Just to be in the minority here, we have a 1998 VW Jetta TDI and a 2002 Golf TDI - both are fantastic cars and over the years have had very few repairs, outside of oil changes every 8,000 kms (5,000 miles). The Golf takes synthetic oil so those oil changes are $60 to $80 while the '98 takes the "cheap stuff", so an oil change for it is about $30.00.
The 1998 now has 350,000 kms (217,400 miles)and the Golf about 167,000 (103,700 miles) kms. Both get over mileage over 1,000 kms per tank on trips and a about 850 km in normal driving. They are both fun to drive and very comfortable although the Golf has a "harder" ride than the Jetta. We have had no problem with cold weather starts either and they don't live in a garage during our Ontario winters. The reason we bought diesel in the first place was mileage and engine longevity as we were driving over 50,000 kms (31,000 miles) a year
We wouldn't trade them for anything (well maybe for the new Bluetech TDI's

)and look forward to many more years with the same diesel vehicles - I just wish the price of fuel would come down now, similar to gas...
Just my $.02 CAD