Short commute but love TDI's - what to do?

Thanks, and yes, totally aware and agree that the short trip usage is hard on an engine, regardless of the type.

The diesel is a consideration because I'd really like to get a new or near new Gen I Q7, and there are increasing numbers of new 2015 TDIs coming onto the market. Also our weekend use does make sense for this, with plenty of long recreational trips, hauling people/gear/weight into the mountains, etc.
What I'm trying to gauge is whether the weekend (good) use can adequately offset the weekday (bad) use, and not result in reliability issues outside of the norm?
(Also hoping to be able to make the TDI work because I'm just into the unique nature of this vehicle vs. everything else out there in this size and price point).

You said weekend trips were 30 miles. That's not far. If you drive more on weekends the daily commute won't be a problem, especially in your climate.

Now that we live in NC, we almost never drive cars to get around town. It's all bike/walk/bus. When we both had commutes back in TX, I got my wife a Nissan Leaf for her 11 mile commute. We have been very satisfied with it. We moved to North Carolina recently and it cost over $1100 to title/register 2 of my cars.

An 8 mile commute is a good candidate for an electric bicycle. The cost to operate is nearly negligible and it is fun and healthy.
I made my first ebike for my 16-19 mile one-way commute back in 2012 when I lived in Austin. It beat the heck out of sitting on my butt in traffic for an hour. It allowed me to travel on surface streets and bike paths and to change up the route occasionally with relatively little time penalty. It really made me feel more connected to my city compared with sitting on the same stretch of freeway every day. On top of all that I physically felt much much better having that bit of cardio on either end of my day. Did I mention that it is more fun?

Check out the discussion forum at endless-sphere.com

You wouldn't even need to ride every day if you kept the car, but for winter you should use a block heater as suggested.

Yeah try an ebike at -12F. Not everyone live in a warm client year round. Electric vehicles also lose their range in winter by over 50 percent. I'll preheat my engine even in summer time and charge my battery weekly for my 4 mile commute.

I see I posted earlier on this. It has been over a year since my TDI is no longer my daily high mileage driver. I drive it five miles to work twice a week when the girl needs the car for school. If it was worth money to sell I would. I basically no longer put any money into it. I just keep driving it waiting for it to fail. [which surprisingly hasn't happened yet.]