The Other McCain

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You’re Darn Right I Bought A VW TDI Diesel Jetta

Posted on | March 25, 2012 | 62 Comments

by Smitty

The TDI diesel is reliable, gets great gas mileage, has decent power, and is available in a manual transmission. Automatic transmissions are as exciting as government entitlements to me. Your mileage may vary. Also, I would certainly have preferred to buy a Ford, except that Ford doesn’t seem to care fig #1 about the commuter market, not offering a diesel below the F350, for my scant research before shopping. I am the customer. Hear me roar on my blog about your need to target me, Ford.

Via Instapundit, those nice vampires of the UAW would like to give VW the suction treatment.

It’s hard for bailed-out GM to compete using $28/hour legacy auto assemblers when VW and other non-union transplants are paying $14-19/hour and (more important) don’t have to deal with UAW-negotiated work rules.

The UAW’s regulations, in 2008, resembled ObamaCare, and for the same reason: both are about preventing the thing they claim to facilitate.
Would #OccupyResoluteDesk and the Abominable Joe-man unleash the NRLB to screw over VW? Hm. The Toyota fracas of a couple years ago, and the Boeing kerfuffle in South Carolina: why, yes: yes, they might. They have to take time off from selling T-Shirts, but yeah.

Update: Best Social Program has linked and abused me at length for Un-American Activities. Sniff.

UPDATE (RSM): Welcome, Instapundit readers!

UPDATE III: linked by Dustbury.

Category: Barack Obama, Economics, Joe Biden

Comments

62 Responses to “You’re Darn Right I Bought A VW TDI Diesel Jetta”

  1. dwduck
    March 26th, 2012 @ 11:21 am

    That’s what you got out of that? Another proud product of the unionized public school system, I imagine.

  2. JimBobElrod
    March 26th, 2012 @ 11:24 am

     I doubt that the Fusion gets better mileage than my 2003 standard tranny VW Jetta TDI. I get minimum 50 mpg (as high as 56 mpg) highway mileage. The worst mileage I’ve gotten is 42 mpg doing suburban type driving in the middle of a Michigan winter.

  3. Alexander Mitchell
    March 26th, 2012 @ 11:49 am

     So, basically 10% more in fuel price (which, actually, I’m not seeing here in Maryland–the difference is 10 to 25 cents) for a 20-40% increase in miles per gallon.

  4. guest
    March 26th, 2012 @ 12:47 pm

    Wrong–over 1/2 of the focus type Fords sold in Europe are diesel powered. They just won’t bring that technology to the US.

  5. subroto
    March 26th, 2012 @ 1:25 pm

    I too bought a Jetta VW diesel.  It was the only rational decision that could be made.  

    Decision points were:
    price : under $28K : jetta, prius, mazda, chevy and ford
    high gas mileage:  over 35 miles in the city: jetta, prius only
    ability to fix mechanical problems:  jetta.  prius is a wholly electronic car.  I put a gps in the Jetta all by lonesome and removed the satellite radio.
    space:  jetta wagon can hold a snootful of stuff.  prius cannot.

  6. Wombat_socho
    March 26th, 2012 @ 1:57 pm

     Mmmm, Kia.

  7. Wombat_socho
    March 26th, 2012 @ 1:58 pm

     STOP YELLING IN OUR COMMENTS SECTION YOU DILLROD

  8. Tim W
    March 26th, 2012 @ 2:16 pm

     My neighbor, a hardcore union Dem, gave me a hard time about the “foreign” car I drove.  When I pointed out that both of my cars were built by companies headquartered in German by Mexican factories, he seemed puzzled.  I then told him that the Chrysler PT cruiser, like my Jetta, was built by German execs and Mexican workers. 

    Not much of a response when I asked him, “So which car are you complaining about again?”

  9. Guest
    March 26th, 2012 @ 4:37 pm

    can’t you pee in the urea tank though?  seriously … but MBUSA didn’t want to suggest to their customers, who tend to be on the higher end of the socioeconomic scale, that they should literally be p-ssing in their cars’ urea injection system tanks.  in europe, where the e-class is oftentimes a standard taxicab, this is less of an issue.  but nonetheless, the urea aftertreatment systems increase backpressure and lower fuel economy.

  10. Jayson K
    March 27th, 2012 @ 1:46 am

     Ford has diesel engines in cars…in europe.  But of course, we can’t have it. Why?

  11. Tuesday Breakfast Links | Points and Figures
    March 27th, 2012 @ 6:30 am

    […] (typeof(addthis_share) == "undefined"){ addthis_share = [];}This isn’t why I bought a diesel. But I really like it. Saves me big time bucks on fuel […]

  12. Bob Belvedere
    March 27th, 2012 @ 1:36 pm

    I prefer to stow it along side my belief that this country’s gone downhill ever since women got the vote.