I have been in love with VW/Audi TDIS for longer than I have beeen into MINIs. We do some specialization in the TDI cars alongside the mINIs at Motoring Magic, so I get to see quite a few. Not a bad choice, many of the forum reliability nits are more personality things than actual issues with build quality imho. TDI Club forums are a MUST READ if youare serious though, link below. I am with you the newest MINIs are not working for me. There is an Audi A3 TDI in my future for sure!
The gti would be a blast...first year on the new "MQB" MODULAR platform gets great review...but for a couple of years need a higher mpg cruiser...
Thought about the 3 cylinder Ford, but decided it was a bit small and the fact it is stick only gets me back to a car the wife cannot/will not drive unless it is a DIRE emergency.....
Getting to think more kindly of ford, they have been doing some great stuff as of late, but not quite ready to put my $$ down yet...
As to keeping it...
If I had a bigger garage, and did not need the $5500 out of it that its worth, would love too keep it....heck did the 2 car thing for a few years....had a 4x4 Tacoma, and a CRX...used the cash from the Tacoma to buy the mini, and a few weeks later got ride of the crx...it was simply gonna rust away....modern cars do better IMO when driven...
So somebody will likely get a sweet running r53 that is in good shape....most important thing in the valuation seemed to be under 100,000 miles....and if I kept it till the end of summer, I would likely just that and the value would take a hit due to winter coming....
Have watched used min in prices, mini hardtops seem to closely mimic cabrio prices...not as huge a swing...but still there.....
My wife had a 1996 TDI Passat wagon, purchased new. With the usual model size inflation, it was the size of today's Jetta. It was VW's reintroduction of diesel to America (after ending the diesel Rabbit many years earlier) and the first year of TDI in North America.
It handled well with good torque and was built well, but the best thing was the range. The combination of high mpg and 18.5 gallon tank meant we consistently did 600-700 miles before refilling. The sales brochure actually claimed it can do a round trip between SF and LA (800 miles) on a single tank, and I don't doubt it for freeway driving. I saw somebody say that by filling slowly, it was possible to load up an overflow tank and go 1000 miles!
It ran great for about 5 years, but then started to spew a lot of fumes and smoke, which the dealer was never able to resolve. I think it was from a combination of first year TDI and low quality diesel fuel in America.
![[IMG]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/VW_Golf_1.6_TDI_BlueMotion_Technology_Comfortline_(VII)_%E2%80%93_Frontansicht,_31._Dezember_2012,_D%C3%BCsseldorf.jpg)
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