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Wait, the VW eGolf and BMW i3 are not available for the mass-market in the EU? I guess holding down the number 1 and number 3 spots, respectively in sales in the EU in early 2018 don't count?

Oh really? If others didn't call it Assist you might have a point. Pretty much EVERYONE else calls it Driver Assist; only Tesla is brash (and stupid) enough to call it "Autopilot".

The problem with diesel cars in the USA is that they're more expensive than current hybrids (particularly the Prius)

The hell they are:

2014 Jetta TDI Value Edition: $21,295

2014 Beetle TDI: $24,595

2014 Chevy Cruze Diesel (no options): $24,310

2014 Prius Base Model: $24,200

Seems to be just about the same to me, save the Jetta; mine was a bit more (~$28,000), but that's because I sprung for every option except satnav. Seems the real problem is lack of options, unless you're a VW or Chevy fan.

diesel fuel is on average more expensive at the pump than 87 octane gasoline.

Yea, but you get almost-if-not-more-than twice the miles out of the same amount of fuel, so it ends up being a net win. I will concede that the sticker shock of diesel fuel does cause a lot of people's brains to shut off, and thus, not see the benefit.

If I go to Volkswagen US for example, the most fuel efficient car I can find is a Golf with a fuel efficiency of 23mpg in the city, and 30 mpg on the highway - http://www.vw.com/en/models/golf/gallery.html

At Volkswagen UK, the most fuel efficient car I can find is an Up Blue Motion with a fuel efficiency of 56.5 mpg in the city, and 78.5 mpg on the highway - http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/new/up-nf/which-model/engines/overview

Converting the American car to British gallons gives 27.6 mpg city and 36 mpg highway

In the city, the British car is 2.45 x more efficient, and on the highway, the British car is 2.61 x more efficient. Therefore in pence per mile, the British car is slightly cheaper than the American car, even though British petrol is much more expensive.

I would suggest then you sell your Prius and get a Volkswagen Jetta TDI. http://thinkblue.vw.com/5882-mpg-guinness-world-record-set-by-jetta-tdi/

Diesel prices should be lower than gas, diesel takes less work to refine than gasoline.

Not necessarily. There's a reason for refiners to take a bigger margin on diesel: it has more usable energy per gallon than gasoline. If people buy turbodiesel passenger vehicles such as VW's TDI series to take advantage of the lower fuel consumption of diesel, the price of diesel will likely rise toward parity with gasoline in miles per dollar.

Diesel gives better milage, about 1/3 more. http://www.carsdirect.com/car-buying/diesel-fuel-vs-unleaded-gasoline-understand-the-pros-and-cons The price difference between a Passat TDI and gas at the same trim level is only about $2000. http://web.vw.com/vwcompare/ The TDI would save you about $400 a year in fuel costs. You pay for the extra price in just over 2 years.

The current Volkswagen TDI's for instance, are 50 state legal (including CA), and don't require urea.

Low sulfur is nice, but that doesn't affect NOx, which is what the urea is intended to take care of. According to VW, the 2012 Passat TDI models "use a special catalyst and urea-injection system that reduces NOx emissions by up to 95 percent. Filled by a 4.9 gallon tank located inside the trunk, the injection system delivers a range of approximately 15,500 miles."

So as you can see, current TDIs do require urea, and the tank will need to be refilled multiple times over the life of the car.

Fine - Those are your choices.

You have a big family, and you have cash for one car. Assuming you have 3 kids or fewer, you have some options out there that get fantastic mileage. It took me all of 30 seconds to find this.

You can't stand living in a city? But you need to work in one? Hopefully there's public transit (depending on the city). But that's a choice you make.

I'm not against higher gas taxes, as long as they go to supporting transit costs (helping public transit, fixing roads). I think we all could pay a little more per gallon. I'll pay more in taxes, and you'll pay more in taxes. You'll just end up paying more than me because you choose to burn more.

I'm actually in the US and I've used a Ford Focus and Hyundai Sonata. The Sonata is a 'compact' in the US but it's much larger than a Golf for example.

The Ford got about 30mpg on the highway, the Sonata seems similar but it doesn't have an mpg readout.

Now compare to the Golf. Golfs in the UK come with a bunch of different engines

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/new/golf-vi/which-model/engines/fuel-consumption

The best one - BlueMotion 1.6 TDI 105PS gets 83 mpg on the highway. That's a diesel, non hybrid engine.

Now if I look on the US site I don't see anything like this

http://www.vw.com/golf/completespecs/en/us/

The US seems to only get Golfs with 30mpg on the highway. Admittedly the Golf in the UK is vastly expensive, but that's because cars are always expensive in the UK - the Bluemotion TDI Golf isn't much more expensive than the cheapest ones.

