mercedes e320 cdi

The automotive buyer’s guide published in the August issue of Popular Science featured a variety of key technologies consumers should know about when comparing new cars. What follows are additional categories likely to pique your curiosity in the showroom—diesel tech, off-road capability and all-important in-car entertainment options.

DIESELS
Tech
Diesel engines are more efficient and more powerful than their gas cousins.

In the 1970s, Americans had a love/hate relationship with diesel cars. Though more fuel-efficient than their gas cousins, the cars were noisy, underpowered, smog-belching reminders of just how badly the fuel crisis had crippled the nation. By the mid-’90s, lower gas prices all but banished them from U.S. showrooms.


Meanwhile European carmakers, spurred by diesel-friendly tax structures, kept at it. They traded sloppy mechanical fuel injection for high-pressure electronic systems that better atomize fuel.