It has begun

[eluwak]

Well... The decision has been made, we will have a minivan.

I have been diagnosed with Arthritis in my left wrist and some other crap is going on there too which makes it somewhat painful for my to use that hand for steering. My Jetta is a 5spd... If you connect the dots then you know I can't drive without letting go of the wheel at strategic times and this is bad.

We've come to two choices here as many do: Honda Odyssey EX-L RES+NAV or Toyota Sienna XLE + goodies. I like the Sienna as it's more comfortable for me to drive (there just isn't a real comfy spot in the Odyssey). My wife likes the Odyssey because it's Honda and the features are a little more to out liking, plus it's cheaper sorta.

We'll see which one we end up with... I have the call out for the Odyssey at the dealer now and am waiting for them to confirm they have it or can get it quickly. If they give me grief I'll head to the Toyota dealer where I know they deal.

If we get the Odyssey that will mean I'll get the Pilot as my daily... It's gonna suck going from 45-50 MPG to 22-24 MPG

[stmc378]

Mind if I ask....much as I love my Pilot, which I do, and much as this is the best forum on the net. Why get rid of the Jetta rather than the Pilot. Is there any reason that you would want to have 2 large vehicles in your household? It just seems like it makes more sense to have one car and one larger vehicle so that you can have the utility of the larger vehicle when you need it and the economy of the smaller when you don't.

-S-

[eluwak]

My wife wants a minivan for various reasons. It's not financially feasible to get rid of the Pilot at the moment. My Jetta is a 5spd which I have difficulty driving at the moment and my wife and manuals is kind of like oil and water. I had thought about another car but any car I would consider right now gets around the same economy. Did I mention my wife wants a minivan? I'm going to drive the Pilot until some new diesels start showing up. I loved driving my stick... it saddens me to give it up but I need to. Oh, and my wife wants a minivan.

[stmc378]

Soooooo......let me get this straight.....your wife wants a minivan? It wasn't really clear with your post.
-S-

[JimB823]

I'll bet his wife wants a minivan and he just doesn't want to say so

[eluwak]

Originally posted by JimB823
I'll bet his wife wants a minivan and he just doesn't want to say so

Who told!

[TheEaglePilot]

Originally posted by eluwak
45-50 MPG

Uhhh... I don't know of any Jetta that gets that kind of mileage. That's Prius territory. And even that is only by ratings, not real-world performance.

Chris

[eluwak]

Originally posted by TheEaglePilot


Uhhh... I don't know of any Jetta that gets that kind of mileage. That's Prius territory. And even that is only by ratings, not real-world performance.

Chris

TDIs do. If you go by the computer it's 50-55 MPG but it's a wee bit optimistic (VWs have fast speedometers and right on odometers) Depending on the year you can get up to the 70 MPG range with practice.

This is my third an my families fifth diesel VW and all of them have exceeded EPA estimates without having to drive like a grandma

<edit> I had a friend by the name of Jon Bartlett who actually won a national fuel economy/alternate fuel type competition a few years back (2003?) in his 1996 Passat TDI. The competition's panel tried everything under the sun to disqualify him because they couldn't believe an 8 year old diesel could outdo all of the EV, Hybrids, etc. that he competed against.

[TheEaglePilot]

Originally posted by eluwak


TDIs do. If you go by the computer it's 50-55 MPG but it's a wee bit optimistic (VWs have fast speedometers and right on odometers) Depending on the year you can get up to the 70 MPG range with practice.

Wow... sign me up...

[robrecht]

Sorry to hear about the arthritis, eluwak.

And the minivan too! Poor guy, another one bites the dust. Where you located? Got Winter? I've always been interested in the AWD Sienna but not sure I'd like the run-flats and they're pretty expensive.

So why does the wife want a minivan, anyway? Got more than 2 kids?

[larryziegler]

Originally posted by TheEaglePilot


Uhhh... I don't know of any Jetta that gets that kind of mileage. That's Prius territory. And even that is only by ratings, not real-world performance.

Chris

The claim of 45-50mpg out of a VW TDI is very realistic. The older VW pre PD diesels get even better mileage. I have a 99 gas Beetle and also belong to the newbeetle.org forums, where everybody who owns a diesel swears by them and a few of them do use biodiesel with excellent results..

This taken from wikipedia.com pretty well summarizes the VW diesel:

Like all diesel engines, TDI engines can run on petrodiesel or biodiesel. When converted properly, one can be made to also run on straight vegetable oil (SVO) or waste vegetable oil (WVO). Most conversions also make it possible to run on kerosene.

In terms of fuel efficiency, and clean emissions when run on biodiesel or SVO/WVO, TDI engines are among the best on the market. This is often overlooked because they do not drive on gasoline. The common Volkswagen 1.9L TDI, officially gets between 37-57 mpg for the automatic and 42-61 mpg for the 5-speed.

Newer TDI engines, with higher injection pressures, are less forgiving about poor-quality fuel than their 1980s ancestors. No. 2 diesel fuel is recommended since it has a higher cetane number than No. 1 fuel and has lower viscosity (better ability to flow) than heavier fuel oils. Many enthusiasts have converted their TDI cars to run on SVO or WVO by installing devices that pre-heat the oil to lower its viscosity, as the viscosity of unrefined oil is much higher than petrodiesel or biodiesel

[eluwak]

Wow... That was easy... We pick up our new EX-L RES+NAV tomorrow.

I have never had an easier negotiation process

[eluwak]

Originally posted by robrecht
Sorry to hear about the arthritis, eluwak.

And the minivan too! Poor guy, another one bites the dust. Where you located? Got Winter? I've always been interested in the AWD Sienna but not sure I'd like the run-flats and they're pretty expensive.

So why does the wife want a minivan, anyway? Got more than 2 kids?

I may end up driving it after all... For some reason I was able to get the telescoping wheel to come out a little further than I had before and I think I may have a fix for the arm rest being too low. Those were my two major gripes.

The Pilot is a great car but it lacks cargo room using all three rows which we thought wouldn't be an issue. As it turns out we're always loading up folks (we have lot's of family here) to do do things. We're working on our next kids so we figured we might as well just upgrade and get it over with. Honestly the Odyssey is a really nice vehicle and we got it for great deal.

[il38694]

Originally posted by eluwak
Wow... That was easy... We pick up our new EX-L RES+NAV tomorrow.

I have never had an easier negotiation process

I am thinking about the same model too. May I ask how much you pay for the van?

[rocky]

VW TDIs do get great MPG. Drove a Diesel Ford Mondeo in Europe recently 40mpg great engine.

I could easily see a Pilot Diesel in my future, if it made $$$ sense. If not, my oldest takes the Pilot to College in 2014, I'll get a diesel CRV.