I'm not 100% sure if I'll get the ext warranty or not. My understanding is that you don't have to purchase it right away anyway. Like the Kawasaki GTPP, you can buy it later as long as the original warranty is in effect.

Yep, gonna test drive a JSW TDI Friday afternoon. The car with my name on it, I put down a $500 deposit, is on it's was from Houston to Chicago at this moment.

I figured at %0 I really couldnt go wrong, I'm not sure I would have if it (extended warranty) had been at 1.9..  I look forward to your impression, like I said before, this is by far the most luxurious new car I have ever owned.  On the chip, well, if it improves economy by %30 I'm all over it, it really has enough power as she comes, if it wasn't for the traction controll shw would easily smoke the tires, I can get wheel spin when I'm merging with traffic, well, at least until the system kicks in.  Passes and passing is effortless, if I end up with a hitch kit to pull the KLR and YZ around I may be interested as I would be pulling them over 2 mountain passes, but till then I'm more than happy with what she has.

Chet,

Test drive Friday afternoon, so I'll give you my impressions Sat morn over coffee.   

 My car may even be there Friday when we get there, so I may even have the car on Sat.

You have this stereo/nav system right, the RNS315 GPS system?

Volkswagen RNS315 GPS system demo, review, and tips in a VW Jetta TDI

Does it have HD radio on it? I've read conflicting reports on that.

Also, for the TPMS, does it tell you the PSI of each tire (using sensors in each tire like the C14) or just if one is low (using the ABS system)?

Chet,

Test drive Friday afternoon, so I'll give you my impressions Sat morn over coffee.   

 My car may even be there Friday when we get there, so I may even have the car on Sat.

You have this stereo/nav system right, the RNS315 GPS system?

Volkswagen RNS315 GPS system demo, review, and tips in a VW Jetta TDI

Does it have HD radio on it? I've read conflicting reports on that.

Also, for the TPMS, does it tell you the PSI of each tire (using sensors in each tire like the C14) or just if one is low (using the ABS system)?

Same radio, but I dont think it has the HD radio and the heat controls aren't there, other then that it is the same as pictured.  The TPMS doesn't have the readout, that would be nice to have.  I'm looking forward to your review, enjoy the test ride.

pics!?

pics!?

Skys just haven't been nice enough yet, well, I'm guilty, I've just been enjoying it too much, I'll see what I can do tomorow, for a slow black color, she really does look nice.

So we took a trip into Chicago yesterday and had our test drive. The dealership is just about right in the heart of downtown and the entire area is mostly high end car dealers. We pulled into the dealer's parking garage and for the first time in my life I had a valet park my car. I didn't like that one bit to tell you the truth. I told the valet that and he laughed and said not to worry, he'd take good care of my car. 

The dealer's indoor showroom is amazing, all high-tech and VERY nice. Beautiful new cars as far as the eye can see. I had to check out some Audis while I waited for the porter to bring the car we were going to test drive around to the front.

NICE car! We tested a black/black Jetta Sportwagen TDI DSG w/sunroof no nav. (the Jetta we're buying does have nav)

We sat in the car for a bit out front while the salesman told us about the car. I half listened (I've been reading lots on the car so I already knew most of what he was telling us) while I played with the switches and buttons, checking everything out. That sunroof is GREAT! Quality everything and so far I'm loving the car. I started her up and the lil diesel is so quiet and smooth as a top! I pulled out into traffic and we headed for Lake Shore drive.

The first thing that I noticed, other than the traffic (traffic was a mess and those freakin taxi drivers are crazy!) was how solid and planted the car felt. The lil 2.0 has some serious get up and go, it's way more peppy than I thought that it would be. The DSG is so smooth and the shifting is seamless.

I drove for a bit and then it was my wife's turn. We both agreed, we love the car.

Back at the dealership and I'm checking the car out more closely. I check under the 'bonnet' and they sure did shoehorn that TDI into that compartment. Every square inch of space is filled and I imagine it would be a nightmare to have to work on anything in there. Again, quality everything and great attention to detail in the design and engineering. 

At this point the salesman is just standing back and giving me some room to look at everything. He asks us what we think and we look at each other and say sold!