Mind you even the worst Golf engine in the UK manages 54mpg. That's superb by US standards.

Why are US cars so bad for fuel consumption?

You can't buy a NEW diesel car in California.

Yes you can. VW, BMW and Mercedes all make and sell diesels that pass California emissions requirements.

For example:
VW Jetta TDI: http://www.vw.com/jetta/en/us/
BMW 335d: http://www.bmwusa.com/Standard/Content/Vehicles/2011/3/335dSedan/Default.aspx
Mercedes R350 Bluetec: http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/vehicles/explore/overview/class-R/model-R350BTC

Right, I meant the "let's have the button fly in from the left and bounce around" animation. True vector animation doesn't have a replacement yet. The canvas tag could theoretically do it, but I've heard things about it's speed and it's real drawing, not moving vector objects around like Flash so it would be much much more difficult to do.

Animated SVG should be able to do some of it, but since static SVG often doesn't work well in browsers right now, the animated version would be a pipe dream to try to use.

Most animation I see on the web on people's websites is things sliding around, pointless eye candy that showing/hiding/moving images could do. Take this VW site. A quick look makes me think quite a bit could be done with HTML, but it would be really complicated. I understand using flash for that. A few months ago a friend showed me a car company's web site (someone smaller, not one of the biggest 4 or 5) that just had an amazing video of an exploding (as in exploded diagram) car that seamlessly transitioned to let you click around to different models and they swung in and out and... I have no idea how you could do it in HTML.

But compare that with Toyota and Honda's main pages. Both have pop-up lists of cars that you can hover over to get more links. Toyota did it all with HTML, Honda used Flash. Honda has a little more animation, but nothing too fancy. So many companies just use Flash to show a little slide show of clickable images, like Gamespot does.

For these simpler uses, Flash is no longer necessary. Flash has enough abilities that it (or something like it) will always have a place. But the "we need to use Flash here" bar is much higher than browsing many popular sites would have you believe.

just gone out and bought a VW diesel TDI 2010 model. It's as quiet as a petrol engine when running, and only (very) slightly louder than a petrol engine while idling. The exhaust is very clean...

As for efficiency, the TDI is currently averaging 49 miles/gallon for the sportwagen, that's real honest-to-goodness driving on both freeway and city streets, and is ~7mpg higher than the official rating of the car.

I didn't quite believe it, so I did the calculation myself based on mileage and purchased fuel, and my figures came to 52 miles/gallon. If anything, the car is under-reporting the fuel economy. Not to mention that diesel is actually cheaper per gallon than unleaded.

Note that the jetta sportwagen is the identical size to the normal jetta (it's just a different top), and that the engine is only a 2.0 litre engine, smaller than the 2.5 litre base jetta engine.

In short, I don't think you could actually be any more wrong about diesel engines.

Simon.

Here's the website with those infomercials.

Assuming you live in the US, you're probably seeing either a lot of poorly maintained TDIs, or pre-04 TDIs with larger aftermarket injector nozzles.

The 04 and newer TDIs have extremely precise injection systems that pretty much eliminate any smoke during hard acceleration, that is, assuming they haven't been modded. If a newer (>04) stock TDI is "belching" thick black smoke like a diesel truck, there are some serious mechanical problems that need to be addressed.

My 04 TDI didn't smoke at all until I had the ECU remapped ("chipped") with a more aggressive firmware that added 30HP and 70lb-ft of torque. Even now, it only smokes lightly (not belch) when I have the pedal down to the floor between 3-5k RPMs. That said, I have seen other older, heavily modded TDIs that are capable of creating large clouds of opaque smoke as they shred the pavement with crazy amounts of torque.

The new common-rail TDI's (09 and up) have advanced emissions systems that pretty much eliminate most of the soot. Here's a video where they actually put a coffee filter on the exhaust of a new Toureg TDI and it comes off without a trace of soot on it.

Only 30mpg? The TDI does well enough, no need to overstate things:

The TDI gets 30mpg in city. Diesel isn't as plentiful in the US, but I think your point still stands, it will take a long time to make up the actual cost assuming the Volt doesn't come with a boatload of incentives (but they do, and will)

http://www.vw.com/jetta/completespecs/en/us/

Wow, someone needs a reality check. Diesel in most places is comparable to gasoline and has a higher energy density than gasoline. Add in the extra fuel efficiency and the cost in cents per mile for diesel whips the pants off gasoline. The smoke you refer to was from high sulfur diesel which is no longer sold in the United States. Diesel has been shown to release less emissions than gasoline, and in fact VW is trying to reverse myths that you have with ad campaigns like this http://tdi.vw.com/a-coffee-filter-shows-how-clean-tdi-clean-diesel-is/.

