diesel cars

11.21.09

Test Drive: 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI

After a four-year break, Volkswagen brings the Golf diesel back to the US. Don't call it a Rabbit, but do call it good, clean fun

By Mike Spinelli Posted 10.12.2009 at 9:08 am 4 Comments

With not quite 50 horsepower at the wheels, the original Volkswagen Rabbit diesel couldn't hit 125 miles per hour from the barrel of a circus cannon. Yet here we are in the 2010 Golf TDI, outgunning the locals (at least some of them) on a stretch of autobahn near the company's Wolfsburg headquarters. Not since I found my stash of Kiss solo albums in the attic has 1978 felt so long ago.

Volkswagen's on-again-off-again production of diesels for the US in the ensuing three decades entered a new "on" phase in 2008 with the reintroduction of the Jetta TDI. This year, the company is returning the diesel Golf TDI (formerly Rabbit, formerly Golf, formerly...) to the US after a four-year absence.

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BMW Vision EfficientDynamics Concept Car

BMW's latest design and powertrain study may have a clinical-sounding name, but beneath that avant-garde skin and lab-coat-tested powertrain beats the heart of an ultimate driving machine

By Mike Spinelli Posted 08.31.2009 at 9:18 am 6 Comments

BMW's new experimental vehicle may get 63 miles on a gallon of diesel and can travel 31 miles in all-electric mode, but it also scores in the performance realm -- with a zero-to-60-mph time in the de rigueur modern sports-car range of under five seconds.

Fans of progressive auto design will likely cock an eye at its posturing curves and layered surfaces, but the big story is the Vision's plug-in hybrid drive system, which pairs two electric motors with a 1.5-liter, three-cylinder turbodiesel engine, together producing 356 horsepower.

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