Thread: 300TDI manual or auto?

Well it does appear that 300TDI manual or auto is a personal preference from what most people have said.

I drove a 300TDI D1 180,000kms manual, pretty good condition today, and wasn't overly impressed. It did seem to take quite a while before the turbo kicked in, but was then not bad.

Coming from an auto D1 V8 I thought I might get more out of the manual version of the 300TDI over the auto variant. The auto V8 definitely has quite a bit more curry, but I have followed TDI's before and they haven't been sluggish, so as said in one of the posts - maybe the auto keeps the turbo spooling and the power going.

I'll have to drive the auto 300TDI now and see how they compare.

[QUOTE=rangieman;877348][quote=mcrover
Mate you realy need to get of your high horse
You read something about DM flywheels and you run with it like a dog with a bone
On the clutch issue which you say a clutch has half the life of a auto trans , Maybe a clutch only last,s half the life with you thats why you drive a auto
On a serious note i have owned manuals for years and the only clutch i have had to change was a car i bought with a stuffed one
A auto will need servicing what about 5 times before a clutch needs changing ,going by your estamate , now a auto service cost,s what about $130 x 5 = $650
I have and done more than 300,000 ks with clutch,s of unknown condition and would have done alot more k,s on the same clutch

Now i dont do too much city driving so my clutch will out last your dismal estamate
Its horse,s for courses buddy some auto,s die early , some manual gearbox,s die early some clutch,s and some DM flywheel,s may die early aswell.
If my DM flywheel and clutch die soon im sure you will bag me , i can take your crap but dont try and misslead the innocent with a load of horse dung
Mostly it all boil,s down to the way things are driven and serviced during there life of ownership and previous ownership

Please take this as its meant not a dig at YOU or your understandings or know how Damien[/QUOTE]


Hey Chris,

I wasnt having a go mate, Im sorry you took it that way.

The only thing that may be missleading in that post is that Im talking about DM flywheels as I knew you just bought a Td5 yet the 300Tdi runs a standard solid flywheel which is much cheaper to replace than the Td5.

Services on an Auto if not done by yourself are quite pricey, Im not sure how expensive as I just buy the filter and Dex3 and do it myself but that to me is standard maintenance and not because of a failure as I would suggest a clutch failure would be in my books but thats just my opinion, your more than entitled to your own.

I know you would be able to make a clutch last Chris, Ive backed you up before on that I think your a good driver and knows more about these sorts of things than most people due to your previous jobs and hobbies but most people are not like you or me and tend to wear things out and as pointed out in one of the above posts, I said that if looked after will last indeffinately but this is also not quite correct as parts of the clutch will fail with age as spring tension dies and metal fatigue sets in.

I hope this clears things up.