And the new Turbodiesels get much better mileage than their equivalent gasoline counterparts. For example the Jetta gasoline vs diesel goes from 20 to 29 city and 29 to 40 highway (45% city, 38% highway). For comparison, the Honda Civic gasoline vs hybrid goes from 25 to 40 city and 36 to 45 highway (60% city, but 25% highway). Also note that the VW Jetta TDI won the 2009 Green Car of the Year award.

And there is no way in hell a hybrid beats a diesel in performance. The Civic Hybrid has 110 HP/123 ft-lb of torque. The Jetta TDI? 140 HP/236 ft-lb of torque. There is a reason diesels have been winning the Le Mans.

Dude! Same thing! http://www.vw.com/rabbit/en/us/ ^^

Dump the "slushbox" (the conventional automatic transmission with torque converter). There are so many ways to get the efficiency of the manual with the convenience of the automatic that it's criminal that we aren't doing it. Next, manufacturers choose gear ratios that are good for jack rabbit starts and passing while going uphill and using the air conditioning, but which are terrible for fuel economy. High gear isn't nearly high enough.

You mean like the automated 5 speed manual transmission in the Smart Car or the 6-speed dual-clutch DSG automatic transmission in the VW Jetta? Both of which do away with the wasteful torque convertor and gain about 10-15% efficiency over your typical "slush box" auto tranny.

Another big one is weight reduction. We use steel because it's cheap, not because it's all that great. We can replace many steel parts with lighter ones that are just as strong or stronger. We could also revamp the safety regulations to keep things just as safe without having to weigh down the car with super strong B pillars and such. Why is it we can ride motorcycles, which are far more dangerous, but we can't bring a car from Mexico to the US because it isn't "safe" enough? We dumped the 5 mph bumper of the 1970s. We need to trim the regulations again.

Take a look at this crash test of the new Chinese Brilliance Sedan done over in Europe, and then ask yourself if you want cars made in China and Mexico on our roads. Every year, there are more and more safety regulations, thus causing vehicles to become heavier and heavier. The only car I can think of that is actually light and safe is the Smart Car.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but even non-US auto makers do not offer many vehicles with diesel engines in the US. No car made for Europe would pass the Air Quality tests that the US has. Volks Wagon offers three diesels total and the rest of their cars have shitty mileage. Seriously, 21mpg/31mpg on most of their gasoline cars? The diesels get 30/41. (How does that compare to the EU counterparts?

No idea really. Cars are rated in amount of litres per 100km around here. However I remember reading that the diesels tend to emit less stuff than regular cars lately due to the particle filters and assorted gadgetry that has been added to them. At least the ones we have here. It's also possible the diesel fuel is different on both sides of the pond.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but even non-US auto makers do not offer many vehicles with diesel engines in the US. No car made for Europe would pass the Air Quality tests that the US has. Volks Wagon offers three diesels total and the rest of their cars have shitty mileage. Seriously, 21mpg/31mpg on most of their gasoline cars? The diesels get 30/41. (How does that compare to the EU counterparts?

And yet, there are no electric cars on the market right now that can charge in 10 minutes. If you read my post carefuly, you'd see that I'm not opposed to electric cars on principle and am not denying their future potential. However, when talking about the Tesla, bringing up dozens of upcoming electric cars which might use a different battery tech is pointless. Even according to Aptera's own FAQ, recharging takes about 8 hours from a standard socket.

Ok, here's the idea behind saving time by refueling: you're stuck on a street with slow moving traffic, perhaps due to an accident or a poorly timed traffic light. To the right, there's a gas station. You leave the street, refuel, and take the exit from the gas station which is further down the initial street you were stuck on. If the traffic is slow enough, or not moving at all, you just saved some time. It's just a silly counter point to recharging at home.

As for the range, I'm not sure why you're still arguing this. The Golf simply does have at least a 55 litre fuel tank. Unless VW are lying, that is. Why does it need a tank that large? Well I guess it's so that Golf drivers could make fun of electric cars :). Even using your numbers, that's over 1000km on a tank. No, I don't think it's a good idea to drive for 10 hours straight, but it is possible.

At no point did I compare an EPA number to a NEDC one. The 50MPG Prius is just what everybody says it achieves, although having now found the EU number for the Prius the difference appears to be more pronounced, at 4.3 vs 4.9 for the Golf. However, you're still ignoring that Prius is just one hybrid out of dozens which are all less efficient, and I'm not even talking about the hybrid S-Class here. The Prius is of course slightly larger than the hatchback Golf, but not any faster. The Prius' top speed is 170 km/h vs 190 for the TDI Golf, and I suspect the acceleration is similar to Golf's 10.7 seconds, although Toyota's page won't give me this information.

