Strangely, Volkswagen. I got into them when most of my friends had them in college, and have owned them since. My wife and I both have VW diesels. It’s also nice because I only have to collect one set of vehicle specific tools, and a lot of VW products are similarly designed and familiar to work on. 

I can only imagine how hot this thing must get in the sun

I think you confirmed my suspicions about these. I’ve always wondered what the grip was like, and it doesn’t sound like much. I’m perfectly comfortable sliding around, but it’s grip and high-g cornering that bring me the most excitement in driving.

I saw a facelifted Passat like the one in the photo above this morning, I think it is a rather handsome car!

Yes, every year. We live in NH so it’s almost necessary. I have an extra set of wheels and tires for both my car and my wife’s car, which I swap out myself every year. I have already swapped mine, and I plan to swap my wife’s this weekend, even though she works from home. I now have a 60ish mile roundtrip commute, and…

What I listen to in the car has drastically changed recently. My office moved, and I went from having a 10-15 minute commute to having a 45 minute commute. I used to just jam out to whatever Spotify curated for me in my variety of daily mixes, but now I usually listen to a (car) podcast for the majority of my drive,…

Shouts to Hancock! My wife grew up there

YES, especially the part about the unibody. These cars have great chassis rigidity and corrosion protection, particularly for the time. I had a 1999.5 (yes, that’s a thing) Jetta TDI. It smelled like crayons, but gave me years of loyal service. It returned up to 61mpg. I sold it to a friend with 246k, and it was still…

I would be buying another mk4 VW TDI

Not exactly in my neighborhood, but my friend’s mom had a mk1 Audi TT convertible with a stick. She gave me a ride home in it one summer night with the top down, and that was pretty incredible

This is the right answer. The cover photo had it, except 2012 is not the year to get...

This is a reluctant CP. The mileage is low enough, but without knowing when the timing belt was last done, and how much rust actually lurks underneath the car, $4900 is just too much. This could be a $3000 car all day, and with more info could probably fetch up to $4000, but as this car sits now, it is unfortunately a…

In all seriousness, I wonder what the long term effects of all the emissions equipment will be. Being part of the VW TDI community, the ALH engine cars (1999-2003) perform the best, are the most reliable, and get the best fuel economy of any of the VW diesels without DPF, DEF, etc. They do have catalysts and EGR…

only 36 times more emissions than legal? VW laughs at that 🤣

the only people who say you don’t need winter tires are the people who have never had winter tires.

This was one of the most annoying things when I changed from a Jetta TDI (getting 600+ miles/tank), to a Civic Si. Filling up every 250-300 miles. I’m now back in another Jetta TDI, not just because of that, though. 

It seems like a GTI is better in almost every single way. And this thing sells for Golf R money...

Second on the Timesert. They are great, I had to use one in my VW for an engine mount. 

Been there, done that. The engine mount on mk4 VW TDIs bolt into an aluminum bracket on the side of the engine. When I removed a 240k mile engine mount, the threads came with it. I had to drill and heli-coil the bracket (easier than replacing the bracket, which can also be done). I got lucky that it was relatively…

This is the first time I have cared enough to look at actual figures on cargo space. Turns out these have 30.9ft^3 with seats up, and 59.6ft^3 seats down. This is shocking to me, I think of these as larger vehicles. My Jetta Sportwagen has 32.8ft^3 seats up, 66.9ft^3 seats down. Is this just a poor use of space? Why…