Your welcome. Yeah you're probably right about that Bay Area comment. Almost everybody here seems like a douchebag one way or the other. Haha maybe its just me though. I sure wish they made 'em like you here!
Come to think of it (and why I didn't I cannot say), yes, I was looking at the Jetta (the only TDi available in the US at that time, I believe). Q: What is the Golf Wagon? A stretched version of the regular? What they call the Jetta Sportwagen outside the US? Never heard of such a thing here. ~T
Yes, it's the Jetta Sportwagen. Didn't realize they still call it a Jetta there. It's a Golf wagon in most of the rest of the world. Canada only got the name change this year and I thought the USA was the same.
Or might it be that the European version uses big 20 once british pints while the US version uses tiny rip off 16 ounce US pints?
Probably part of it. People outside of US fail to consider this when comparing their cars, too often; their gallons are 15% larger.
Just an update on this as the new Consumer Reports reliability survey came out the other day. Up to you how much you trust them. But they did say, And the Prius was only rated average But I'm guessing the Golf TDI was only about average too as I believe there was a recall to do an ECU update. I think it's worth repeating: VW's reliability as a company still is below average. But there are a few bright sports such as the Golf and Jetta.
IIRC, their detailed breakdown showed the 2010 Prius as well above average in every reliablity sub category. Its real hard to see how this equates to an average overall rating!
True in general, but the UK actually is an example against that rule because diesel is not cheaper, yet it has had successful market penetration. Or so I read. Please correct any error.
Diesel fuel was cheaper than petrol in the UK but back in the mid 1990's as more and more people realised that the newer diesel cars were not so bad or as compromised as they once were and started buying them, the government slowly started to increase the tax on diesel. Eventually it became equal to petrol and then slowly started to increase over the cost of petrol. Not sure if this is down to total taxation or supply and demand (more trucks, trains and diesel cars - less petrol usage). This has only happened in the last couple years or so when there was already large diesel penetration. However, more emphasis is now being made to local air pollution AND fuel economy, hence more interest in hybrids and EV's.
They're still gaining ground. Remember, we've been told by the Government for the last 10 years that diesel is best and slowly people believed them. The tide however is starting to turn - slowly.