As long as we aren't talking about emissions, which the OP did not, the energy density of diesel vs petrol is irrelevant, especially when the prices are almost identical. If the fuels are sufficiently different (puppy farts and fission, for example), then of course such measures become pointless. And slower depreciation is certainly nice, unless you want a car which is cheap to buy and cheap to run, and don't want to spend more than, say, 10 grand. If money weren't an issue, I'd be driving the abovementioned (AMG) S-class.

Because he's talking about the TDI sportwagon, not the sedan, and is "hypermiling" a bit. He is also likely exaggerating a bit.

http://www.vw.com/vwfeatures/jettasportwagen/en/us/

Durrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Why is it that VW claims 22-30 mpg for their S, SE, and SEL models? That's a far cry from the 50-70 others are claiming here.

I have seen dozens of fuel efficient concepts from VW in the past couple of years but so far I haven't seen anything hit the showroom floor, at least not in the states. Flipping through my DasAuto marketing bullshit magazine, I see an SUV and a Minivan. Not exactly a fuel efficient line-up for 2010, if you ask me. The Diesel Jetta is a step in the right direction, but again, it's not on the lots yet.

That being said, I saw this interesting little car floating around the blogohedron a couple weeks ago. I'll let you rtfa, but if this hits the US showrooms in 2010, I suspect it will be a Volt killer. Also, it's not hideously ugly.

Long story short, I am so fucking tired of waiting on this shit. At least in the Golf Twin Drive, Germany is putting some money behind it. As much as I hate corporate subsidies, governments need to make some incentives for getting SUVs and Minivans off the roads, and fuel efficient compacts on the roads because consumers apparently aren't interested, or if they are, the car makers aren't hearing them or don't care.

I have seen dozens of fuel efficient concepts from VW in the past couple of years but so far I haven't seen anything hit the showroom floor, at least not in the states. Flipping through my DasAuto marketing bullshit magazine, I see an SUV and a Minivan. Not exactly a fuel efficient line-up for 2010, if you ask me. The Diesel Jetta is a step in the right direction, but again, it's not on the lots yet.

That being said, I saw this interesting little car floating around the blogohedron a couple weeks ago. I'll let you rtfa, but if this hits the US showrooms in 2010, I suspect it will be a Volt killer. Also, it's not hideously ugly.

Long story short, I am so fucking tired of waiting on this shit. At least in the Golf Twin Drive, Germany is putting some money behind it. As much as I hate corporate subsidies, governments need to make some incentives for getting SUVs and Minivans off the roads, and fuel efficient compacts on the roads because consumers apparently aren't interested, or if they are, the car makers aren't hearing them or don't care.

Go ahead and put in greater than 5% biodiesel, esp. from unapproved sources not meeting petroleum industry standards. If you have an fuel, engine or emissions control failure caused by it and you want to claim it under warranty, VW will almost certainly refuse to cover it.

Too bad the FAQ entry is gone. The only thing I can find on their site that discusses this is http://media.vw.com/article_display.cfm?article_id =9561.

Where do you get the idea that running on soybean oil (or biodiesel) in general produces "zero net pollution"? Running on that still produces pollution and even the guys at http://www.biodiesel.org/pdf_files/fuelfactsheets/ emissions.pdf acknowledge there's still pollution, just a reduction compared w/regular diesel in most cases.

VW's also have terrible long term reliability and your warranty is only valid if you run on no more than 5% biodiesel (B5). See http://media.vw.com/article_display.cfm?article_id =9561. Unfortunately the FAQ that went into more detail on vw.com is gone now.

Interesting ideas are coming from Volkswagen, who are developing prototypes of their "CCS" engine technology. It's described as something halfway between a diesel and a petrol engine, with the fundamental principle being spontaneous and homogenous combustion of the fuel. Extensive resuse of exhaust gases is employed to help prevent pre-ignition. These engines use the common rail direct injection systems from VW's TDI engines, and are having fuels designed for them, one based off natural gas and called "SynFuel", the other from biomass, called "SunFuel". Both are, according to Volkswagen, free of sulphur and aromatic compounds, which greatly reduces emissions.

See here http://media.vw.com/article_display.cfm?article_id =10016 for more info.

Yeah, and a lot of "old" people fought in WWII, but have no problem buying a Honda car or Sony TV.

