I went through a similar calculation a few years ago, and I re-visit it
from time to time whenever the price of gas jumps.
How much (ballpark) are you currently spending on gas monthly for the
Dakota? Any idea how much it would cost to insure an additional vehicle?
How about the extra maintenance?
>From what I've seen, VW puts a real price premium on their TDI models. I
figured out I'd be better off getting a used Neon for $5000 CDN. Even so,
every time I go through this, I realize that even if I could get the car
for free, the only way it's going to save me any money is if I sell the
Dak or cancel the insurance on it and put an off-road only "recreational"
sticker on it. (No idea if they even have anything like that in Ontario,
just illustrating a point.)
In my case, I'd save about enough on gas with a small car that it would
pay for its own insurance, and I'd be pretty much back where I started.
This is even with the expensive over-taxed Canadian gas. Of course, it's
also with the expensive over-greedy Ontario insurance, so it balances out.
I currently commute 33 miles round trip per day. The first time I looked
at this, I was driving more than twice that distance, and the same result
was true (gas was cheaper at the time, but only by about 30%).
Unless you're willing to flat-out replace the Dak, I'd suggest to be
really careful about considering all the expenses that go along with an
additional vehicle. The fuel mileage numbers are tempting, I know. I've
even tried to use that argument to justify adding a motorcycle to our
"fleet", but it never works :-).
-- Jason
Jon said:
>
> Andy,
>
> There's nothing on VW's website about lease options, but given the trends
> running in leases today, my calculations put you at right about $210 a
> month (for 48 months) for a base-model TDI, with $2500 down.
>
> -Jon
> "andy levy" <andy-dml@levyclan.us> wrote in message
> news:c8e84o$ml1$1@bent.twistedbits.net...
>>
>>
>> The Mobil right by my exit on I-90 was at $2.119/gal tonight. Diesel
>> was $1.859/gal. Anyone know what I'll pay for a lease on a Golf TDI?
>> 46 MPG at under $1.90/gal beats 18 MPG @ $2.10/gal.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 01 2004 - 10:59:13 EDT