I forgot to update. Another road trip down. Pictures first:
Untitled by
Pat, on Flickr
Untitled by
Pat, on Flickr
Untitled by
Pat, on Flickr
Recently did another big road trip in the Jetta. The dang thing is just a great road trip car. I averaged 43mpg across 7 fill-ups with the roof box on. Worst tank was 38mpg with the cruise set at 80mph (75mph speed limit) for about 4 hours up through Michigan. Best tank was 47mpg when I was farting around the north shore at about 45mph for a whole day. Honestly, I can't ask for anything better in a road trip car; between that fuel mileage with a fridge on my roof, and the thing has plenty of power to pass and accelerate, handle turns as well as I could ever need, and just whatever I ask of it.
I went up through Michigan and across the UP to Duluth to visit a friend, explore the north shore, and stop at every brewery and cidery around, haha. Also ran down to Minneapolis to visit my friend and tattoo artist after she moved to a new shop up there early this year and got a new piece started. And then came back through Milwaukee, ferry across Lake Michigan to Muskegon, and back down and across I80. I think I ended up with around 2700 miles on the trip and overdue for an oil change lol.
The only way a trip like this/the car could get better is if it was a 2015 Sportwagen* or maybe an Alltrack. But my brother had a '17 Alltrack SEL DSG, and with cross bars and unloaded bike racks, he only got about 20mpg which is kind of just, yikes. Regardless, I think I'm going to upgrade eventually, hopefully before wherever the road takes me next year.
*Wagon lust: I've gotten into sleeping in the car on some of these longer road trips, to split up the drive, and generally just working my way up to a longer, hopefully multi-week, tour of a larger portion of the country. Sleeping in the Jetta is okay, I can lay down and stretch out (I'm 5'11") - I've been doing feet at passenger corner of trunk, head at back of driver seat. I've got it figured out well at this point, and the roof box helps tremendously. However, the space of a wagon, both for road trips and for camping, would suit me so much more. The only catch is that I really only want a 2015 TDI SEL with lighting package and manual transmission. Same goes for an Alltrack if i went that route; I'd only want a 2018 SEL 6MT. Both of which are very hard to find, lol.