TDI – Why we still love it, and why we are sad about it

By now it should come as no surprise to anyone who owns a  VW or Audi (or Porsche, or Seat, or Skoda) with a TDI engine that there is a bit of a scandal currently, regarding our beloved 2.0 and 3.0 TDI equipped models. There is little point into delving into the nitty gritty details around the actual problem, other than VW basically tricked the system to get the cars to pass NOX levels in testing.

Needless to say, the US EPA, and a whole handful of other regulatory agencies around the planet, weren’t too happy with this. Even more needless to say, many thousands of TDI owners aren’t happy about this, for multiple reasons. Around here, we are not TDI owners (not for lack of want, rather for lack of funds), though we do have a TDI VW in the family, and we’re really bummed out about what’s happening.

At a personal level, we’re bummed because of the overall feeling of being tricked by a huge company, who did the trickery allegedly to save a few dollars or Euros on not installing the urea/AdBlue/DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) systems on the effected cars (or trying to get the cars to use less fluid than really necessary), while still being able to sell the car in the USA. This mostly impacted the A3 TDI here, as well as many VWs with the 2.0TDI engine. As of this moment in time, we do not know what the fix will be, but since those cars don’t have DEF, and they can’t just inject more to clean the exhaust, we have no idea what they plan on doing to rectify the NOX emissions.

Adding insult to injury, because of the heightened focus on VW and Audi, it came to light that the 3.0TDI ALSO had some kind of unapproved programming that made the EPA grumpy, and now even those cars, which have always had DEF here, are being looked at under a microscope.

Again this smacks of “they’ll never notice” kind of thinking. Amazingly enough, the EPA has been down this road before with Mack Trucks and others, in 1998, for this EXACT SAME THING. VW should have known what would happen if they got caught.

So back to why we’re really sad about all of this. It doesn’t come down to being mad at the owners of cars wanting restitution, it doesn’t come from being upset at the big bad government or environmental regulations, it’s not even really about being mad at VW for getting themselves into this mess. It’s because we LOVE the TDI cars. The small cars are so wonderfully powerful and frugal, that they are (were?) the clear alternative to a hybrid when anyone asked our opinion on the matter. TDI cars drive just like real cars, with no huge heavy and expensive battery packs. Everything a gasser can do, a TDI can do, including being fun to drive.

The big Audi TDIs are to us, even better. It shouldn’t be surprising that a small hatchback with a diesel engine can get 50mpg. What is surprising to us is when you can get over 40mpg in an A8L TDI, and still have all of the power and smooth running you could ever want. That’s why we love the TDI, it allows the larger cars to run at economy car levels of fuel consumption, with massive torque available at all times.

We were beyond excited that the TDI models were bringing diesels back into a positive light in the USA, and now we’e bummed out, because once again, they’re looked on by many as being bad, dirty, and undesirable. Which is a shame, because they are anything but.

All we know at this point is we hope this doesn’t signal the end of TDI in the USA. Diesel has always had a rough go here in the land of relatively cheap gas, and honestly, all it should take for anyone who doesn’t like diesel engines to take a long drive in one to fully appreciate how good they are. Some of our best road trips were in TDI powered Audis, and the huge range was a large part of what made these trips so great.