Confused, Torn, & Undecided

CourtneyWood said:

Okay, this makes sense now. I was a little confused by the multiple dates.

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DanB36 points out I was wrong on VW deciding on your appointment date. DanB36 says YOU determine the date.

Depreciation would only be a concern if Courtney were to buy a new car today and then sell it in Dec 2018 to see if she could beat $24,100. Not likely to happen assuming the car costs say $35k new and she drives 30k miles between now and then. (The race would be closer if VW weren't offering well above market value). But it's not likely that she actually sells the car that soon either.

My point is that $1 today is worth more than $1 tomorrow. Also, If you're buying a car for the long term, short term concerns about where you are on the depreciation curve are misplaced.

If it were me, I'd take the extra cash today and reset the maintenance and repair clock.

Some very big "if" here:
If there is a good enough deal on 2015 TDI,
and, if you are in a position to buy a 2015 and park the present SEL,
then drag your feet on turn in until Dec 01, 2018; you would pick up up 20 months of mileage adjustment of about 21,000 miles, which could move you up four or five mileage blocks. I think that is around $2500 to $3000. Check the charts; I'm just guessing.



Worth playing around with on the calculator I sent to you.

CourtneyWood said:

I have a 2014 TDI SEL Passat that I love. When I bought it, the plan was to pay it off and keep it as a work car and I would get another SUV. Now, VW has messed with my head with all this. One minute I'm going to sell it back, the next I'm going to keep it and wait for the fix, then the next minute I'm going to sell it back again. My husband is no help with this decision. I really haven't done much research on it until the last week or so because I didn't want to make a decision. And I probably will wait it out a bit longer honestly. I think if I do the buyback, I would get a new Passat. I guess I'm just looking for some thoughts.

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VW has been less than truthful about this whole situation. Have they got a fix yet. No . Will it be fixed?? Big Question. What will your fuel mileage drop to once its fixed? Another Big Question. This whole process has been one lie and and deception after another. Read my buy back experience. You are dealing with RATS and RATTLESNAKES. Im glad my VW 2014 Passat is gone and I will never buy another VW product. Just my thoughts!!
Layne12gun

Gary - more of a thought experiment on my part. I'm not thinking in terms of a 2015 TDI or parking the Passat.

Just thinking that the best way to minimize out of pocket expense on any replacement car in this situation is to maximize the cash received from VW.

We're not discussing a 1-3 year lease where residual value is paramount. We're talking about buy and hold for lots of years with lots of miles in between and practically zero residual at the end.

If I had the choice of spending a lot of money on something today or spending a lot of money plus more on the same something in a year, I'd buy today. The value of that something will rapidly drop to zero no matter when I buy, but I'll get the same useful life out of it either way.

If I wait another year, and put 30,000 miles on my TDI then in 5 years I'll have a car with less miles on it. It's not just about how much the car is worth when I'm done with it but it will take me an extra year down the road. All that being said, I've had 5 cars in the last 16 years and only one I kept for 6 years. Even my favorite, 4runner,. I only kept for 2 years. So who knows what will happen in the future.

My last .02, promise. $2,300 today and a mileage reset are worth it.

No question a new car purchased now will depreciate more over the next year or so than the TDI. But that loss won't be realized unless / until you sell the car. If that happens in 5-6 years, who cares when you're very far down the depreciation curve anyway?

If you were buying a new car with 100% your own money, then sure - delaying the purchase as long as possible always makes sense. Here, the settlement locks in a generous resale value as long as you drive less than 12,500 miles a year. But Courtney clocks more than twice this, and it turns out that waiting will cost $2,300 more in the near future.

$2,300 extra from VW today frees up $2,300 in Courtney's pocket that can fund almost 1/2 an IRA contribution, a 529 contribution, at least a decent chunk of a nice vacation, etc.

Having recently been in a situation where I piled up 25k+ miles commuting year after year, I get the futility of buying cars. It's rare that the opportunity comes along to get out of a well-used car significantly above market value. I'm just saying maximize this return today and don't worry about an almost zero trade-in value 6 years forward. The miles will accumulate no matter what happens. And it's those last 30k that you always hate the most.

Major repairs? Since they announced the buyback I've had the DEF heater replaced under warranty with over 80,000 miles on the car and this week I had the turbo replaced which also ended up with the oil pump being replaced. Car was at just under 92000 miles.
Likewise, repaired under warranty at no cost.

Right now I need new tires. What do I replace the car with? Hyundai Sonata Hybrid looks interesting.

As long as any major repair allows the car to limp into the dealership doesn't it qualify for the buy back?

Lots of good choices for a replacement out there. What works best is up to an individual's needs and where they want to be in the reliability vs coolness matrix.

And yes, all you have to do for a buyback is deliver a drive-able car to the dealer.

