tdi diesel

11.22.09

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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