I am looking at replacing my long distance hauler. It is a 2001 Golf TDI. I drive it across Canada a few times a year and through mountains in ski season, putting on an average of 65k per year, its about efficiency and good pull on the highway. It is nicknamed the mule and I bought it because it fits in at the four seasons in Whistler just as well as a crazy ski town parking lot, no pretensions but its not junk either.


I was just in a nicely optioned Golf wagon TDI which is basically the same thing as the A3 Wagon TDI, same engine and transmission but better quality interior and more standard options, albeit at a slightly higher starting price. Optioned out the Audi is only 2 grand more.

Do you guys think that it's worth it? Or is an diesel Audi just a oxymoron?

 

I've got no problems with the Audi being a diesel, but you may want to take maintenance costs into consideration, as I wouldn't be surprised if Audi still tries to charge more even if they are based on the same engine and tranny.

 

I assume in canada you can get the A3 tdi with quattro. Here in the US, the A3 tdi only comes in fwd and auto tranny.

Not that this info helps your decision at all.

 

VW no service maintenance for 3 yrs 36k miles. I just got a TDI jetta a few months ago and love it. I looked at an A4 and it just wasn't worth the extra 300/mnth. That's why i have a porsche

 

Our options are rarely much different than US specced cars.

 

It's FWD and it has the twin clutch DSG gearbox as standard, which is an expensive option on the VW. My FWD Golf diesel sails by most vehicles in the winter, big heavy engine over the drive makes for amazing traction, it's all in the tires.

I just thought that the better seats, audio, quality of the gear cluster etc would be nice. But maybe Audi would not fit in many of the places I go. People get all bent outta shape in backwoods towns when city people show up with shiny euro cars. VW is seen as good quality, but Audi is kinda frufru.

The extra money is a consideration, but I love my TDIs because you rack up at least half a million clicks so it comes way down over the long term. VW and Audi are basically the same and I have one independent specialist in Ontario and one in BC that I use.

 

Then buy the Audi. Who cares what the hicks up in Lillouet think.

 

It's the hicks in Nelson I care about

 

We just bought a TDI A3 (2012). It's amazing. The build quality is light-years better than the Mexican-built Jetta. My office mate saw ours, then went in and ordered one for himself. My wife really loves it (it's her daily and soon-to-be baby-mobile). This is our second A3. We had a petrol A3 (2007) before and that was a fun car, too, but this one is so much better in materials, options, etc. We got every option except the titanium package and rear airbags.

 

See in france there's approx 60-70% TDI in the A3 models. It's an Up-class golf !
We used to have an old gen A3 tdi 130 (what an amazing car) and we've got now a golf v TDI 105 and it's for example way more noisy!

Anyway I encourage you to get an Audi if you can but on both case you won't regret it!

It's weird that you're only abkle to get a dsg tranny, does that mean that most american don't know how to drive a stick?