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.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.
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.