Not necessarily: It depends on how much VW offers in a buyback. I'd only want the buyback price reduced $1400/year from my original retail purchase cost. And I'd also want VW to reimburse me for the state sales tax I had to pay when I bought the Jetta (which is over $2000). Why should I have to pay sales tax twice in two or so years because VW's fraud forced me to buy another car too soon? If VW doesn't give a buyback offer that satisfies customers then the bad PR will continue and angry customers won't be back for more.
I've said before: a "buyback" = a trade-in.
It may be an "enhanced" trade-in (giving a value greater than current market value, incentives, etc.), but it remains a trade-in.
Consider for example you have a 3 y.o. LNT car for which you still owe 2 years, and were planning to keep for 2-5 years beyond the loan.
The trade-in may be "enhanced" enough to cover the amount outstanding on your loan and maybe put a small down payment on the next car. But if you're like most folks and need a loan to buy a new car, you're on the hook for 4-5 more years of payments instead of having a 2-5 year "payment break". If you're a "pay cash" kind of guy like me, you may not be in a position to buy another car now without getting a loan (and in my case, being retired, with a very low income as I minimize withdrawals from my retirement account, I may not even qualify for a car loan).
I'm sorry but the consumer does NOT come out ahead in that game. On the other hand VW gets to swindle more money out of you on a new car and keep their sales figures up, VW finance gets to make a few more bucks off of you by charging some interest, etc.
Trust me I've played the trade-too-often-for-my-own-good game for too long. And I explored a VW buyback on my 2011 long before this crisis, when I had a power loss problem at WOT (like when overtaking) that VW couldn't figure out. The "buyback" was just a trade-in lowballed to the low end of the Black Book market value towards a new VW. I signed for a new '13 GTI... then had a sanity check and backed off at the last minute.
From a strictly financial point of view, leaving out the environmental factor as one cannot put a price on one's environmental consciousness, the choices for LNT owners, assuming VW offers a trade-... oops "buyback" scheme seem to be:
1) go for the recall to retrofit the car with an SCR system and hold your breath that the dealer doesn't totally FUBAR the job (many will...)
2) go for the buyback and be on the hook for many more years of car payments
3) refuse to let the dealer touch the car, and drive it until the wheels fall off, or at least until it has depreciated sufficiently that a 20% loss of market value is peanuts.
For the moment I fall into no. 3. I have no environmental worries... I live in a rural area and rarely drive our TDI in the city, I feel the NOx will dissipate to a low enough concentration before it can do any harm; and there are other ways to offset the harm: drive less, take my TSI when we go to the city, slow down to the speed limit, drive more gently...
. The old days of 800-mile tanks on the ALH are long gone.
