BMW, a company that has been obsessed with technology since they started, recently showed off a bunch of what it considers answers to offsetting carbon emissions in London. Makes sense. London has been on the forefront of emissions regulations in Europe, and is also a large market for what BMW makes.
The real question is whether BMW’s low carbon technologies will make it to the States.
2009 VW Jetta TDI
They finally did it! They finally made a diesel-powered car that everyone can live with. In the past, diesels have been mostly ignored by US consumers, save for a small die-hard fan base. Most consumers didn’t even look twice at one, assuming they’ll be driving a slow car, spitting black smoke, dirtying up the air, and rumbling like a loud tractor.
Volkswagen has been selling the Jetta TDI is the States for years, but had to take it off the market in 2007 due to stricter emissions laws. For 2009, VW reworked the 2.0-liter TDI four cylinder engine, and made it better than ever. The new engine now produces a livable power rating of 140hp and a surprising 236 lb-ft of torque. It’s also cleaner than ever. It passes emission standards in all 50 states (even California) with flying colors due to a new exhaust filtering method that doesn’t sacrifice fuel economy.
The true beauty of what VW has done here with the 2009 Jetta TDI is in its subtlety. If you removed the “TDI” badge and gave this car to an average unsuspecting driver, he wouldn’t know it’s powered by a diesel engine, and that’s exactly what we need to get average consumers to drive diesels here in the States. Continue Reading…
Here’s some bone-headed, yet understandable news from Audi: They’ve decided to kill off the R8 TDI. Sure, times are tight, and maybe now’s not the best time to making another variant of any given company’s uber-sportscar, but if you ask me, now is exactly the right time to be building a car like the R8 TDI.
Since time immemorial, the Europeans always kept the coolest stuff for the home market (more or less). Sure, in the past, a lot of this could be blamed on various Euro car makers not wanting to deal with stuff like North American emissions regs (as in the lack of Ferraris in the late 70s). But as the EU has found itself more and more closely aligned with America on things like airbags and safety glass, whether a European car ends up over here in this day and age has more to do with marketing than anything else.
Case in point, Audi’s A4 2.0 TDI e.
More interesting news keeps rolling out from der boys at Bavarian Motor Werke.
It seems that the new diesel models that BMW is rolling out are so clean that the IRS will actually give a tax credit for buying one of the things.
How does this work? Just how clean? And are we really giving props to the IRS (shudder)?
Yes we are.
So VW shows its BlueSport concept at the Detroit show, and gets some really good press. Shoot, who shouldn’t get good press from a mid-engined drop top that gets a purported 57 miles to the gallon? What’s to stop it from ending up in our driveways?
Of the early naysayers, most pointed to potential conflicts with the Audi TT & the Porsche Boxster (Audi’s corporate siblings).
Not so, as it turns out. The future could look very good indeed.
