tjkj2002 wrote:
Skip the whole diesel car idea,will not save you money no matter how good of mpg's it gets.The cost of maintaining a small diesel is easily twice that of a gas engine.Those TDI's also fetch top dollar so no savings there.
That's not necessarily true. VW offers free maintenance for 36 months/36,000 miles. Plus, they have a 100,000 miles/120 month Powertrain Warranty. At 50 mpg, you are saving money. It is true that Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, and a few others make fuel efficient vehicles that sell at a cheaper price and require cheaper maintenance.
tjkj2002 wrote:
Find a mid '80's-'90's full size car(crown vic or caprice),spend a little fixing it up,heck dropping in a new engine and trans would run less then $1500,and have a trouble free vehicle that can go places and get 20's on the highway.Super cheap to maintain once it's in great condition and those 302's and 350's can run forever.
tjkj2002 has a point that hasn’t been discussed. Rather than buying a $24,000 dollar TDI, what if you purchased a used vehicle for a few thousand and drove it to death. You wouldn’t get the great fuel economy, but you wouldn’t have the overhead of a new car.
Rather than buying a used car, I’d opt for a used low mileage Jeep Cherokee.
$5,000 Jeep Cherokee, 4.0L, 20 mpg
$24,000 VW Jetta TDI, 50 mpg
Vehicle cost difference: $19,000
It all comes down to perspective. The TDI would yield $18,000 dollars in fuel savings over a course of 10 years, which would be the amount of time it would take to pay off the cost difference between a Jeep and VW. In some ways, buying a used Jeep (being debt free) seems like the better short term investment. On the other hand, in 10 years, the VW TDI would come close to paying for 2/3 of itself in fuel savings, and still have a lot of life in it with relatively low miles. One could argue that costly repairs of a used car would further negate any savings.
On my right shoulder, I have a little man whispering, “Buying a used vehicle carries some long-term risk taking, but offers low risk in the short-term. Being debt free always sounds like the better plan.”
On my left shoulder, I have a little man whispering, “A new VW will yield you fuel savings right off the bat. The fuel savings alone will eventually pay for the vehicle. You are protected by a warranty and many years of reliability.”