2006 Jetta TDI. I know it’s one of the ‘dirtier’ ones, but I get 40 mpg. Having pangs about how much carbon I am spewing into the atmosphere. Do the high mpgs make up for the dirt? If I got cleaner car with fewer mpg, would it really be cleaner or would my EPM (emissions per mile) be the same?
The 2006 Jetta diesel didn’t have exceptional fuel economy. It was rated at about 33 MPG (diesel) compared to about 30 MPG for the top-selling gas cars in its class. It was also slower and cost more to drive by mile on average due to the higher cost of diesel fuel in America. Carbon emissions of affordable diesel cars are higher than gas cars across the board, not just when VW cheats the emissions. They consume more petroleum as well. They also emit higher pollutants of other types like NOX. These are not opinions. Just facts.
Do what you like. That vehicle has almost zero advantages over any equivalent gas-powered car of its era and it pollutes more than any new vehicle by a meaningful amount. If you get 40 MPG now (measured at the pump, not read off the false dash display) imaging how well you will do with a car like a Civic or Prius.
Don’t worry about it unless you are planning to have the car crushed. If you sell it and get a different car then some other individual human life-form will be driving it and filling the sky with carbon (Oh the humanity!
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Drive this bad boy and do something nice for your home planet to compensate…
Do you drive to work or school? Walk, ride a bike or move closer.
Eat meat? Switch to a plant-based diet.
Have a pet? Get rid of it or when it kicks the bucket, don’t replace it.
Heat or air condition your home? Turn the heat thermostat down, way down and turn the air conditioner thermostat up, way up. Dress accordingly.
Be creative. Don’t worry about the carbon from this car. You have to live. When the car dies, crush it and then replace with a car so clean that it will make up for it!
Hug a tree and be happy.
CSA
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Live closer to work. Walk or ride your bike. Don’t breath too heavily - you spew carbon dioxide. Try not to eat veggies that give you gas - methane is a HUGE greenhouse gas.
You can drive yourself crazy listening to all the gloom and doomers. Do what you can do and live on.
China is doing virtually nothing to reduce carbon output and is now the biggest contributor. India is also a big player and doing virtually nothing as well. And you can do nothing about that.
The 2006 VW diesels were before the NOX cheating scandal. And they don’t emit more CO2 than other vehicles with similar (good) mpgs. What they do emit is lots of particulates (soot) which I guess is a form of carbon. Up to you, it’s 13 years old, replace it if you’ll feel better.
And no more back yard barbecues, and no more back yards, or mowing, or fire places, or flying, or going anywhere. Just sit there and try not to breath. Things will work out.
The EPA testing methodology really doesn’t play to diesel’s strengths. Everyone that I know that’s ever had a VW TDI easily exceeded the EPA’s estimates for fuel economy by a fairly significant margin. The guy down the street has TDI Jetta and a TDI Beetle he claims 38-40MPG in mixed driving with thrift reaching upwards of 46-48 MPG on long highway stretches. Same deal with everyone I’ve ever met who drove one, without fail, everyone seems to get around 35-42 MPG combined, and 42-50 MPG on road trips. The 6 cylinder BMW 3 series (335d) that they sold in the U.S. was know to get much better real world fuel economy as well. One of my father’s friends had, one that I got to drive on a couple of occasions, first time I drove the car, I noticed that his average MPG was reading a little over 35 MPG, he said he hadn’t reset it in a couple weeks, that car was supposed to average 27 MPG overall.
You are right and it is a good point. Many owners do report MPG results better than the EPA estimates. Some are valid. Mostly those who use the cars on the highway. The EPA testing is imperfect for sure, but what is really imperfect by design is the MPG display in vehicles. There are no requirements that those MPG displays be accurate and they run very optimistic. In routine testing, we fine gasoline cars exceed EPA estimates all the time. Based on measurements at the pump. Notably the Honda Civic.
I have owned minivans since 1991. Now many cars get better gas mileage than I do with my minivan. Therefore, I am leaving a larger carbon footprint than if I owned a Honda Civic.
However, there is another side to this story. Once a week, four to six of us pile into the minivan and make a 30 mile round trip with our instruments to a band rehearsal. If I didn’t own a van but a Honda Civic, we would have to take two vehicles. Now I am making a smaller carbon footprint by owning a minivan as opposed to a Honda Civic.
If that’s the worse transgression in your life, you’re doing pretty good. If you like the vehicle, maintain it, don’t bypass any emissions controls it does have, and live your life.