Vee DafuqDidIjustDo Sportwagen

[HAULN-SS]

Behold, my second act of the turbo diesel variety:




Dafuq the headrest at? Nobody knows...


The story:
I got in trouble on the internet by tossing bids around nonchalantly that were so low, there was no possible way I could win - until I did. Shit - had to go pick this bad boy up in Connecticut. Originally a Massachusetts car, went to NH for a couple years, and now in WV.

The details:
2009 TDI Sportwagen, 6sp DSG, 147k miles. Tires are shitty on it, possibly has a bad TPMS, and is throwing a code for some exhaust valve sensor. Also, it was owned by a VERY DIRTY HUMAN who seems to have let their very dirty dog all up in this jank. This probably explains the missing headrest. Clean carfax, plenty of maintenance records on the carfax too, so I play on calling the two dealerships it was serviced at and see if they will send me what they have on it. Is this common request? Don't know yet. All the buttons and features work, so that was pleasantly surprising.

The plan:
Get it detailed, ASAP. Get new tires ASAP - or possibly wheels and tires if I can source some OEM better looking wheels. Under-tray dust shield is busted and hanging low. Need to remove it for now, or wire-tie it up.The front air damn is also not sitting square in the bumper, so I think i need to straighten that up and it will pop right back in place. Need to do some research and figure out what maintenance things I either need to do, or verify have been done. After all that, look into possibly painting those mud flaps body color, and painting that peeled up cover on the bumper. Then drive for lots of miles.

Impressions so far: Drove it back from CT and it never missed a beat over 340 miles. my calculation and the computer came up with 40mpg - so that was pretty awesome. The DSG takes a little bit of getting used to - seems like it wants to downshift pretty quick when you let off the gas at low speeds.

[Kaan]

You so cray cray

[BLINGMW]

well cool! Wish our TDI had that sunroof

[SlimKlim]

Nice!

[HAULN-SS]

Did a little diagnosis on the forums today for that Exhaust Flap Problem - channing pay attention - apparently it was so common for that to fail, VW extended warranty on it to 120k miles. Unfortunately i'm outside of that, but someone did do a nice write-up of how to free it up. I may just ignore the code for a while - it's stuck open, so basically has no effect - and some people just take it out.

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[Senor_Taylor]

This checks a lot of boxes for the MM Wagon Circlejerk.

[.RJ]

Awesome. My girlfriend is picking up a 2012 TDI sportwagen. Nice car.

[Jake]

Sweet! Should be a fun daily.

[BLINGMW]

Exhaust Flap Problem

Sounds like a dumb and removable part. Well, tell me if you see any long term issues with it jammed open. :thumbup:

[WRXtranceformed]

What could go wrong here?

[Evan]

so since the bid was so low, how much was it?

[HAULN-SS]

$6400 was the winning bid. I had some time/effort involved to go get the car, so you could probably add another couple hundred to that. I have been shopping these things on craigslist/ebay/cars.com pretty hard for a while..I'm thinking this is probably an $8000+ car after I get it cleaned up. In fact, on Sunday when I won this on ebay, I had been trying to get down to manassas to see a 2010 that was listed at $8900 that I considered a good deal, that had about 125k miles on it. The guy selling that car was a moron, but it was a good price, but someone bought it before I could get down there. That was the 2nd one of these I had missed in the $8k's because someone bought it so fast before I could get there. Most of the listings for these things are crazy - you would expect well over 200k miles for the price I paid, and possibly old body style wagon, salvage title, etc. For example, here's a 2003 listed for $9000 that has similar miles, clean title,

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I don't know what that guy will get for that car, but it has 30 watchers on it

[WRXtranceformed]

We have very different thresholds on what would be "so low I couldn't not bid on it" for a car like that, but once you get it cleaned up and the maintenance checked & up to date, hopefully it will give you a ton of miles. The fact that it was a northern car and also resided in WV where the weather is terrible pretty much constantly throughout the year (ask me how i know) would have probably set my bid limit a LOT lower than what you pulled the trigger on.

What MPG were you getting in your Malibu or whatever rental car commuter it was you had?

[HAULN-SS]

Just got off the phone with the dealers listed on the carfax. Turns out it did actually have pretty good maintenance. Timing belt was done on time, fluids and filters all changed regularly, etc. Glad to hear I don't have a ticking time bomb on my hands.

Malibu got about 27mpg, and so does the Cadillac actually. Wasn't so much about gas mileage as a reason for getting it, so much as keeping miles and wear and tear off my nicer cars. However, in cost per 100 miles it'll save me about $4 a day at current gas prices, more if it goes up.

[SlimKlim]

So when are you getting it tuned?

[HAULN-SS]

Is that a thing? for MPGees or Powers or what? Im actually pleasantly surprised this thing can get out of its own way pretty decently. I think most of that has to do with the transmission perhaps? The last automatics I've driven were old school 4 speeds in both the Malibu, and 23 years old Monte Carlo. This thing seems to do a pretty good job of picking the right gear. Also kind of weird to feel it downshift when you let off the gas at low speeds in a parking lot or something.

[.RJ]

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The motor are tanks, my dad has a 2000-ish Jetta TDI 4 door with almost 300k on it. Once you get it cleaned up it'll be a nice car and you should be able to drive it a few years and sell it for what you have in it.

[SlimKlim]

Is that a thing? for MPGees or Powers or what? Im actually pleasantly surprised this thing can get out of its own way pretty decently. I think most of that has to do with the transmission perhaps? The last automatics I've driven were old school 4 speeds in both the Malibu, and 23 years old Monte Carlo. This thing seems to do a pretty good job of picking the right gear. Also kind of weird to feel it downshift when you let off the gas at low speeds in a parking lot or something.

Well it has 240 torques out of the box so a combination of that and the DSG will get you where you need to go. I did notice an improvement in MPG on my MKV GTI after the tune, I dont know if the same principal applies to the diesels, but a "Stage 1" would get you over 280ft-lbs, which is a lot.

You'll get used to the dual-clutch quirks. I wonder if the TDI DSGs are exactly the same as the GTI or if they're toned down in some way. My MKV was a little harsh about coming to a stop and engaging the clutch from a stop, but otherwise it was pretty buttery. It doesn't seem like the downshifts are happening too soon does it? You can feel mine doing it too, but it's typically when the RPMs have fallen down close to idle.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Tune tune tune tune tune

[HAULN-SS]

Hmm..Good info. I like that APR tune you linked below has a 30 day refund no questions asked. The caddy has 260 torques and moves along pretty well too. $600 is a little more than I want to put into it right this second, but may do that after the newness wears off.

I'll have to pay more attention to the shifting patterns of the DSG and get back to you on that. All I know about it right now is that it's noticeable compared to my old torque converter automatics