TD vs. TDi (car engine)

[muno]

This is the case,

My mother bought last week a new car, it's a Nissan Primera -98 TD. Today, she called me and claimed that it's good that her car isn't the TDi version - since the 'i' makes the car cold.

My reply was 'It can't do that, the 'i' only refers to the way gasoline is injected into the engine'.

Her reply was, '<name of her huspand> friend from work has VW Passat TDi and it's cold as h?ll, it won't heat up during the 10minute drive from his home to the work place'.

To which I replied again that it isn't possible.

Now, I told her that I'd find the proof for her from the internet, but I can't Google won't return any reasonable results to my searches. Perhaps my searches are wrong, I don't know anything about cars.

Could someone point a website to me that explains the difference of those two engines.

Tell me I'm not wrong, please
I think the reason for my mothers car to be warm is A/C - but I don't know whether the VW has A/C so I can't be sure.
-M

[Graham]

The way manufactuers label their models is not always the same, but I would expect TDi to mean Turbo Diesel Intercooler. This could be where the misundertanding comes from. The intercooler has nothing to do with the cars engine cooling system nor the interior heating system, it cools the exhaust gasses prior to them being used to drive the turbo.
The I would only refer to injection on a petrol engine, all diesels are injection.

G

P.S. The A/C should not seriously affect the time taken for the cars interior to warm up (assuming of course you dont have it set to cold )

G

[muno]

Yeah, I know all diesels are injection. But they're not equally injected. Thus, the 'i' would refer to direct injection or whatever, that some manuf. label as 'TDdi'.

I read at some manuf. page that if the car consisted of intercooler the 'i' would be 'I'.
TDI being intercoolder turbodiesel, and TDi being direct injected turbodiesel.

Thanks for the respone
-M