@ Zorba -

At least you have some wonderful memories to enjoy while you are waiting

I find it hard to believe it has been 2 years since our ED.
The memories are still fresh and full of joy!

And now we are approaching 100,000 km's, we have some great memories here in North America too!

 

Absolutely. How many km's did you put on in Europe? We got to 2590. Had it for one full week before we had to go back to Calgary for Wayne Flemming's memorial. With the summer closure and the date of the memorial, we had to alter our plans a bit. Initially I had hoped to have it for 10 days or so. It was a good trip nonetheless.

I really like(d) my Touareg, but the difference between the two is very noticeable so I look forward to getting mine. I also look forward to fiddling more with the PCM and getting my phone, sat radio, etc all sorted out. I asked my dealer yesterday for the tracking information so I can obsess over that haha

 

Be sure to include resale value and the higher cost of diesel fuel in your calculation. Most recommend a cetane booster in the fuel too, so figure that into fuel costs if you'd use it

 

That's entirely area dependent. In my area diesel is almost always cheaper than premium. I'd say a $0.03 - $0.05 is average, you can find $0.10 without trying too hard, and I love the days I find it $0.20 cheaper! (Edit: GasBuddy says my usual Sheetz has gone up $0.04 since I last filled up, but so has premium so there is still a $0.16 savings at the moment)

Now what gets me is that last week VA dropped the taxes on gas and increased it on diesel, but all the stations I pass by regularly haven't bothered to drop their gas
prices (and I haven't seen a bump in diesel really)...

 

Not with the base gasoline V6. At least not in my experience. I drove a shiny new 8-speed loaner with only 270 miles on it. I put on another 300 miles over two days - in metro, freeway, and rural driving. I never saw more than 23 highway and mid-teens city. And that was on expensive premium gasoline. Plus it was noisy under anything more than moderate acceleration, and constantly downshifting for no apparent reason; overall a much less refined driving experience than my CD (6800 miles).

//greg//

 

I think fincher was talking about the Diesel, no?

 

Not according my my numbers. The six cylinder gasoline 8 speed loaner got pretty much what the EPA sticker predicted. Not so my diesel. EPA sticker says 19/29 & 23 combined. I get mid-20s city and have seen as high as 36.2 highway. My combined since new is 29.2 mpg, more than six better than the EPA estimate. In light of those numbers, I didn't feel that fincher was commenting on the diesel.

//greg//

 

Something else to consider about the diesel that hasn't been mentioned is that with the extended range you have to deal with the gas station less frequently. Personally I feel like filling up is "wasted" time (especially these 26 gallon tanks!), so that has value to me.

Due to a short and infrequent commute I've gone as much as a month and a half without having to fill it up. Based on my estimates that would have been about 3 weeks with the VR6.

Also, due to the various trucking and shipping unions/lobbies, diesel prices tend to fluctuate less than gas does. I've never seen (in the last few years that I've been paying attention) a $0.20-0.50 spike overnight and then a similar drop a day or so later like I have with gas.

 

Diesel is less than gas here (Chicago area) in the summer and more in the winter, likely due to the demand for heating oil. Went on 635-mile two-day trip last week on a single tank of diesel. Averaged 28.8mpg. Can't do that with a gasser.

It's mostly perception when it comes to diesel. The wrong perception. I am guilty of it, too, until it was time to get out of V8 Touareg.

 

Depends on where you are.

In DC Metro, I was seeing diesel either $0.25 below or $0.25 above Premium depending on season.

Here in TX, it has been no less than $0.05 below Premium, with as much as $0.30 below.

 

I used to drive a Nissan Pathfinder about 170 miles / day. I couldn't make it 2 trips from NY to NJ and back without having to refill, and gas in NJ was $.25 to $.35 cheaper than NY so I would fill up EVERY DAY.

In NJ, you can't pump your own. The Amoco guy got to know me pretty well after a while, so I would pull in, leave my card on the front seat, go next door and grab a coffee, and I'd have a card and receipt on my seat when I got back.

Long way of saying, filling up once a week for 10 minutes doesn't bother me all that much, but then again, I have always lived where gas is convenient.

 

You're right, that's definitely something to consider. According to the dealer, the diesel would have a 5% higher resale value.

As of today here in Delaware, diesel is going for $3.75 vs. premium price of $4.01.

What about service and maintenance? I typically change my oil once a year or every 5000 miles. Are overall costs lower or higher for the CD?

 

WOW, 29 mpg....impressive! I have a feeling mine would be a lot lower though, since as I mentioned, I don't drive for economy and my driving is mostly urban. Still, even low-mid 20's mpg for such a large vehicle would be great.

My personal experience suggests that EPA numbers always seem to be slightly optimistic for gasoline and slightly pessimistic for diesel vehicles. Don't know why...

 

I don't have a Diesel Pig but do have other Diesel vehicles. It is well known in the car magazines that the EPA cycle for Diesel vehicles is overly conservative compared to their Gasoline counterparts. BTW, up here in Washington State we were paying about the same to slightly more for Diesel than Premium Gas but now it has come down to about the price of Unleaded Plus.

 

The OCI on the CD was dropped from 10k to 5k, so if you are already changing at that interval, you shouldn't see a real difference there.

You'll have to add AdBule periodically and that depends on how you drive. As I understand it, the worse your MPG the more frequently you'll have to refill. I believe the fuel filter is also on the 10k interval. No spark plugs though

It sounds like we may be similar drivers and I was averaging between 24 and 25 before I added the BlueSpark. In my old Escape (19/23) my average was 15.