All costs are plotted as projections based on forecasts by Vincentric analysts, and gas prices include a 3.5% inflation rate.
Vincentric analyzed 23 diesels on sale in the United States 11 of them classified as commercial vehicles and 12 as consumer vehicles.
Vincentric looks at the cost of zero-deductible, bumper-to-bumper extended-warranty claims to calculate the average cost owners can expect to pay for repairs.
According to the automotive research company Vincentric in Bingham Farms, Mich.
To compile our list of the most value-packed green cars, we used cost-of-ownership data from Vincentric, which is based in Bingham Farms, Mich.
Besides that, the diesel E350 Bluetec has marginally higher costs in nearly every category that Vincentric tracks, including most notably finance and repairs.
Vincentric included 23 diesel vehicles in its alternative fuel analysis which is just about every consumer and commercial diesel currently on sale in the United States.
FORBES: Do Diesel Cars And Trucks Save You Money? Not Always
There are some surprises in the group this year, says Vincentric President David Wurster, and trim variants on a particular car play a big role here.
In a detailed analysis comparing diesel and gas versions of the same models, Vincentric calculated the cost of ownership over five years, assuming 15, 000 miles of driving annually.
FORBES: Do Diesel Cars And Trucks Save You Money? Not Always
This estimate does not include maintenance, which Vincentric measures separately.
In addition to reasonable operating costs, the BMW 328i also retains its value better than other vehicles in its class, according to IntelliChoice.com, which, like Vincentric, measures ownership costs.
Chevy's Volt could be different--there aren't too many other plug-in hybrid electric cars to compete with at the moment--and the Vincentric data is just a prediction of future worth.
Of the seven full-size, heavy-duty diesel pickup trucks Vincentric studied, the Ford F-350 is the only one with five year ownership costs that are lower than that of its gas-powered equivalent.
To determine the average amount consumers might pay to keep their new cars in operating condition, we used 2008 repair estimates calculated over a five-year period by Vincentric, an auto-industry data-analysis company.
Vincentric supplied five-year cost estimates for 2007 models.
Owners of luxury and high-performance cars can expect to shell out more money for repairs over time not necessarily because these are lower-quality cars, but because labor and parts cost more for those vehicles, explains David Wurster, president of Vincentric.
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