I got a new car! W00!
It’s really super nice. It’s by far and away the nicest car I’ve ever owned, and cost me more than the last three cars I’ve owned put together. Granted, that figure amounts to well under $10,000, but that’s not the point. I’ve always been of the beater-car mentality: buy some hooptie for $2000 in cash and drive it till the wheels fell off. This has played out with the other five cars I’ve owned, and the most I’ve ever paid for one was $3700 for this last Honda Civic.
It’s a 2001 VW Golf TDI, and I’m already in love with it. I got it for a song from a dealership in Charlotte, and I knew from the second I saw the ad that they had no idea what was parked in their lot. The bluebook for the car was $1500 more than their asking price, even with the 90K miles on the car. When I told them it got 50mpg, everyone in the showroom looked at me as though I were from Venus. Let me type that again, so no one misses it: This thing gets fifty miles to the gallon. Five-oh. I even got new brakes out of the deal. The salespeople were kind, prompt, professional and decidedly un-slimy, which made me very very happy. I was even able to put down 1/3 of the value as a down payment because I got such a nice asking price for the Civic. On Tuesday, I take it to the resident Kzoo VW Guru for a thorough onceover, and then I start my Grand Experiment: I’m gonna run this sucker on BioDiesel.
I had to get an older TDI because VW’s warranty won’t cover any damages created by BiodDiesel. There’s not likely to be any, but if I got some bad BioDiesel, the warranty wouldn’t cover the engine, as it’s not an “Approved fuel”. So why get a really expensive car? This one was worth the risk.
Dig this: My family are farmers. They grow soybeans. There’s a local gas station in Manchester that sells 100% BioDiesel (b100). I buy my fuel from them, I help support local farmers, cause less pollution, get fifty miles to the gallon and get to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Is there a downside to this?
I can’t find one, other than the fact that I’ll have to buy my fuel in advance and keep it in 5-gallon jugs till I can get back to Manchester for more. Sooner or later, with all the farmers around Kalamazoo, they’ll open up a b100 pump around here — right now the best they have is b20, which ain’t good enough for me, as it’s still 80% “DinoDiesel”.
So here’s to putting my money where my mouth is! I’m against the war, so I’m sending out a clear message: We can grow our own oil and reduce the need to kill people over resources. Down with big oil! Up with farmers!
Now if only American car companies would build a car as awesome as the VW TDI. It sucks that I had to buy a foreign car to get one that works this good and gets mileage this good, but hey, that’s capitalism for you.I ain’t buyin’ an American car until the Big 3 can make one as good as a VW or a Honda. The minute they do, I’m on it like… um… white on rice.
On to the pictures!
Dude, this car is spotless inside. Looks like it just rolled off the factory floor. And the instrument panel lights up blue.
Rock on!! very nice car… I am so happy you finally found your “dream” car 🙂 Ebru
Kawaii! Have you named it yet? Is it a boy car or a girl car?
One of the best things about Jane is that when push comes to shove, she puts her money where her mouth is. Congratulations for taking the years of kvetching about the political aspects of energy and voting with your feet. I wish you success with every aspect of this grand experiment, O Early Adopter.
Congrats on the new car, it looks great!
I’m going to tell my de-facto brother in law about your car, ’cause he says his next is going to be a VW as well.
Cheers!
Jane
It’s so great to know that there is someone in the US who’s discovered this! I’m in the UK and I have a 2002 Golf GT TDI. It is an unbelievable car – incredibly fast and averages 52 MPG. The best trip I ever did, I got 77.4 MPG driving REALLY carefully. I was astonished.
Even better though, I found a local supplier in Norfolk who processes the used vegetable oil from fast food outlets into biodiesel. I’m now running on 100% biodiesel with no problems apart from the exhaust smelling like fish and chips! Carbon neutral, how about that! I’m not too worried about the warranty as it ran out last year anyway – I found your blog whilst looking on the web to see if VW had published the results of their biodiesel trials. I’ve seen articles before saying that all VW engines will run ok on 100% biodiesel.
We have to spread this news around – governments, oil companies and big business ignoring global warming is THE major problem facing the whole of humanity and we don’t have much time left before a catastrophe. Sorry about the doom bit at the end there but it isn’t looking good from here – we are getting a lot of info in the UK from TV, newspapers, scientists telling us the message over and over again.
Right on, Richard! Glad to see someone besides me is into this craziness.
Congrats on the car! I bought my first “real car” last March, and it was an ’02 TDI Jetta. Love mine to death. I have taken it to a few GTGs in the area (“GetToGethers”, where a bunch of TDI geeks get together and tweak their cars and help each other with maintenance…). If you ever need any basic diagnostics, let me know. I have a basic VagCom system in my garage, and it’s already saved me a few hundred, just reading my own CELs (Check Engine Lights).
P.S. If you haven’t found it yet, check out . More information about your newfound bestest ride than you can digest in the next month. Best…resource…ever 🙂
P.P.S. Welcome to the ‘zoo!