I bought a TDI!

[Taylor95]

Update: I think I will be selling rhe TDI. I am not sure if I will attempt to fix the transmission or not (some say a new valve body is all it needs). My main reason for selling is that diesel can be pretty bad for your respiratory health, and children are particularly vulnerable. There is a diesel exhaust smell coming from the engine that gets into the cab, even after all of the work (and new gaskets) I put into it. This is one of those problems that I could chase forever and never fix, which I do not want to do.

[MeteorGray]

Sounds like a good move. I would look into an economical gas car.

A couple years ago I compared my Mazda3's fuel mileage with TDIs, and even though the diesel can beat my gas Mazda in fuel mileage, when I looked at the cost per operating mile compared with the TDIs, my Mazda came out on top by a pretty good margin.

The added fuel mileage for the diesel did not make up for the added cost per gallon for diesel.

Besides, as you noted, gasoline doesn't smell nearly as bad.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Taylor95

I am not sure if I will attempt to fix the transmission or not (some say a new valve body is all it needs).

Fixing a transmission is often a PITA, and even though it's supposed to be just the valve body an automatic transmission is always quite labor-intensive to do the repairs properly at once in order to avoid having to repair it once in a while indefinitely.

My main reason for selling is that diesel can be pretty bad for your respiratory health, and children are particularly vulnerable.

Some unproperly-tuned gassers are often more unpleasant to be around than a properly-tuned Diesel, and the same ends up applying to their impact to the respiratory health.

[Isaac Zachary]

If looking at an older diesel or an older gasoline car with the same types of exhaust problems the gasoline car can actually be worse.

At one point diesels actually used to be lauded for their lower NOx emissions and always have had lower CO and HC emissions. Particulates have been a problem, but aren't near as deadly as CO and are generally considered worse than HC or NOx.

It just turned out that in gasoline cars the NOx became easier to control in our modern age. But I'd rather be in an old diesel car with an exhaust leak than a gasoline car with an exhaust leak.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

But I'd rather be in an old diesel car with an exhaust leak than a gasoline car with an exhaust leak.

Of course. At least it's less likely to result in death.

[COcyclist]

The only times I have had fumes in the cabin was from a cracked EGR pipe. There is a bellows in the stainless steel tube for expansion. It can get small cracks and leak.

The automatic transmission is a known weak point.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by COcyclist

The only times I have had fumes in the cabin was from a cracked EGR pipe.

Not the most pleasant experience I'm sure, yet not so scary as the risk of CO poisoning on most gassers.