Volkswagen Golf Turbo-Diesel Hybrid Too Expensive for Production

Nooooooooooo!

I doubt it was too expensive to make, its prolly to expensive for BIG OIL. greedy oil barrons....

Put away the tin foil hat, ANON. $5000 premium for the diesel and $5000+ premium for the hybrid system means it would be too expensive. A few people might be willing to buy it but not enough to make it profitable for VW.

Son of a bitch. I really wanted one of those, too!

Please contact Volkswagen customer service and voice your opinion on this model to them directly! I just sent them a message myself voicing my dissatisfaction!

http://www.vw.com/customerservice/contactus/en/us/#

First off, diesel at a $5000 premium is a North American rip off issue. Diesels are common in Europe therefore we need to address this obvious price disparity.

Second the hybrid system is less than $3000 and is almost always offset by tax breaks, I honestly have no clue where you pulled the $5000+ for the hybrid system. I'm guessing that a magical wizard appeared to tell you... stop believing the drunken wizard who is quick with numbers.

Third, with gas prices at $120 the more your car uses the better off the 5 major oil companies are. No tin foil hat is involved in this just simple corporate greed. Why do you think Canada's oil sands were being developed at break neck speed. Even Albertans were saying that the pace should be slowed for the purposes of exploiting the resource when royalties would be greater from higher prices.

Simple economics for the oil companies minimize costs while maximizing profits. Too many fuel efficient cars are bad for business.

:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(

I was planning on trading my car in for one of those when it came here...Can't any company out there create a good car with good gas mileage? I know it's possible!!!!

This definitely sucks.

Relax, it'll all be here before you know it. There's no stopping PHEVs and BEVs. I think this is why VW backed off on this. Also, 70MPG for all that extra nonsense when the current TDI's already get 50MPG? As much as I loved the idea of this car, I knew those numbers would not make it viable.

Willy, I certainly hope you're right.

But perosnally, I think the hybrid was worth it. 20 more miles per gallons is nothing to sneeze at. That's all that most vehicles get, actually!

And it would have made it better in the city, where I do most of my driving, and would have reduced emissions.

Ha! that's why we decide to not wait anymore and we are building our own electric Golf.

www.miamiEVproject.com

I can't believe this. This was the first car I've been excited about buying in years. I'm so dissapointed and sad. I love Volkswagen and thought this was a dream come true. VW and a Hybrid, how awesome. Now gone. THIS SUCKS.

saintchuck is right. The economics for this product are not favorable. Clean diesel engine plus DSG plus hybird system would make for one hell of an expensive compact.

In the US, the price of fuel just isn't yet high enough offset the additional cost in a reasonable amount of time (important to most buyers), especially with diesel selling higher than gasoline, and neither VW nor diesels being all that popular here.

In Europe where VW's and diesels are fairly common and fuel is much more expensive, Europeans also have more options to choose from. Why buy a Golf TDI hybrid when you could buy a standard Polo TDI with nearly the same efficiency for half the price?

Concepts are shown to gauge pulbic interest in a product or feature. They would have needed a strong emotional response to outweigh the cost to have any reasonable expectation of success. I assume they did not get as much as they needed.

Darn it all, I was really excited about that car. We have a TDI Bug already, I was really hoping to get the TDI hybrid when it came out.

I DID THE SAME.
You have to click on the VW info center email link.
The other is for VW owners.

Please contact Volkswagen customer service and voice your opinion on this model to them directly! I just sent them a message myself voicing my dissatisfaction!

http://www.vw.com/customerservice/contactus/en/us/#

Alisa, Scott, Nikita, Nerdsavant, et. al.,

How much would you be willing to pay for this vehicle? $30,000? $35,000? $40,000? $45,000?

Hybrids tend to be offered first on higher contented (loaded) models. It reduces the proportional increase in the price and increases the profit margin of the vehicle. Jettas (the more likely US model to receive the system) already approach $35,000 fully loaded. The cost of this system could be $10,000 above that. Would you pay $45,000 for a Jetta?

