For the first time I never thought of being interested in a VW product

For the first time I never thought of being interested in a VW product.
brother in-law has one of these "MK3 Jetta TDI" and says he can drive 6 hours straight and it'll only cost him 20$.
I was looking for a daily commuter the other day and these came to my mind. I did a bit of research and haven't found conclusive answers..
>are they reliable?
>do they have dem EM PEE GEES?
>Does it break/electric gremlins that volks apparently suffer from?
If I end up buying one, It will also be my first diesel. I know next to nothing about diesels except the fact that they don't have spark plugs.
A lot of engine codes came to my mind when reading up on these: ALU ALH
I really want the Mk3 one, I like the style of it and it's boxy "volvo-looking" body.
thoughts?

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They are reasonably realiable, but they do break somethimes, though it's rarely the engine itself, mostly stuff like the starter motor, wipers, etc.
I did 850 kilometers using 42 liters of diesel, don't know how does that translate to MPGs, but yeah, they are economical.

Source: I DD one

TOO
SOON
JUNIOR

>I literally have not read one piece of news about VW diesels in the last 2 years

Dieselgate does not apply to older VW diesels. Are you implying that Dieselgate affected VW diesel engines are bad? They may have been bypassing emissions regulations to provide proper fuel consumption and reliability (like everyone else), but they only gave benefits to each car the engine was put into.

Doubt that applies to older Diesels

Around 47 US mpg's if my math was correct.

Ahh, thanks.
I did that 42l/850km thing because I wanted to test how accurate was the onboard computer's fuel consumption. Turned out, it was pretty accurate. I did it in winter, I'm guessing it was minus 7/8 degree Celsius, commuting about 35 kilometers on the highway and about 8 kilometers trough city. I was also driving it normally, not trying to get the lowest fuel consumption, but to get the actual average, so I'd say it's not a bad result.

The 1.9TDI is the one to get. Not the smoothest or most refined engine, but damn near unkillable and empeegees out the ass.
Shit around it tends to break from time to time, but VWs from this era are at least easy enough to work on.

thank you for the input kind user, so I am guessing the mk3 Jetta is the 1.9TDI?
what is an ALH and ALU and which one is the best or if it even matters..
I have heard constant horror stories about electrical problems and it steers me off

The ALH engine is a variant of the 1.9TDI, putting out 66kW and 210Nm. Found in the mk4 Golfs, Jettas, Passats and so on.
The AHU is its predecessor, found in the mk3 Jetta and Golf TDI. They're pretty much the same engine.

Mk3s don't have many electronics to fuck up yet, although they did move production to Mexico around that time. Basically get one with manual everything and make sure all switches/lights/etc work, you should be fine.
The engine bay of these also housed a VR6 in some cars, so there's plenty of room to work on a 4 cylinder model.

THANK YOU for the wise input I appreciate it

OP I DD a 2003 ALH, deliver pizzas in it actually, and I love it. Get it, drive the shit out of it.

how are these diesel cars on the highways? Do they have a big sound and get annoying?
I know they are not fast, but I've seen people put bigger turbos and fuel pumps on these, what would be the purpose of modding a diesel

More horsepower/torque??
Same as modding other engines, tdi guys just like diesels

you know that here most people associate diesel with big cloud of black smoke.

barely more, I've never seen more than 150whp but a shit ton of torque

Not OP but I've been looking at these as well. Is this worth considering? Lots of ks but sounds like it's been taken care of and has a MK3 motor and interior.

trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1189649279

Beware, what Mk3's may lack in electrical gremlins compared to mk4s, they sometimes make up for with rust issues. Undercoating on these cars was not good, so be sure to check any prospects thoroughly before buying.

But yeah, the old TDIs are great. The engines aren't picky like newer diesels, so they make decent candidates for biodiesel or other alternative fuels. I've heard stories of owners running them on used transmission fluid and shit (filtered of course).

I have one for sale near me it has a "Ko4" turbo hybrid or whatever that is, bigger fuel pump for fuck knows why, it has been repainted 3 years ago it looks in decent shape and has "relatively low miles" on the REBUILT engine (80k) while body has 315k
thoughts?

Get a Passat from that era, solid car all around.

With that kind of chassis mileage, just check under the car for rust. Verify that the paint actually looks a few years old and not brand new, i.e, not applied recently to hide defects.

Can confirm. My dad drives a B4 Passat (although it's the 2.slow, not the TDI), the thing's at 220k km now with only basic maintenance. Just make sure to clean out the rear wheelarches every now and then, as dirt, water and salt builds up behind a lip of folded metal. That shit can easily cause the beginning of the end.