Think of it like this, there are two types of people who will want a German car, some go for BMW, some go for Mercedes

I guess I am not a person since I like the Volkswagen GTI MkV ;)

Man, it was difficult to read that interview with 2 annoying OCZ and NewEgg flash ads moving up and down and side to side on each side of the article. Do these people think about the effect these ads have on their readers? It makes you not want to read the page at all IMHO.

No one has made a [practical] vehicle that runs much above the 40 mpg mark (that I know of).

*points to the * (turn Flash on)

There. EPA rated for about 40MPG hwy, and real-world is more like 50 or 55MPG.

The only problem? People will be yelling at you that you can't put diesel in a car. Those people can STFU.

That was Volkwagon on that monsterous SUV of their's, the Touareg.

It can also "kneel" to help the vertically challanged get in.

>a VW Taureg

it's called "Touareg"

it's not even a german word so there is no reason to spell it that wrong

http://www.vw.com/touareg/index.html

Volkswagen, literally "people's car," has been producing vehicles in Germany since its original founder, Adolf Hitler, brainstormed their first concept. Their niche was once to build a car that the everyday Aryan could afford, and to bring strength by empowering their people to commute cheaply and effectively where they needed to go. Today, Volkswagen is much more, representing an entry-level German nameplate for automobile owners to get the trademarks set by every German automobile: great styling, great handling, and prohibitively expensive repairs.

Their product repertoire includes several historical namesakes from previous generations, as well as modern day contenders in the 21st century automobile market. The New Beetle and the Jetta are Volkswagen's entry level vehicles for German beginners. Moving up the chain brings you the Passat and the Golf, for European luxury in midsize prices. At the top of the chain brings the near-luxury Touareg (German for "SUV") and Phaeton (German for "German Luxury"). What Volkswagen wants you to forget, however, is their rich lineage which spawned today's vehicles.

Founded in 1932 by the famed Nazi leader, his first project was to design a vehicle which would aid in building the strength of the fascist state. The car would be built to mimic the symbolic ideals of the cult-like ruling Nazi party. The Beetle, it was to be called, would be Volkswagen's first foray into enabling the Nazi leaders to commute to battle meetings to coordinate the death of the Allies. Throughout the War of Europe and subsequently World War II, Volkswagen earned the Nazi regime heavy profits due to its rapid expansion and slave labor. This, in turn, allowed Volkswagen to expand plants to newly-acquired German territory in Russia, as well as Czechoslovakia.

After the crumbling of the Nazi party, and effectively the entire German social structure in 1945, Volkswagen was left without its founder and entire management structure. Influenced by the opportunity of quick expansion, wealthy British entrepreneur Richard Branson, Sr. invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the plants to retool them for postwar production throughout Europe. Volkswagen was then reborn to make models that would carry its rich heritage to nations left unaffected by its founder.

Throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's, the world went through major changes as a global economy started trickling into every nation.

Volkswagen, literally "people's car," has been producing vehicles in Germany since its original founder, Adolf Hitler, brainstormed their first concept. Their niche was once to build a car that the everyday Aryan could afford, and to bring strength by empowering their people to commute cheaply and effectively where they needed to go. Today, Volkswagen is much more, representing an entry-level German nameplate for automobile owners to get the trademarks set by every German automobile: great styling, great handling, and prohibitively expensive repairs.

Their product repertoire includes several historical namesakes from previous generations, as well as modern day contenders in the 21st century automobile market. The New Beetle and the Jetta are Volkswagen's entry level vehicles for German beginners. Moving up the chain brings you the Passat and the Golf, for European luxury in midsize prices. At the top of the chain brings the near-luxury Touareg (German for "SUV") and Phaeton (German for "German Luxury"). What Volkswagen wants you to forget, however, is their rich lineage which spawned today's vehicles.

Founded in 1932 by the famed Nazi leader, his first project was to design a vehicle which would aid in building the strength of the fascist state. The car would be built to mimic the symbolic ideals of the cult-like ruling Nazi party. The Beetle, it was to be called, would be Volkswagen's first foray into enabling the Nazi leaders to commute to battle meetings to coordinate the death of the Allies. Throughout the War of Europe and subsequently World War II, Volkswagen earned the Nazi regime heavy profits due to its rapid expansion and slave labor. This, in turn, allowed Volkswagen to expand plants to newly-acquired German territory in Russia, as well as Czechoslovakia.

After the crumbling of the Nazi party, and effectively the entire German social structure in 1945, Volkswagen was left without its founder and entire management structure. Influenced by the opportunity of quick expansion, wealthy British entrepreneur Richard Branson, Sr. invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the plants to retool them for postwar production throughout Europe. Volkswagen was then reborn to make models that would carry its rich heritage to nations left unaffected by its founder.

Throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's, the world went through major changes as a global economy started trickling into every nation.

Volkswagen, literally "people's car," has been producing vehicles in Germany since its original founder, Adolf Hitler, brainstormed their first concept. Their niche was once to build a car that the everyday Aryan could afford, and to bring strength by empowering their people to commute cheaply and effectively where they needed to go. Today, Volkswagen is much more, representing an entry-level German nameplate for automobile owners to get the trademarks set by every German automobile: great styling, great handling, and prohibitively expensive repairs.

Their product repertoire includes several historical namesakes from previous generations, as well as modern day contenders in the 21st century automobile market. The New Beetle and the Jetta are Volkswagen's entry level vehicles for German beginners. Moving up the chain brings you the Passat and the Golf, for European luxury in midsize prices. At the top of the chain brings the near-luxury Touareg (German for "SUV") and Phaeton (German for "German Luxury"). What Volkswagen wants you to forget, however, is their rich lineage which spawned today's vehicles.

Founded in 1932 by the famed Nazi leader, his first project was to design a vehicle which would aid in building the strength of the fascist state. The car would be built to mimic the symbolic ideals of the cult-like ruling Nazi party. The Beetle, it was to be called, would be Volkswagen's first foray into enabling the Nazi leaders to commute to battle meetings to coordinate the death of the Allies. Throughout the War of Europe and subsequently World War II, Volkswagen earned the Nazi regime heavy profits due to its rapid expansion and slave labor. This, in turn, allowed Volkswagen to expand plants to newly-acquired German territory in Russia, as well as Czechoslovakia.

After the crumbling of the Nazi party, and effectively the entire German social structure in 1945, Volkswagen was left without its founder and entire management structure. Influenced by the opportunity of quick expansion, wealthy British entrepreneur Richard Branson, Sr. invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the plants to retool them for postwar production throughout Europe. Volkswagen was then reborn to make models that would carry its rich heritage to nations left unaffected by its founder.

Throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's, the world went through major changes as a global economy started trickling into every nation.

Volkswagen, literally "people's car," has been producing vehicles in Germany since its original founder, Adolf Hitler, brainstormed their first concept. Their niche was once to build a car that the everyday Aryan could afford, and to bring strength by empowering their people to commute cheaply and effectively where they needed to go. Today, Volkswagen is much more, representing an entry-level German nameplate for automobile owners to get the trademarks set by every German automobile: great styling, great handling, and prohibitively expensive repairs.

Their product repertoire includes several historical namesakes from previous generations, as well as modern day contenders in the 21st century automobile market. The New Beetle and the Jetta are Volkswagen's entry level vehicles for German beginners. Moving up the chain brings you the Passat and the Golf, for European luxury in midsize prices. At the top of the chain brings the near-luxury Touareg (German for "SUV") and Phaeton (German for "German Luxury"). What Volkswagen wants you to forget, however, is their rich lineage which spawned today's vehicles.

Founded in 1932 by the famed Nazi leader, his first project was to design a vehicle which would aid in building the strength of the fascist state. The car would be built to mimic the symbolic ideals of the cult-like ruling Nazi party. The Beetle, it was to be called, would be Volkswagen's first foray into enabling the Nazi leaders to commute to battle meetings to coordinate the death of the Allies. Throughout the War of Europe and subsequently World War II, Volkswagen earned the Nazi regime heavy profits due to its rapid expansion and slave labor. This, in turn, allowed Volkswagen to expand plants to newly-acquired German territory in Russia, as well as Czechoslovakia.

After the crumbling of the Nazi party, and effectively the entire German social structure in 1945, Volkswagen was left without its founder and entire management structure. Influenced by the opportunity of quick expansion, wealthy British entrepreneur Richard Branson, Sr. invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the plants to retool them for postwar production throughout Europe. Volkswagen was then reborn to make models that would carry its rich heritage to nations left unaffected by its founder.

Throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's, the world went through major changes as a global economy started trickling into every nation.

Volkswagen, literally "people's car," has been producing vehicles in Germany since its original founder, Adolf Hitler, brainstormed their first concept. Their niche was once to build a car that the everyday Aryan could afford, and to bring strength by empowering their people to commute cheaply and effectively where they needed to go. Today, Volkswagen is much more, representing an entry-level German nameplate for automobile owners to get the trademarks set by every German automobile: great styling, great handling, and prohibitively expensive repairs.