If they can make a Prius in the 20-30k range, they could make a Golf diesel hybrid in the 25-35k range, which is a price range that sells lots and lots of volume.

ANON,

Where are you getting $45,000 for a Jetta?!? A 2005 Jetta TDI was about $23,000. So add $3000 more for a hybrid, and take $2000 tax credit. $24,000 for a nice Jetta that gets 70mpg!!! Sign me up. Even without the tax credit you're only talking $26,000.

Please. The current Polo Diesel gives you 70mpg. Please google vW Polo Diesel, click on specs and see for yourselves.

Forget about gas/diesel. Electric!!!

I love my diesel bug. However...with more bonehead decisions like this my next car might be a Honda. Honda is now far and away the most eco-minded car company.

Diesel sounds good but recent papers show that Nox emission is much worse than co2 emission in its impact on global warming. These diesel cars barely pass the nox emission standards. What's is their true worth for the environment, I wonder?

Diesel sounds good but recent papers show that Nox emission is much worse than co2 emission in its impact on global warming. These diesel cars barely pass the nox emission standards. What's is their true worth for the environment, I wonder?

The US car market is stupid ... people care more about the CHPP (that would be cup holders per person) than the MPG. In the UK, I can get a Polo 3/5 Door 1.4 TDI (with A/C) with DPF BLUEMOTION and it gets over 70mpg according to official government stats. You can view the stats and the sheer number of vehicles that get these levels of fuel efficiency at VCA Car Fuel Data.

The problem with the ICE engine is that no matter what you do, it wastes all of its energy as heat and it is horribly complicated. The only way to make it more efficient is to ad complexity which drives up cost and maintenance and hurts reliability.

The “Diesel Works in Europe” argument is bogus. The reason it works is because there diesel emission standards are ridiculously lenient. Diesel is dirty fuel and in order to clean up that tailpipe, the emission systems are complex and expensive. That is why VW is not selling the normal Jetta TDI in the US since 2006. To hybridize this monstrosity, is asinine.

People need to think of simple ways to transport themselves that and that is walking, transit, bicycle. If you need to transport yourself in thousands of pounds worth of steel, then lets look to BEVs and REEVs, not diesel, not biofuels.

"Where are you getting $45,000 for a Jetta?!? A 2005 Jetta TDI was about $23,000."

The 2005 TDI does not meet current emission standards. The clean diesel system will be required for that, which has not been officially priced is likely to be higher than the 2005. Manufacturers also tend to introduce hybrids on "loaded" models. Without a base price for a TDI to start with, I priced a gasoline Jetta online. It didn't take many options to push it close to $35,000 (that's without TDI, DSG, or hybrid system). If saintchuck is right that the cost of the diesel-hybrid could add $10,000, you'd end up with a $45,000 Jetta.

Of course it could be lower. If you notice, I suggested prices as low as $30,000. The point was that several people have already indicated that they were ready to purchase a VW diesel-hybrid, which I thought was rediculous considering that they had no idea what the price would be. Odds are, once the price was announced, many would decide to keep driving their 2005 TDI.

go ride a bike

From the people that apparently invented common rail diesel tech, Fiat has now launched a new technology called MultiAir, which beefs up a 2-cylinder petrol engine to provide enough power for a small car, but with 69g CO2/km. At the moment, the best small diesel cars are up around 100-120g/km, so this looks set to deliver some real efficiency savings. just google 'fiat+multiair'.

Booo Hoooo, too expensive. What a bunch of crap. Which VW isn't too expensive? Oh well, it was just too expensive to change our self-destructive ways. Better to die with lots of toys, right?

Well, the Hummers weren't cheap, but they made a fortune. I think the issue is that Treehuggers are too poor, or more like ly, too cheap. Just like all the posts about solar panels "I'll 'go green' when it's cheaper." Mal-Mart has a credit card with your name on it waiting at the checkout line.

