At last month’s Detroit Auto Show, Ward’s Automotive Group named Volkswagen’s 2.0L TDI Clean Diesel engine one of their “10 best” for 2010. The 2.0-liter TDI engine is now featured in the Jetta TDI sedan and SportWagen, as well as the 2010 Golf. The engine complies with all the excessively strict Tier 2, Bin 5/ULEV II emissions standards, blah blah blah, but the important part is that VW deserves the award.
Most of 2007 and 2008 been spent by VW with no diesel presence in the States due to the strict EPA guidelines, and they’ve come back in 2010 with a re-engineered masterpiece.
We drove this engine in our 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Review last year and loved it. Frankly, if you didn’t know it was a diesel, most people would have a hard time figuring it out. Smooth driving, plenty of power (for its size,) and incredible fuel economy finally make diesel engines a real choice for regular people in the US, which marks the first time we can say that.
Along with VW’s TDI engine, the other nine engines in the “Ward’s 10 Best Engines” list are:
Audi’s 3.0L Supercharged V6 and 2.0T found in the S4 and A4, respectively
Toyota’s 1.8-liter hybrid in the Prius
Hyundai’s 4.6-liter V8 in the Genesis Sedan
Ford’s 2.5L HEV in the Fusion Hybrid and 3.5L twin-turbo V6 in the Taurus SHO
GM’s 2.4L I4 found in the Equinox
Fuji’s 2.5L turbo’d H4 Boxer found in the Subaru Legacy GT
All great engines in their own right. We’ve driven most of these in our car reviews, and exclaimed how great the engines are within the respective reviews.
