Since 2011 we have had a Jetta, specifically a MKVI JSW TDI to the VW-initiated: the Jetta Sportwagen Clean Diesel…the perfect truckster for the budding millennial family. The event of buying the TDI was very exciting for us. It was our first new car, the fuel economy enabled her to get fuel once a month instead of once a week in her old GMC S-15, and as an engineer, I was excited about the performance, drivetrain dependability and cabin space available for a vehicle getting 40 mpg. We walked out of the dealership with a new car and initiated into the subculture with a Peace, Love, VW t-shirt. The JSW TDI was cool in a non-mainstream way, and as my wife put it, ‘It can do everything except pick up chicks.’
That New Car Smell
The car was great, we figured we were saving 500 gallons in fuel a year, road trips with four adults, two big dogs, and a roof rack car carrier gave us all the space of renting an SUV, but double the gas mileage! At the time I had calculated the breakeven for the diesel over the gas variant was roughly 60,000 miles, which seemed like no problem because our last car had been driven to 150,000. Our actual recovery point was probably less because we had an exceptional period of time in Ohio where diesel cost less than 87 octane, this is a common occurrence down south, but not in the northern states along the turnpike.
I espoused the value of the diesel passenger car to friends and coworkers, how it was a better return on investment than hybrids in the same vehicle class. In retrospect, I had become a diesel evangelist. On a trip to Europe, I saw the TDI everywhere, much more prevalent than what we had in the states, and noted the disparity to our gas guzzling culture. Thereafter, indirectly or not, one coworker bought an American made Passat TDI while another got a BMW 535d.
The VW Diesel Crisis
That same coworker, the 535d owner, texted me the TDI news in fall 2015. A major lawsuit was coming because Volkswagen lied about the emissions on their diesel vehicles. I blew it off, these were the Clean Diesel people, they had a better mousetrap than the competition. WRONG. And a few weeks later VW admitted it, they had created a cheat system in the vehicle system to cheat the emissions testing procedure. Many have chronicled the events as they unfolded, including this timeline from cars.com.
The excess emissions notwithstanding, we still liked our car, it was not even five years old and we planned to keep it for ten, so we had no plans to get rid of it. As the months unfolded, plenty of stories came out about people driving their cars to VW America HQ and making a public scene of the companies indiscretion. I was not in that group. The car still served all the purposes we had, albeit a bit more cramped with a car seat. Then the “I’m sorry” gift cards came, with extended roadside assistance warranty. We used the gift cards to get winter wheels for the car, in effect, doubling down our commitment to the car, and canceled our third party roadside assistance. This is awesome! We are coming out ahead. Then the Buyback plan came out. Receiving more than Kelley Blue Book value for the car seemed attractive, but considering that the average car price was roughly 15% more than what we paid for the JSW, the net outcome seemed less appealing. So we held tight.
But something changed. Maybe the Buyback idea grew on me. Maybe my beliefs of the car had been so high and now reality set in, I was underwhelmed. It reminded me of watching The Wire. After an eccentric sexagenarian told me “You hafta watch The Wire,” we used our Netflix disc rental to the fullest and consumed all five seasons over the course of a few months. When the show was over I had a TV hangover. I had no interest in watching another show. I felt nothing else would measure up. And now, looking at our car, that is how I felt about the JSW, it would never live up to its marketing persona.
And so, we flipped. The TDI Clean Diesel had fallen from the exalted position of the perfect car for us to being a short-timer that would soon be out the door. Now, what will replace it? Looking at cars, wagons, CUVs and SUVs, the gas, hybrid and electric variants, nothing measured up to the fuel economy standard we had become accustomed to in the JSW…because it was all a lie!
As of today, our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI has been bought-back by Volkswagen Group of America. With the distorted measuring stick that was the TDI-family and finding no vehicle to which I feel I can make a long-term commitment, the buyback is going into a lease on an all wheel drive, tech-laden sedan. Heated and vented seats, car play, remote start, multiview cameras, an app..yes, please! The Spartan family truckster had nothing on this.