Hi I’m Joe wiesenfelder with cars.com here with the 2009 volkswagen jetta TDI it is a clean diesel a milestone it’s the first 50 state diesel car it can be sold even in california which has always been a little bit too stringent for diesel cars it’s technically a TDI jetta TDI TDI stands for turbo direct injection but basically what you need to know is as clean as a gasoline engine so why would you even wanna diesel because they’re more efficient than gasoline only engines of an equal power they’re actually about as much more efficient than a gas engine as a hybrid is this car is rated for about twenty nine miles per gallon city and 40 Highway in reality we’re getting much better numbers independent labs are getting numbers is highest 38 city and 44 highway now you know why you would want to diesel you’re probably thinking you wouldn’t want one because they have a reputation will see how close a modern TDI is to that notion now you may have heard over the years the diesels are hard to start especially when it’s cold out that may have been true one .The addition of glow plugs has helped a lot what happens is you turn the ignition on and you watch for a squiggly line there and once that goes out that means it’s ready to start now the longest you have to wait for that like to go it’s like a second and even in really cold temperatures like zero when i started modern diesel engines the longest you have to wait for the glow plugs maybe ten seconds so it’s not that different from a gasoline engine now as for the sound I’m talking a normal voice and I’m not drowned out by the sound of the engine you’re outside it definitely sounds different you might say that’s a diesel but it’s not loud it’s not noisy now as for the smoky smelly reputation as you can see there’s no smoke here I haven’t seen any smoke but I’ve been driving it and it really doesn’t smell either and that’s partly the the fuel its low sulfur diesel fuel feel a little woozy now in terms of equipment the TDI is somewhere between the SE and the SEL trim levels those are the gas versions really well equipped and the price is just under twenty two thousand dollars also you get a federal tax credit that’s real money that’s not a deduction it’s a credit and then there’s the issue of how much you safe and fuel now people fuel costs more than gasoline now didn’t used to be that way if you do the math between this version and say gasps were in the jetta you’ll probably
find that you’re still going to save money in the long run and you’ll probably pay less for a car like this than you would for the average hybrid now diesel cars in the eighties and nineties were pathetically slow we’re talking 0 to 60 in like 20 seconds seriously this little different this is a turbo diesel it has less horsepower than the gas engine but more torque and that makes for a really robust launch yeah now with a choice of a 6-speed manual or 6-speed automatic this really gives up nothing to a four cylinder gas engine and in fact because it’s a small diesel you don’t even have to add any additional fluid to it which is now the case with some of the larger clean diesel now there’s no doubt diesel filling stations are less common and gas you can find them though go online you can put in a zip code click on diesel and fine filling stations within a certain radius that have diesel fuel now it looks pretty much like most of these conceptions about diesels are misconceptions now overall the modern diesel in the form of the jetta TDI is very impressive for additional information on this car or any other go to cars.com and our blog kicking tires
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