Pre-Dieselgate Volkswagen TDI Values Are The Weird Comeback Nobody Saw Coming

Ah, Dieselgate. The scandal that rocked the automotive world before we had the chip shortage and general muckery that came along with the pandemic era. For the uninitiated, Dieselgate affected diesel-powered vehicles from the Volkswagen-Audi Group umbrella produced between 2009 and 2015. The firm fitted 'emission cheat devices' to the cars in question, which enabled them to seem much cleaner when subjected to emissions tests.

In total, around 11 million cars were affected by the scandal, so this was a global issue. Now, diesel-powered passenger cars have never been all that popular in America, and this scandal was the final nail in the coffin for diesel Stateside. As you might imagine, demand for the affected models fell through the floor when news of the problems broke in 2015, and this had a profound effect on pricing.

New cars weren't really the problem for customers; Volkswagen could deal with that relatively easily. However, with 11 million cars sold and on the roads, there was a huge number of owners in danger of taking a financial hit.

According to reports from Kelley Blue Book at the time, the average price paid for a Dieselgate-affected Volkswagen just weeks after the scandal broke dropped by a whopping 16% on average. Another report from CarGurus demonstrated that trade-in prices of these cars had dropped by 8%, or around $1,500, on average.

Naturally, a stigma has stuck with these cars, but what's interesting is the prices now being paid for pre-dieselgate Volkswagen models. Many are now crossing into that modern-classic status as they approach and exceed 20 years old, and VW enthusiasts are now reaching deeper into their pockets for models like the Jetta and New Beetle in top condition.

Now, before you go hunting around on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace for a cheap TDI-powered VW to then resell and fund your retirement, not all older diesel Volkswagens are netting the big money. It's original, low mileage cars that are fetching the strongest results, and said results are more impressive than you might first think.

Take, for example, the "new" Beetle. Launched around the dawn of the new millennium, the revitalised Beetle was exactly that, and it managed to capture the appeal of the classic by employing a charming and retro design. Most were gas-powered, but some were offered in the U.S. with a punchy 1.9-liter diesel engine. One such example sold back in 2023 for an impressive $15,000. Now, it did have just 20,000 miles, but consider that you can buy a 2013 Beetle with a diesel engine and similarly low miles for $3,000 less, and it does demonstrate the collector interest that is building behind the older model. It's also worth noting that, even when brand-new, the diesel-powered new Beetle only commanded $18,425, so these cars in top condition are now almost proving to have been depreciation-proof purchases.

Jetta TDI models prove the point even further. Recent auction results include a 123,000-mile wagon that sold for $15,500 in 2024, and a 51,000-mile sedan which fetched $18,000 in '23. That's GTI money, and for only an extra $3,750, the buyer of the latter could have instead driven home in a brand-new Jetta. Today, a Dieselgate-era Jetta with the same mileage, and even in the same color, sits listed and unsold at a price over $7,000 lower.

Initially, it might seem odd to see old diesel-powered VW cars fetching properly strong money, but once we dig a little deeper, it quickly becomes apparent that these offer something that just has not been replicated since. First off, they hail from an era where diesel models weren't quite so strangled by emissions equipment, which means they are easier to work on and operate — the 1.9 'PD' TDI engine, for example, can trace its roots back to 1998.

They are also remarkably tuneable. Turbo and intercooler upgrades, simple ECU tunes, bigger injectors, and everything else that goes along with it are available for these engines. Perhaps boosting the engine's appeal is the fact that modifications like these still don't detract from the diesel's original benefit of returning impressive fuel economy figures. Popular tuners from around the globe claim that high MPG figures are still to be expected from a modified PD TDI engine. In other words, tuners that rely on their project for daily transport can indeed have their cake and eat it here.

Arguably the real reason for the surprising comeback of pre-Dieselgate VW models is the fact that cars like these just are not available any more. They are mechanically simple, often paired with manual transmissions, and economical — the old Audi A2 can crack 100 MPG, for example. More to the point, diesel-powered cars in these segments just do not exist in the modern American market. Quite simply, they aren't building new versions, and it's this scarcity that has enabled these once humble and easily overlooked models to surge past their gas-powered counterparts in recent sales.