Their product repertoire includes several historical namesakes from previous generations, as well as modern day contenders in the 21st century automobile market. The New Beetle and the Jetta are Volkswagen's entry level vehicles for German beginners. Moving up the chain brings you the Passat and the Golf, for European luxury in midsize prices. At the top of the chain brings the near-luxury Touareg (German for "SUV") and Phaeton (German for "German Luxury"). What Volkswagen wants you to forget, however, is their rich lineage which spawned today's vehicles.

Founded in 1932 by the famed Nazi leader, his first project was to design a vehicle which would aid in building the strength of the fascist state. The car would be built to mimic the symbolic ideals of the cult-like ruling Nazi party. The Beetle, it was to be called, would be Volkswagen's first foray into enabling the Nazi leaders to commute to battle meetings to coordinate the death of the Allies. Throughout the War of Europe and subsequently World War II, Volkswagen earned the Nazi regime heavy profits due to its rapid expansion and slave labor. This, in turn, allowed Volkswagen to expand plants to newly-acquired German territory in Russia, as well as Czechoslovakia.

After the crumbling of the Nazi party, and effectively the entire German social structure in 1945, Volkswagen was left without its founder and entire management structure. Influenced by the opportunity of quick expansion, wealthy British entrepreneur Richard Branson, Sr. invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the plants to retool them for postwar production throughout Europe. Volkswagen was then reborn to make models that would carry its rich heritage to nations left unaffected by its founder.

Throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's, the world went through major changes as a global economy started trickling into every nation.

Volkswagen, literally "people's car," has been producing vehicles in Germany since its original founder, Adolf Hitler, brainstormed their first concept. Their niche was once to build a car that the everyday Aryan could afford, and to bring strength by empowering their people to commute cheaply and effectively where they needed to go. Today, Volkswagen is much more, representing an entry-level German nameplate for automobile owners to get the trademarks set by every German automobile: great styling, great handling, and prohibitively expensive repairs.

Their product repertoire includes several historical namesakes from previous generations, as well as modern day contenders in the 21st century automobile market. The New Beetle and the Jetta are Volkswagen's entry level vehicles for German beginners. Moving up the chain brings you the Passat and the Golf, for European luxury in midsize prices. At the top of the chain brings the near-luxury Touareg (German for "SUV") and Phaeton (German for "German Luxury"). What Volkswagen wants you to forget, however, is their rich lineage which spawned today's vehicles.

Founded in 1932 by the famed Nazi leader, his first project was to design a vehicle which would aid in building the strength of the fascist state. The car would be built to mimic the symbolic ideals of the cult-like ruling Nazi party. The Beetle, it was to be called, would be Volkswagen's first foray into enabling the Nazi leaders to commute to battle meetings to coordinate the death of the Allies. Throughout the War of Europe and subsequently World War II, Volkswagen earned the Nazi regime heavy profits due to its rapid expansion and slave labor. This, in turn, allowed Volkswagen to expand plants to newly-acquired German territory in Russia, as well as Czechoslovakia.

After the crumbling of the Nazi party, and effectively the entire German social structure in 1945, Volkswagen was left without its founder and entire management structure. Influenced by the opportunity of quick expansion, wealthy British entrepreneur Richard Branson, Sr. invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the plants to retool them for postwar production throughout Europe. Volkswagen was then reborn to make models that would carry its rich heritage to nations left unaffected by its founder.

Throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's, the world went through major changes as a global economy started trickling into every nation.

Volkswagen, literally "people's car," has been producing vehicles in Germany since its original founder, Adolf Hitler, brainstormed their first concept. Their niche was once to build a car that the everyday Aryan could afford, and to bring strength by empowering their people to commute cheaply and effectively where they needed to go. Today, Volkswagen is much more, representing an entry-level German nameplate for automobile owners to get the trademarks set by every German automobile: great styling, great handling, and prohibitively expensive repairs.

Their product repertoire includes several historical namesakes from previous generations, as well as modern day contenders in the 21st century automobile market. The New Beetle and the Jetta are Volkswagen's entry level vehicles for German beginners. Moving up the chain brings you the Passat and the Golf, for European luxury in midsize prices. At the top of the chain brings the near-luxury Touareg (German for "SUV") and Phaeton (German for "German Luxury"). What Volkswagen wants you to forget, however, is their rich lineage which spawned today's vehicles.

Founded in 1932 by the famed Nazi leader, his first project was to design a vehicle which would aid in building the strength of the fascist state. The car would be built to mimic the symbolic ideals of the cult-like ruling Nazi party. The Beetle, it was to be called, would be Volkswagen's first foray into enabling the Nazi leaders to commute to battle meetings to coordinate the death of the Allies. Throughout the War of Europe and subsequently World War II, Volkswagen earned the Nazi regime heavy profits due to its rapid expansion and slave labor. This, in turn, allowed Volkswagen to expand plants to newly-acquired German territory in Russia, as well as Czechoslovakia.

