I wish I would have seen this thread earlier. I have 2003 Jetta TDI. It is by far the best car I have ever owned. I live in California, and no you cannot buy it new here. I bought it used last year. Carfax says it came from Texas. Supposedly the 08 will be available for sale here, but I wont hold my breath.
So lets get a few things straight. Bio-Diesel requires zero conversion to run in a diesel powerplant. Whoever said you need a conversion kit has no clue what they are talking about. Bio-Diesel=Diesel plain and simple. The reason it is called Bio diesel is because of the type of oil used to produce the diesel itself. Thats why sometimes you will here the term Dino-Diesel. Thats the stuff you buy at the pump. If you own a diesel vehicle you can run Bio. End of story.
Conversion kits are used to run SVO and WVO. Straight Vegetable Oil, and Waste Vegetable Oil. Notice the term diesel is not used here. Thats because your going to be burning oil that has not been turned into diesel fuel. It still works just fine, but you have to have a kit to start your vehicle on Diesel to get the engine warmed up, and you have to preheat the oil. Its pretty expensive for a conversion kit, and since I dont really care that much about the enviornment Im not going to deal with this headache. Im not really for the idea of having 55 gallon drums of used cooking oil sitting in my backyard.
So what do I like about my car? Lots and lots. I get 55 Miles to the gallon. The person with the passat that gets 30, either there is something very wrong with your car, or its brand new and the motor needs some breaking in. My car is very fast. It was designed to be driven on the autobhan. In fact they use these cars (with the 3 liter engines) to patrol the autobhan. The engine should easily see its 300,000 mile. Its essentially maintenance free. I change the oil every 10,000, and the timing belt every 100,000. By my math I will do a total of 29 oil changes, and 2 timing belt changes to hit 300,000. Its a very nice looking car. I get compliments on it all the time. The inside cabin is very nice. I actually think it is identical to a 3 series BMW. Airbags galore. The anti theft system is top of the line. With the lowjack I added, I would congratulate the person who stole it.
The car is a pleasure to drive. Im planning on keeping it for my son when he turns 16.
Anyways, I should be pretty capable of answering any questions you guys have, so feel free to add to this thread, or PM me.