Hi all. I drive a 2002 VW Jetta GLS TDI wagon. I typically get about 48 MPG and 675 miles per tank of fuel. I run the car on biodiesel blends or pure biodiesel, and am the founder and webmaster for www.biodieselnow.com and the BioDieselNow.com forums.

Hope y'all don't mind a biodieseler intruding here. :)

I'd love a hybrid diesel minivan with 4WD or AWD (I live in New England). I have two kids (soon to be 4 and 5 years old), and am thirsting for a vehicle that is efficient, safe, and has a third row of seats. A diesel minivan should get 30-35 MPG, and if you make it hybrid, you'll get 40-45 MPG.

Welcome…sounds like a good plan to me. Why don’t we submit it to GM so they can…uh…not do anything about it and keep selling archaic, truck-based SUVs with the lowest emissions?

Seriously, I would like to see a hybrid diesel, I just know it won’t be from Detroit anytime soon…or ever.

lol...the trueness of that statement...
im afraid that deisel is dead..w/ the new CARB standards in the US....

Welcome, natescape

I really wish we had a hybrid diesel too (well, we actually DO - they are called AmTrack - or SSN/SSBN.... :) ) but think the reason we have gas first is to gain some acceptance. I think I have seen some indication that a diesel version of some of these may be out sometime not too far off. Hope so!

Stevo: I think that at least in NY, we can't buy new consumer diesel vehicles starting this year. Is that elsewhere as well?

I was looking at the Golf TDI before I found the Prius. I have had two previous Golfs and loved them and was impressed with everything on the TDI except the speed at which the RMP limit was reached - tached out too quickly for me.

A diesel hybrid would be marvelous. I would imagine the only real change to the Toyota system would be a beefier power split device, but I wonder if there aren't other possible considerations? It seems such an obvious wedding of technologies.

Jack

idk..i know its moving across the country in stages though

That's definitely NOT true. We're getting ULSD (ultra low sulfur diesel) in 2006. Right now, our diesel is filthy - max 500 PPM of sulfur. The new standards will be max 15 (yes fifteen) PPM. When we get clean diesel, diesels can be tuned to nearly eliminate NOx and have a particulate filter to make them incredibly clean and efficient (and darned fun to drive).

Clean diesel is coming, and I think we'll see a resurgence of diesel fuel.

CARB only applies to five states, and Maine is about to allow TDIs because they just barely exceed the NOx standard (which is why CARB isn't allowing them). Maine is taking a much broader "big picture" view which shows that TDIs are actually really clean overall.

Run 'em on biodiesel and you have a rockin', clean car that runs on renewable resources and doesn't support suppressive regimes and terrorists. :D

Nate, how's the new car since you dumped the passat. And no, I still haven't gotten the taste of gas out of my mouth. :D

Now, try to figure out who I am.... :D

No way are the days of the diesel over. Take a look at the real time mileage section. Look at #8. 49.9mpg/85,000 miles. With ULSD, my mileage should go up even higher. Plus, there is no internal combustion engine simpler than a diesel. Maintenance costs are a heck of a lot less on a diesel than a gasser, or even a hybrid.

Great mileage! You're beating out many of the Prius. It looks like the Insights we have in the database are a bit... advanced in their driving techniques. I don't believe the everyday driver can achieve those numbers, but it should sort itself out once it gains some more popularity.

If you saw how I drive my car, you'd be surprized I get such I mileage. 60-70+ all the time on roads with 50+mph speed limits. Corner hard, brake hard, accelerate hard, etc, etc, etc.

It's awfully BAWLSY of you to hijack my topic, pal. ;)

The new car is great, but I've honestly been a bit disappointed with my MPG. It's probably low because a) it's winter, and winter diesel sucks, B) I drive like a madman while delivering 175 newspapers on Sunday mornings over 80 miles (speed up, slow down, speed up, slow down) and (most importantly) c) My commute is 6 miles. The car barely gets warm before I turn it off again. :o