Why buy new? Our 2011 JSW only has an LCD radio display and Bluetooth over the features on our "new to us" 02 Infiniti. This can be remedied by installing a $200-300 aftermarket radio. 78k miles on the Infiniti. Close to 60k on the JSW.
Buying a cheap, reliable used car will far outweigh any fuel savings. For just at $8k we bought a minty 1-owner car with leather, heated seats, heated steering wheel, moonroof, rear window screen, HIDs, TCS, and all the features of a modern car.
I commute about 45 miles per day to work. The wife barely drives at all, but we go to SeaWorld with our daughter every few weeks. Equates to about 1,300 miles/month. I calculated out the maximum average of 1,500 miles/month and related fuel costs.
The toll road only saves me about 3-5 minutes per day, so ignore that section. I don't take the toll road. I just used it to calculate my commute cost and get a raise
The $12k I saved in buying a used, 15-year-old, low-MPG (but extremely reliable) car would take 17 YEARS of driving the Infiniti to cost me more than that of driving the VW. And the VW gets nearly double the MPG the Infiniti does!
So looking at most gassers today getting combined numbers of around 35mpg in the leading class (Camry, Mazda6, GSW, etc), even an amazing 20% increase in fuel economy would only net you 42MPG which is what we get with the VWs. Hence the calculations I laid out give a perfect example of how long it would take to make up the cost difference in fuel savings.
I planned on having the VW a pretty solid 10+ years. Saving $700 per year in fuel costs is GREAT. Don't get me wrong. But when it boils down to purchasing a $25k+ car over a <$10k car with basically the same features, the time it takes to break even on the fuel savings is absurd!
Even if fuel costs increased to 2010 levels >>> $3.70 for gas and $3.90 for diesel was the average around this area >>>> Break-even is STILL 10.51 years!
If I ran them both for the 10 years, at the end of its life, I'd still have an extra $4900 in my pocket. All that income extra cash on hand from buying used could be sunk into retirement and investments.
EDIT: The JSW has more cargo area, so yeah, I could bring home a TV or computer desk without having to pay for delivery. Say I buy 2 or 3 of those items in those same 10 years. That's only about $200 in delivery fees.