diff --git a/client/packageutils.c b/client/packageutils.c
index 7c195eea..5bed7f4e 100644
--- a/client/packageutils.c
+++ b/client/packageutils.c
@@ -1000,7 +1000,8 @@ TDNFGetAvailableCacheBytes(
     )
 {
     uint32_t dwError = 0;
-    struct statfs tmpStatfsBuffer = {0};
+    struct statfs stfs = {0};
+    struct stat st = {0};
 
     if(!pConf || !pConf->pszCacheDir || !pqwAvailCacheDirBytes)
     {
@@ -1008,13 +1009,19 @@ TDNFGetAvailableCacheBytes(
         BAIL_ON_TDNF_ERROR(dwError);
     }
 
-    if (statfs(pConf->pszCacheDir, &tmpStatfsBuffer) != 0)
+    if (stat(pConf->pszCacheDir, &st) != 0) {
+        /* avoid failure when checking space, and dir doesn't exist */
+        dwError = TDNFUtilsMakeDirs(pConf->pszCacheDir);
+        BAIL_ON_TDNF_ERROR(dwError);
+    }
+
+    if (statfs(pConf->pszCacheDir, &stfs) != 0)
     {
         dwError = errno;
         BAIL_ON_TDNF_SYSTEM_ERROR(dwError);
     }
 
-    *pqwAvailCacheDirBytes = tmpStatfsBuffer.f_bsize * tmpStatfsBuffer.f_bavail;
+    *pqwAvailCacheDirBytes = stfs.f_bsize * stfs.f_bavail;
 
 cleanup:
     return dwError;
diff --git a/pytests/tests/test_cache.py b/pytests/tests/test_cache.py
index 38701594..2621b590 100644
--- a/pytests/tests/test_cache.py
+++ b/pytests/tests/test_cache.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 import os
 import fnmatch
 import pytest
+import shutil
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope='module', autouse=True)
@@ -203,3 +204,15 @@ def test_cache_directory_out_of_disk_space(utils):
     clean_cache(utils)
     clean_small_cache(utils)
     assert ret['retval'] == 1036
+
+
+# see https://github.com/vmware/tdnf/pull/454
+# tdnf should not fail if cache dir does not exist
+def test_cachedir_removed(utils):
+    pkgname = utils.config["sglversion_pkgname"]
+    utils.install_package(pkgname)
+
+    cache_dir = utils.tdnf_config.get('main', 'cachedir')
+    shutil.rmtree(cache_dir)
+    ret = utils.run(["tdnf", "-y", "--disablerepo=*", "remove", pkgname])
+    assert ret['retval'] == 0