ALH vs Common Rail TDI's

[The Warden]

Good morning!

I know there are a few common-rail TDI owners on here...now that they've been out for a few years, what's your experience been like with them? If you've also owned a '99-'03 ALH TDI, do you prefer one over the other for any reason? How reliable is the 2.0L CR engine compared to the ALH? I know that fuel economy is better with the ALH (and I imagine that difference will increase once the emissions fix has been implemented on the CR), but how big of a hit is it, really? Is it dramatic enough to recommend sticking with the ALH over the CR?

An thoughts appreciated...thank you in advance!

 

[FordGuy100]

ALH 5 speed vs CR DSG can be a 10mpg difference. CR drives so much better though, and the car is so much nicer. More things to go wrong on the CR. Commuter for me, ALH would be fine. Wife and kids, CR.

 

[79jasper]

No telling what the "new" fix will do.
But I saw a test where they activated the "test mode" and ran it on a dyno vs "regular" mode.
Power difference wasn't much. So in that case shouldn't affect mileage much.

But who knows with the new fix. Just gotta wait til it comes out.
Ours is tuned anyways. But I'll be switching tuners.

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[The Warden]

ALH 5 speed vs CR DSG can be a 10mpg difference. CR drives so much better though, and the car is so much nicer. More things to go wrong on the CR. Commuter for me, ALH would be fine. Wife and kids, CR.

I hear you there. I don't have any experience with the DSG, although I've heard that the "wet" clutch packs have a significant parasitic drag from the fluid (this was in a thread on TDIClub a while back discussing the advantage of hopefully eventually moving to a dry clutch pack setup). In any event, I like having a clutch pedal so I'd lean heavily towards the 6 speed manual. IIRC the official MPG ratings actually put the 6 speed slightly below the DSG, but I wonder how it is in the real world?

 

[FordGuy100]

They tend to get better from what I see from tdiclub. But, the DSG is an awesome trans, probably best best "automatic" I've ever driven.

 

[79jasper]

I could agree with that.
I can't wait to see what a dsg tune will do.

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