GM finally going to offer a compact car with diesel in the US?

[squirrel]

as for diesels - there is not a comparable gas vehicle that can touch a diesel for fuel economy. In a daily driver or work vehicle - saving money to play on your hobby is a good thing. Also, I'm tired of the only option for mid-sized sedan that gets better than 40 mpg is a TDI VW....

If you were to buy a diesel vs gas version of the same (vw jetta), how long will it take to pay for itself? assuming the same depreciation ($, not percent) and say 20k miles/yr. Diesel fuel costs more...mileage is a little better...the diesel costs $5500 more to buy....I don't really see the savings. But then I'm not into little ferrin cars, either.

[455 LeMans]

If y'all don't want a diesel, that's cool. But I think it would be good to have a choice.

[squirrel]

Yeah, it's definitely good to have a choice....and like I mentioned, it helps Chevy with their CAFE, so they can sell more fun cars.

[Mater]

If you were to buy a diesel vs gas version of the same (vw jetta), how long will it take to pay for itself? assuming the same depreciation ($, not percent) and say 20k miles/yr. Diesel fuel costs more...mileage is a little better...the diesel costs $5500 more to buy....I don't really see the savings. But then I'm not into little ferrin cars, either.

depends on the area diesel actualy costs less here gas is 3.86 regular diesel is 3.70

[dieselgeek]

If you were to buy a diesel vs gas version of the same (vw jetta), how long will it take to pay for itself? assuming the same depreciation ($, not percent) and say 20k miles/yr. Diesel fuel costs more...mileage is a little better...the diesel costs $5500 more to buy....I don't really see the savings. But then I'm not into little ferrin cars, either.

I have a friend that bought a 2001 Jetta, I talked her into the TDI and she still has the car with nearly 200,000 miles on it. It never got less than 50mpg (winter diesel, car is 5-sp manual), which is a lot more than "a little better" - the car had some electrical problems early on, got them fixed and it's been very reliable. I haven't done the math but I know it was a good idea to get the diesel, which held together a lot longer than any of VW's horrid gas engines will hold up.

[SuperBuickGuy]

If you were to buy a diesel vs gas version of the same (vw jetta), how long will it take to pay for itself? assuming the same depreciation ($, not percent) and say 20k miles/yr. Diesel fuel costs more...mileage is a little better...the diesel costs $5500 more to buy....I don't really see the savings. But then I'm not into little ferrin cars, either.

gas jettas get 25% worse mileage.... so, it reduces your fuel costs by 15-20% (since diesel costs more). I spend at least 300 a month on fuel, so 20% saves me 60.... cost of a diesel is 3k more.... so roughly 4 years

new DDs last 10 years for me so I save about 5000-6000 in fuel costs. Not to mention what DG points out -that diesels last longer AND they also have higher resale values

and finally the other bit - some diesels get amazing mileage - compare my full-size truck at 20 mpg with 10 mpg for its gas equivalent.

[SpiderGearsMan]

we get 200k regularly out of GM cars
turbogeek , pimpin for the worst customer satisfaction index cars on the road , some friend you are
you could get that girl killed with all those jetta tail lamp failures

[squirrel]

new DDs last 10 years for me so I save about 5000-6000 in fuel costs. Not to mention what DG points out -that diesels last longer AND they also have higher resale values

Interesting.....the vw web page says the diesel jetta costs $5500 more than the gas jetta (cheapest version of each...it's an economy car, right?)

If you like a diesel, then buy one. I don't see the justification, but then I don't really like diesels.

If you need a truck to tow stuff with a lot, then a diesel makes sense. We seem to do all right with gasoline 20 mpg full size trucks (the late models that is)