VW TDI Owners Should Take The Settlement Money And Run

Autolist July 2016 VW values infographic (Credit: Autolist)

VW has finally made an offer to TDI owners that were affected by Dieselgate. The new challenge has been deciding whether to take the money or keep the vehicle. Car ownership can be an extremely emotional issue, so not everyone is thinking clearly right now.

If you look at the numbers, it’s pretty obvious that not taking the money from VW is a bad move. Autolist crunched a new batch of numbers every TDI owner needs to see.

While used Volkswagen prices aren’t falling as quickly as before, it’s still bad. The average used VW sits on dealer lots 189 percent longer than the average vehicle. TDI models caught in the middle of the scandal are still seeing their values tanking by 4.8 percent.

Autolist says the average Dieselgate TDI has seen a drop in value at $2,017 since the whole scandal came to light. What TDI owners stand to get from the company is between 250 and 500 percent more. That means taking the cash from Volkswagen will more than make up for that decrease.

If you’re going to look at the situation as a purely financial transaction, at this point it makes the most sense to take the payout and get a new vehicle. Going with an emissions fix is risky. We still don’t know what it involves, how it will affect fuel economy or if it will turn the TDIs into sluggish cars.

TDI owners can do as they please, but I say grab the cash and run while you still can.