Those older VW diesels always cracked me up...you'd see people getting on it, rolling coal, and still only accelerating at the pace of a hyper snail!
My wallet is happy I was out of phone service this weekend I’d have been headed south with my trailer yesterday afternoon!
Yes, did a mechanical restore on my 05 Dodge with a 5.9 Cummins. Bought it 6-7 years ago needing some work. Even with the work I’ve done on it and currently doing to it (second set of injectors due to bad fuel a few weeks ago) total costs still less than 20% of the cost of a new truck.
Heck, just the tax amount on a new one would likely pay for your repairs on the old one, and that tax gets you nothing!
Just did the math, you are correct. And that doesn’t even count the increased annual taxes and insurance!