I'm not super close to picking one up, I plan to next summer, but I have begun thinking about how the emissions recall will affect the buying. I hadn't put any thought into it really until a fellow s2000 owner said the prices are going to drop. So I've looked more into the case and found that the buy back will be paying people between $5100 and $10000 for their tdis. So what I was looking to talk about is:
1) do you think they will be harder to buy in a few months? I found a statement from Volkswagen ending all sales from dealerships but I still see brand new ones being posted for sale.
2) how much do you believe the price will drop for the vehicles? right now I'm seeing prices between $15k and $18k for under 20k.
3) will it be possible to obtain and operate a tdi without the recalled emissions fixed?
and finally 4) how big of a drop do you expect in performance and mpg?

 

I think the dealers that still have new ones posted are lazy and just havent taken them off, they are not allowed to sell them.
A lot of owners are holding onto their cars right now in light of the huge settlement that will basically give them enough to buy a new car if they choose to sell their car back to VW. I think that would be VW's preferred option. I don't know if any great deals will be had tbh.
The payment is contingent on getting your car fixed so current owners would be passing on a big chunk of change to avoid the fix.
I don't think VW has come up with a Fix yet, which tells me that it isn't going to be easy (or even possible) to get these cars in compliance without the addition of adblue which would be very costly. My guess is performance and MPG will be extremely diminished.

What is your primary consideration in getting one? It seems to me that the new 1.8T is a strong and efficient alternative much better than the 2.5 5 cyl it replaced. What vehicle were you looking at getting?

 

My best friend has a 2010 tdi wagon, he loves it and is very unhappy to find that it pollutes something like 40% more than it reports. He is on the fence about buy back I think, depends on what they give him. I suspect these cars will be available for a long time at cheap prices compared to gas engine ones. I also suspect to make them carb legal after vw offers a real live fix will be done by vw and you will get a car with less performance and poorer mileage. So it will be deal to buy, bad on resale, and pollute more than reported, and get worse mpg, he sees about 40 mpg now. Why would you want to get one?

See if you can find anything about Audi in the 1980's, what happened to them with unintended acceleration and resale and performance. They were give away cars in terms of values and nobody wanted till they fixed the car and discontinued the models that had the issue.

 

My main reason I wanted one is because I need a car that is relatively inexpensive so I don't have to worry a ton about it getting damaged at school, its awesome fuel economy that honestly is pretty good even on the epa estimate which is based on the test mode not the cheat mode (cheat mode is when people get in the 50's), and lastly they have plenty of low end torque for driving to work.

 

Honestly, there are better options for your purpose. Plenty of cars for sale now that get similar mileage using turbocharged direct injected gas engines that will pull just as hard down low and have better resale. I would steer clear of the TDI thing for now until things shake out on the fix.

 

I'd steer clear for now, at least until you know what the 'fix' is going to do to these engines. I expect power and mpg to take a pretty good hit. A TDI might not be anywhere near as good as you think once VW is done 'fixing' it.

 

$600 and your power will be back with an APR tune, even if they neuter them. Don't even sweat it!

 

Buy a Prius.

 

Hello, I4 TDI owner here.

I wouldn't.

If you want mpgs, petrol engines are becoming as good if not better and diesel has always been more expensive anyway.

If you want to pretend to save the planet, get a CRZ or something.

If you want torque, get an older Golf/GTI.

If you want low cost of entry, it's still a gamble because we're a long way from a proper resolution to everything. Besides, you're talking German cars here - the money you save going in will be blown fixing it anyway.


You'll have hard time finding them too. The payout seems to be decent enough that it seems a lot of people are going to sell the cars back, and the modification itself is an if the size of Jupiter. The lesser of the two evils, the V6, just failed the first mod attempt with flying colors. The I4 has even less of a chance. You could theoretically find one from some unlucky ineligible owner and drive that contraband car until the wheels fall off...but would it be worth the effort?

 

TDI is dead, may it rest in peace. Most of the buybacks will go to the crusher.