Tag Archives: tdi

256/365. wherein i discover the jetta sportwagen control to turn off bluetooth autoplay. why is this even a thing i have to do apple?

256/365. wherein i discover the jetta sportwagen control to turn off bluetooth autoplay. why is this even a thing i have to do apple?

so a few days ago i vented about issue i was having that for some reason apple music on my iPhone had started randomly taking over car bluetooth connection, playing songs from a U2 album i didn’t buy. at the time i lamented that it was the lamest product/brand experience i’ve ever had with apple. “stop trying to shove apple music down my throat. maddening”. responses from twitter, Facebook and email suggested i was not alone. a few google searches later and i discovered i was discovered i very much not alone. the fix suggestions are summarized in “how to stop the Music app from auto-playing in your car”. #2 is “turn off auto-play in your car, if possible”. okaaaaaaay.

hmmmm, i had no idea there was an autoplay option. so i went looking and it turns out there is! we’ve had the car for longer than the iPhone and i don’t have an explanation for how/why it suddenly it started auto-playing ( did odin mess with the settings? )?

either way i can’t believe there’s way to configure autoplay on the iOS side. really, apple? i’m sure it’s not a coincidence that it defaults to autoplay apple music. i’m glad volkswagen gives me a way to turn it off in lieu of ability to control it on the device side.

250/365. i accidentally found a new parking spot at organic valley hq.

250/365. i accidentally found a new parking spot at organic valley hq.

a colleague peered into the office i was squatting in at organic valley hq ( new digs still under construction and my regular office is not at hq which is why i was squatting ) and asked somewhat sheepishly, “yoooouuuuu drive a gray jetta tdi?”

“uuuuuuhhhhhh, yes!”

and before he could respond i spun around and looked out the window to see it was definitely not where i parked it.

“looks like it rolled out of its spot.”

indeed, it had. now i have to admit that i’m wasn’t *completely* surprised. the car is 11 years old and the manual transmission is a little finicky. sometimes, when you think it’s in gear it’s not, and it has a tendency to pop out of gear easily. aaaaaaaand the parking brake is loose so you reaaaaaaallllly have to crank on it to get it to work. up until today we could rely on either the transmission or the brake to keep it in place without both failing simultaneously ( well, actually – true confession time – both failed once before ). maybe i should travel with blocks that i can put under the tires when parked? or maybe i should just stop procrastinating get the car into a shop 🙂

it was mildly amusing that it rolled back to rest perfectly between bushes on either side and a tree to the rear without an inch to spare anywhere. i couldn’t have parked it that perfectly if i tried. *super* !SUPER! glad nobody was hurt and nothing was damaged.

for some reason, i personally think the most amusing part of the story is my boss owns the red jetta wagon in the photo and pulled into the spot where i was parked not long after my jetta rolled out ( and didn’t notice, or just though, “oh i guess snowdeal found a new parking spot.” ).

112/365. because Frida is an Unabashed and Unrepentant Garden Thief.

112/365. because Frida is an Unabashed and Unrepentant Garden Thief.

we basically didn’t get much of anything out of the garden last year because of her – certainly not any tomatoes. so, now i’m putting fencing around the garden which is why i have 8 eight foot fence posts ( would later realize i need 9 ) and 100 feet of fencing in the jetta wagon. i didn’t think it would fit, but it did! the posts ran to within a few inches of the dashboard which didn’t feel like the greatest idea if i had to make any quick stops.

90 miles. 57.6 mpg. and not even hypermiling the jetta tdi sportwagen.

90 miles. 57.6 mpg.  and not even hypermiling the jetta tdi sportwagen.

after driving our 2005.5 jetta tdi sedan for nine years and 186,000 miles we thought it was time to get another car and loved the gas milease of the diesel but wanted more room so opted for the sportwagen.

we’ve been driving manual transmissions tdis for almost 15 years and in the sedan i could regularly get close to 50mpg which was much higher than the “official” mpg ( which i think was something like 38mpg ) and i was a little nervous that we’d still see that kind of mileage with the wagon which if officially rated at 23 city and 33 hwy.

sure enough after the “break in” period of a few thousand miles i can regularly get higher than 50mpg at speeds between 55-60mph ( it drops to mid to high 40s at higher speeds ).

on a recent trip through rolling hills of the driftless region i managed to get 57.9mpg after driving 90 miles.

and no i wasn’t doing any fancy hypermiling manual transmission moves. pretty amazing. i’m not sure what you with an automatic transmission so can’t say how much of the difference between the official numbers is a result of conservative reporting on volkwagen’s part or my super optimized manual transmission skills.

in the interest of full disclosure, kris took this picture while i was driving 🙂