuel tank. Now I find that I can only put in little less than ¾ tank of fuel before it runs out the filler neck. I will be having this taken out next Tuesday.

So much for German Engineering. At 20,000 miles the engine and transmission are working fine; in the local mountainous terrain, I average 38-40 mpg with highway speeds of 70+ mph.

 

[Simplysmn]

That's weird we had the Jettawagen filler neck done and it hasn't affected how it fill's or anything .maybe they put it in wrong ? hope you get it fixed

 

[WCPoe]

I'm only aware of the DEF fill port in the trunk. I understand you could go almost until the oil change interval at 10,000 miles on a tank of DEF. We only have about 4500 miles so I only know it hasn't indicated any low condition yet. The dealer is supposed to refill the DEF at the recommended 10K oil change intervals as part of the 3 year free maintenance.
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I bought 2 of the "non-spill" type bottles of the DEF from the VW dealer just to have on hand and carry if on a long trip. Also bought a 2.5 gallon container from Walmart for $11.97. I realize you can buy cheaper at the truck stations but for convenience I just thought I would keep a little on hand in the garage.
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The "non-spill" bottles from the VW dealer have a check valve in the bottle neck to prevent spilling when the tank is topped off. Haven't tried it yet but many on the TDi forums said it works. Someone made a suggestion to make a "spill-proof" funnel out of the VW type bottles by just cutting the bottom of bottle out. That way when using the funnel and the tank tops you just pull the funnel out and the check valve holds the balance in the funnel to prevent a spill.
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It's also my understanding that the Passat TDi engine is somewhat different than the Jetta TDi by incorporating a different turbo and requiring the DEF. This provides better low end torque as the Passat is heavier than the Jetta, yields better fuel economy and is less prone to diesel particulate problems. I think the ECM "tune" is less EGR oriented and offers less soot with the SCR DEF injection. Some one correct me if this isn't correct.
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Anyways, our 2013 Passat is still impressing us. Just thinking out loud.

 

[Simplysmn]

No the Passat has same 2.0 Motor just fancy trim level is all .From what I understand that is .

 

[WCPoe]

No the Passat has same 2.0 Motor just fancy trim level is all .From what I understand that is .

I guess I was confused. My friend has a 2010 or 2011 Jetta wagon and it doesn't use the DEF as far as I know. I had read something about the Jetta and the Passat having the same displacement but thought there was a turbo difference as well as the DEF. I thought I picked this info up on either the ----> http://www.tdiclub.com/ or ------> http://www.tdiclub.com/

When did the Jetta's get the DEF or is that a California specific type Jetta? Unfortunately, I haven't been following the TDi forums like I do on the Cummins related forums.