We went back inside and filled out some paperwork. Our salesman was very personable and didn't try to feed me any BS. In fact, the whole process was a pleasure. Now we just have to wait for our Jetta to be delivered. It should be any day now. I'm planning on going back to Chicago and picking the car up on Thursday. 

As we were heading for the door I mention to the salesman that I had looked online for a owner's manual because I wanted to read it before we picked up the car. He said hold on. He went back to the car we just drove and grabbed the manual out of it and handed it to me.   

Sounds like a great dealer experience. Rare in this day. Congrats.

The lil 2.0 has some serious get up and go, it's way more peppy than I thought that it would be. 
 

Gotta love forced induction!
It's a shame the small American cars/trucks never got into this. 
I have an eye on one of those Audi's myself but you can't get any of the good diesels here except in the big SUV (Q7?)

I want something like this

Except built towards rally! 
And of course lucky 13!

Sounds like you made a nice choice though. Congratulations!

I've never understood why this country is so anti-diesel.

Sounds like a great dealer experience. Rare in this day. Congrats.

Thanks Pinky.

Of all the dealers I've had to deal with in the past, this one is by far the best. I'm actually surprised that with all the 'overhead' this dealer must have that they're able to give me such a good price on the car. As I menioned, $500 under invoice.

I've never understood why this country is so anti-diesel.

I think that this car could change a lot of folks minds about diesel. Standing behind the car while running I couldn't even smell the exhaust and there was zero soot in the tailpipe. It's a brand new car of course but you could have put on a white glove and wiped the inside of the tailpipe and come back clean. 

Sounds just like my experience   I still dont have any soot showing, that's after 1600 miles.  The motor and tranny (DSG) are so smooth, and like Conrad said, seemless.  I found out that if you begin the drive when in Manual mode it will automatically shift when you hit redline and it will automatically shift down when the engines RPMs will match.  Sport mode simply allows more RPMs before it up shifts and will downshift sooner.  I have been practicing my hyper miling, I will shift to neutral as I am approaching a stop light, just dont forget to have your foot on the brake when you go to shift back into Drive when you're at a stop, and dont forget that it is in neutral.  That is how smooth this tranny is.
I got 46 MPG last night, mix of highway and city/urban driving with plenty of hills.  Like I said earlier, I look forward to driving this car, I am challenging my self to get a tank of fuel to average 50 MPG.

I've never understood why this country is so anti-diesel.

Her's a pic of why:

?

?

Gm's experiment in diesels in the mid 70's

Diesel was not taxed as high as petrol in Europe so it florished . If in the USA you paying over $10 per gallon for petrol and diesel was 30% cheaper diesel engines would have been everywhere just like Europe.

I was looking at the VW range in Australia and we get a few different model that you do not get and we do not get some that you get . But we get SCREWED  on price and I do mean SCREWED
 

Passat 125TDI Highline Sedan 6 Spd DSG
$48,962.50*
http://www.volkswagen.com.au/en/models/passat/Pricing.html

USA priced $26000
http://www.vw.com/portal/en/configurator#10110/11002/50

It's not all tax most is PROFIT for VW

Gm's experiment in diesels in the mid 70's

I'm not following, was that a bad motor or something?

I have a 6.6l Duramax in my Silverado, along with an Allison transmission, and that combo is great! My truck has a full sized bed and 4 doors, it's a BFT for sure and I get nearly 20mpg on the highway. When I'm pulling the 5th wheel I get around 12mpg, unless I'm dealing with a headwind then it can drop to as low as 8mpg. The fuel economy that I get pulling is better than some get without a trailer attached.

That was an experiment in gas motor to diesel I think.

GM screwed up in the 70's with diesel same as they are screwing up today with batteries (Volt car).  A unionized company, what can one expect?

Anyway, HOW GM screwed up back in the day is they tried to convert their gas junk engines to diesel. 

I'd be a lot poorer if it wasn't for GM and the folks that love them.....VBG.

I had 3 of the 350 big blocks that nobody wanted.....until someone figured out that you could pull the diesel and put in a 350....big block only.

From boat anchors to gold overnight.

Had a 79 diesel rabbit that the DPO had put larger tires onto in the hope of getting even better fuel economy.It couldn't even get out of it's own way until I switched the tires back to OE sizing. Then it was a beast with 50 hp.....if it would have had AC I probably would have kept it a lot longer.