2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI

Turbo diesel hatchback is a fun, fuel-efficient package

By Nina Russin

2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI

Clean diesel is a win-win-win technology. It’s affordable, offers excellent performance, and produces fewer emissions than gasoline. With all there is to love about diesel, it’s surprising more Americans aren’t embracing it.

Part of the problem is the lingering memory of diesels three decades back: sluggish, smoke-belching vehicles that on the whole, were uninspired and unreliable. It’s hard to get a generation of drivers soured by their first diesel experience to give it another shot.

The other problem is that the new generation of diesel, called clean diesel because of its reduced sulfur content, sounds too good to be true. Wary car shoppers want to know what the drawbacks are. Now that clean diesel fuel is widely available in the United States, there are none.

The Volkswagen Golf TDI is a case in point. Base sticker price is $22,590: well within the limits of our best value category. The base model comes well equipped with comfort, convenience and safety features. The only obvious omission is Bluetooth connectivity, which costs $200.

Fuel economy is about twenty-five percent better across the board than the gasoline-powered version of the same model. Because the new common-rail diesel systems run on extremely high fuel pressures, there’s none of the lag that plagued older diesel powertrains. Zero-to-sixty acceleration is 8.6 seconds: about half a second slower than the gasoline Golf, but certainly acceptable. Read the rest of this entry »