I'm a proponent of the buyback in general and for the specific circumstance detailed in this thread. It's the only consumer product class action I know of which was resolved rapidly and which materially benefitted harmed class members.

One more question about mileage. I know it allots 12,500 miles a year. Is that averaged so that it's actually 1000 a month or does it add another 12,500 to the allotment in January or when it's been a year since you purchased your car? I'm not sure if I worded that in a way that makes sense or not.

It's 1042 miles/month.

BDHPlayer said:

Major repairs? Since they announced the buyback I've had the DEF heater replaced under warranty with over 80,000 miles on the car and this week I had the turbo replaced which also ended up with the oil pump being replaced. Car was at just under 92000 miles.
Likewise, repaired under warranty at no cost.

Right now I need new tires. What do I replace the car with? Hyundai Sonata Hybrid looks interesting.

As long as any major repair allows the car to limp into the dealership doesn't it qualify for the buy back?

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Well, no wonder, how is a car built 1,000 years in the future supposed to hold up today? I mean, you won't even be able to GET flux capacitor oil for another 975 years!

DanB36 said:

It's 1042 miles/month.

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Thanks! It would suck to trade it in in June (I bought it in July) if they gave another 12,500 mile allowance the next month.

I still have no idea what I'm going to do. This is what happens when indecisive people get too many options LOL

Well, I just bought a 2015 Passat TDI SEL I'll get it next week.

I'm still stuck in the exact same situation. I bought a brand new 2012 TDI JSW with DSG, ex wife got it in the divorce. She sold it back already. In 2013 I bought a 2009 TDI JSW with 6 speed manual with 79k miles on it. Love that car so much.. It has 145k miles now. So I looked around for a replacement before deciding what I want to do with it. I drive about 1000 miles extra a month just on a monthly weekend trip, plus all of my regular city driving, and was concerned that the mileage would reduce what I get back from VW. So, I picked up a Chevy Colorado 4x4 with 2.8L Duramax. I like the truck, it is getting 28mpg on the freeway, and obviously much less in the city (closer to 22) but it still has just over 2k miles so the engine is still breaking in. I have a few things I want to do with the truck, like towing a camper trailer on a planned vacation this summer, and moving some furniture from Louisiana to California. The truck has bluetooth and integrated maps/nav which my JSW didn't have. But overall I really just like my JSW better. Parking the JSW is obviously much easier. Also, the JSW is so much peppier, and I love having the 6 speed manual, which isn't available on the truck. I can move through bumper to bumper traffic so much easier in the JSW, and the city mileage is so much better. So there are good things and bad things. I guess one of these days I'll make up my mind, obviously before the deadline.

The 2009 is the weakest model year for the new TDIs in terms of reliability. A manual transmission is a plus, but you've still got the crummy DPF/catalytic converter design that costs $5,500 to replace. Based on experience, I'd be nervous anywhere over 120k miles. Car was fun to drive though.

There is no doubt that some owners of these cars are in a more complex and difficult situation than others. Ours is simple: we own the car outright, bought 4 years ago for cash. When we turn it in Dec. 2018, it will have about 80K on it, and we'll get about $2K less than we paid. We exchange driving for 5 1/2 years for a minimal amount for a chunk of money that will go a long way toward paying for another new car. This is a no-brainer....for us. For some other people, not so much.

I didn't even think about this until now so I didn't ask at the dealership. Is there going to be partial modification payment when the second and third phases are ready?

CourtneyWood said:

I didn't even think about this until now so I didn't ask at the dealership. Is there going to be partial modification payment when the second and third phases are ready?

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Hi, Courtney,

All the press releases and correspondence that I've read only mention two phases. If you've heard about a third, I'm certainly interested to know what that's about.

The sales facilitator at the dealership in my area which I visited yesterday had no idea whether the phase 2 "fix" would be mandated on any of the 2015 TDIs he sold.

-- Nicole

Right now I'm tempted to do the buyback just to get a lower cost vehicle and have no car loan, but I'm gonna wait. I've been flip flopping on whether to fix or buyback but I haven't even seen a fix for mine (2014 Jetta). Just gonna wait. Still have 1-1/2 years to decide and maybe by then, VW will come out with some autonomous 2019 vehicle that's cheap. I'll have around 25K for a down payment on a car that allows me to eat my burger with two hands. I'm curious about the 2018 Tiguan because the mpg has been crap on those. I would like more space to haul stuff. Also worried about the HPFP. At 38K now.

CourtneyWood said:

I average 40 mpg and rack up about 30k a year on it. I could pretty much swap out my 14 for the 17 and stay just about even from the deals I've seen in them online looks like they are taking 8k off the sticker. If they sell the 2015s I'll definitely go that route for sure. I was at the dealership yesterday and they only had a couple of passats on the lot. But most likely I'll put off my decision longer and the 18s will be out by then.

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30k miles a year, I wouldn't even think about a gasser