history repeating itself?(rant)

[ian Butler]

On Wed, 13 Mar 2002, Brett Dikeman wrote:

> One does wonder..if polls show people really DO want efficient cars,
> and American car makers haven't stepped up to the plate, why hasn't
> Audi, BMW, etc?  All have the TDI technology to make it happen,
> especially VW/Audi. Yet only Toyota and Honda are doing it(with great
> success, it seems;

As far as I know Volkswagen HAS stepped up to the plate, at least in Europe,
with the Lupo 3L TDI.  It's a little Rabbit-like hatchback (Rabbitlike in
size and, from the specs, about on par with my old 1.6 FI's acceleration)
that uses 3 liters per 100km, something like 85mpg city/highway, on plain
ol' diesel.  Which beats the Prius and the Insight by a country mile for
mileage and probably interior volume.  Since it's just straight TDI, it
doesn't have electric motors or batteries to complicate the plumbing, and
it's only 1800 pounds.  And it's cheap.

If only they'd slap DOT bumpers on that thing and drag it over here, I'd be
a happy camper.. I wonder if VWoA may not be importing them because it's a
rather dinky car and doesn't fit their more and more yuppie/gen-x-geared
lineup in America.

Still, 85mpg would be a good number to have in your fleet average, should
Congress get their heads on straight and put the 36mpg law through.

--
ian Butler / ian at hplx.net

Losing is half the battle.