After the crumbling of the Nazi party, and effectively the entire German social structure in 1945, Volkswagen was left without its founder and entire management structure. Influenced by the opportunity of quick expansion, wealthy British entrepreneur Richard Branson, Sr. invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the plants to retool them for postwar production throughout Europe. Volkswagen was then reborn to make models that would carry its rich heritage to nations left unaffected by its founder.

Throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's, the world went through major changes as a global economy started trickling into every nation.

FYI, the Volkwagen New Beetle, the one that looks like this, is water cooled.

Sweet, somehow I mis-read the torque on VW's US Passat Specifications. Thanks for the info! My next car is likely the Passat TDI wagon.

What will and won't make it? Drivers won't - we'll all become passengers. No more "Drivers Wanted." It's people that will become obsolete if we ever perfect the safe-driving car.

According to VW US, the TDI makes 100hp@4000rpm and 177lb/ft@1800-2400rpm

Jetta technical specs
(US)

And that's supposed to be especially economical? What kind of cars do you Americans drive?!

Ummmm, gasoline powered cars for the most part, and it's practicly impossible buying a new car with anything smaller then a 1.5l. Even Honda's new civic is a 1.7l. Some states can't sell TDI cars, only a handful IIRC.

Now, TDI would be nice, but let's look at the numbers.

A Volkswagon Bettle GL 5 speed runs $17,630 MSRP according to the website. Toyota has the Echo and Corolla at $10,870 and $14,195 respectivly, a price diffrence of $6760 and $3435.

Corolla and Echo get about the same MPG, about 40 or so, you get 50 or so. Driving 300 miles a week for 52 weeks = 15600 miles. At 50mpg that would be 312 gallons of fuel, where 40mpg would be 390 gallons of fuel, a savings of 78gals a year using my numbers.

At present fuel for me costs about $2.00/gal. I would save $156 yearly on the TDI Bettle. It would take me 43 years to see a cost savings in the echo, 22 years in the Corolla. This is assuming I pay sticker price for a base model.

I'm not saying a TDI wouldn't be cool, it indeed would be. And 50mpg would be pretty cool too, but I have to look at the bigger picture here. The amount of money I save isn't enough to justify the purchace, and i'm a cheep bastard. I know many people, friends and family alike that drive SUVs or Trucks that get 12-15mpg. This is the 5+l engine class and is generally accepted as being piss poor.

Between 30-40mpg is considered to good to great, and it is for gas powered cars with 4cyl sub 2.2l engines. 40-50mpg is considered to be excelent but none too common in gas powered cars. 20-30 is probally about average IMHO, esp among midsized cars, esp those with v6 engines in the 2.5l range.

Going by the pictures, the guy drives either a newer model Volkswagen Passat Wagon or a VW Golf Variant import model (unlikely). And at least, the 2003 and later Passats can be ordered with a 24V system instead of the stock 12V system - and that's straight from the factory. They can even have an optional electric outlet (think cigarette lighter) in the trunk.

This still sounds a little weird though.

the omnifi is quite a piece of junk (i know, i own one).

the best product i've seen so far is the phatbox. it's being sold by volkswagen and audi as optional equipment. the kenwood music keg is a derivative of the phatbox that only works with kenwood stereos, but you can buy a phatbox that works with many types of car stereos.

there are several other makers of in-car mp3 players. ssi neo, the omnifi, the now defunct empeg/riocar. none of these made any inroad with real manufacturers because of poor quality and terrible usability. after having used the phatbox SSA interface (it talks to you, so you can find your songs without ever having to look down at a display), i'm never buying another product without it.

It looks like these cars are more hype than help in the battle against pollution and foreign fuel reliance.

If these results are accurate, then this is true, and it's quite sad. What I don't understand is why we aren't promoting Diesel engines more often.

For example, a VW Jetta TDI gets 50+ MPG on the highway. Unlike the Prius or the Civic Hybrid, diesel engines are cheap, highly reliable, have low maintenance costs, and can easily run on BioDiesel without a performance loss. Even with BioDiesel and Petroleum blends, you're still talking very little pollution in comparison to a similar unleaded gasoline engine. A full tank on a TDI will get you almost 800 miles before you need a refill.

So why as a society (I'm referring to the US here, the EU is very much ahead of us with biodiesel) don't we promote this more often? Let's reduce our foreign oil dependence, and not have a need to drill ANWR. Use Diesel & Biodiesel!