The expense of the propsed vehicle is much more important than some commentators seem to believe.

Consider that a higher cost vehicle uses more resources to produce than a lower cost vehicle.

If the greater resources required to produce this car exceed the value of the energy resources saved, it would actually be a WASTE of resources to produce this car.

Kramer said:

"Consider that a higher cost vehicle uses more resources to produce than a lower cost vehicle.

If the greater resources required to produce this car exceed the value of the energy resources saved, it would actually be a WASTE of resources to produce this car."

The difference isn't very big. A few kilos, maybe a few tens of kilos, of stuff here and there.. If over the life of the vehicle that means thousands and thousands of gallons of gasoline or diesel not used, that's certainly worth it. Especially since most stuff in cars can be recycled, while burnt fossil fuels are gone.

I've two Jettas now (1994, 2004). I'd buy the diesel hybrid no problem. It would get great mileage and the engine would last forever.

I have a 2001 Golf TDI and have been dreaming of the day I will be able to replace it with a TDI Hybrid this is a very poor decision on VWs part IMHO. Now I'll probably just keep my 2001 till the wheels fall off. BTW show me how I can buy this Polo TDI with 70+ MPG in California easily and I'll show some interest, but isn't it smaller than the Golf?? and most likely won't ever be offered in the USA??

Turbo diesels cost a lot more than their gasoline equivalents and have shorter service intervals and more expensive service costs. Diesel cars pollute more are smelly and smoke more. Diesel fuel also costs a darn sight more than gasoline. Heaven help you if the Turbo packs up. Your most economical motor car would be a 1400 to 1600cc gasoline car. Hybrid cars are far too expensive. Electric cars simply move the pollution from the car's tailpipe to the power station. The only answer really is to get people out of their cars and into efficient, comfortable, reliable and safe forms of public transport.

MH, you need to look into diesels before you make false acusations. they are quieter cleaner and more fuel efficent than the ones you must be thinking of. my 3/4 ton chevy pickup returns 22-24mpg on the highway, 17-18mpg city and my emmisions were better than my sentra. diesels will be Americas best option considering we can burn just about anything through them. algae, restaraunt grease among other things. gas engines best option is only ethanol, mileage is 1-2 mpg worse and it is burning our food source which is already hurting. considering the fact that a vw tdi already returns 50mpg or better in some cases and also produces enough torque to safely perform highway passing and merging, they are great reliable machines! Go test drive any new diesel, I promise you will be pleasantly surprised by the refinement, power, and economy they offer.

The answer friends is electric cars and nuclear power plus renewable solar and wind. Please visit www.LionEV.com to see how easy it would be for Ford Motor co. to sell an all electric Escape today - no research, no DOE grants, just a plain old Escape with electric drive that costs about 1/3 per mile in fuel cost compared to a gas or diesel vehicle. If you don't want solar panels or a windturbine in the side yard ( I want both myself) you could vote for John McCain and support the resurgence of nuclear power instead of sending Billions to Saudi and Iraqi sheiks - stop Bush from saber rattling and oil premium will come down. Its not the speculators who are causing high crude prices - its the GD president of the United States and his assinine foreign policy or should I just call it war policy that has allowed this oil crisis.

Two words: CARBON FIBER. Carbon fiber is 'too expensive to produce', too, but to go ahead and begin production will reduce that expense, to go ahead and begin production across the board will take lower, to go ahead and begin production by other brands, too, that would take that expense to a manageably lower level. Cars, and especially wheels and tires, have just GOT to get lighter, MUCH lighter. Heavy vehicles require big engines, big brakes, big, big big. We have got to scale back our misuse of heavy components in vehicles, substituting much lighter components.

Personnaly I wouldnt bother with another VW.
Having recently purchased the 1.4 TSI GT and experienced VW arrogant customer service and refusal to address quality problems with the car's braking system whilst under warranty. After 9 months of frustration have taken the car to another non VW dealer who can easily repair the problem.