What did it cost you to drive your TDI.

jhinsc said:

Yes, you are correct these should be considered seriously if you're buying a house or car in the future. Hell, I bought mine because of great fuel mileage. But I would have paid the insurance, fuel, and maintenance cost of anything else I would have bought, so throwing that all in, while an exercise just to see what it is, the numbers are meaningless when they can't be compared to anything or anyone else. My fuel costs are ultra low since I buy most of it at $1 off per gallon discount due to racking up fuel points each month. But I could be paying 2x a much, or half as much for insurance because of my driving record, which would raise or lower my driving costs. It's useless for comparison. But I will agree, after calculating all the associated cost of driving, I'm surprise any of us are still wanting to own a vehicle. Now I know why ridesharing is taking off, and if you live in NYC like some I know, they don't even bother owning a vehicle.

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Fuel prices vary across the nation; it's not a valid comparison. For the three years I've owned my JSW TDI, diesel here has generally averaged 10% more than regular gas. In other areas, diesel costs less.

Insurance costs vary across the nation (actually by ZIP Code within a region); sometimes by the credit score of the individual. That's not a fair comparison.

Maintenance costs are more similar, since we all have access to the same online parts vendors; shipping doesn't vary by that much from region to region.

I bought my 2009 JSW in 2008 for $27830 (not including sales tax) which included a $1000 markup because at the time all dealers were marking up the car some upto $2000-$3000 it was so hard to find.
I have spent about $7600 on scheduled maintenance including new tires, all dealer services, timing belt, dsg service.
Spent $4000 on repairs including about $1000 for faulty keys and the stupid trunk latch and button that kept breaking.
I had the HPFP failure covered by VW
I got the $1000 gift cards which were immediately spent on the stupid broken keys.
Not including gas, registration etc. I figure a cost of ownership around 21cents/mile including the $13000 I should get for the buyback, the car has done about 148000 miles.

grawk said:

why not spend the $2000 and have the service done, and drive it til 12/18 and sell with approximately 160k on the clock?

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Mainly because in my wife's head we already own a V60 It's also a lot to spend for another 40,000 miles, and mentally, I'm just kind of done with it all.

I won't address the operating and routine maintenance costs. They are what they are. The car proved to be very reliable, and no "unplanned maintenance" was necessary, other than replacement of a windshield that had been hit by a stone.

I bought the car, with a MSRP of over $27K, from the late Chris Farnham. But I had Cash for Clunkers of $4000, and the $1300 Federal tax credit. With Chris's internet discount pricing, the net price of the car was about $19.5K.

On getting out of the car, the buyback on my car with 79,000 miles at turn in Nov 1 will be $14,875. Add the $1000 goodwill to that, we are up to almost $16K.

So my net purchase minus sell back is under $4000. For a car owned over 7 years, with almost 80K miles.

I am not complaining. Especially since the 09 had the exhaust system that put everything in one housing, making a replacement a very costly thing. I managed to avoid ever having to change a cam belt, and am going to sell it back before the next scheduled DSG fluid change.

Oh, and I wound up with a free second set of wheels with the car when I bought it from Chris. I had read that the 17 inch wheels I opted for were a port install, and the 16 inch wheels and tires were put into the car and shipped to the dealer with the car. So I told Chris I wanted them, since I paid for them. He said "of course".

If Chris were still around, I would consider another VW bought from him. But he is gone, and so is my interest in a replacement VW. Looking BMW CPO. I really need AWD and prefer a diesel.