VW Golf as efficent and as clean as hybrids

By Dave Dekker - Posted on August 13th, 2007
Tagged: New Technology
Golf diesel getting 52 MPG, clean emissions and being a VW they will run forever.. Why is it that the US can't come up with or even use any of the new cool technologies? I understand that we have an oil President and have had the majority of the years I have been driving cars, but come on folks, use new technology! http://www.motorauthority.com/news/hatchbacks/vw-to-introduce-golf-bluem...
Take that ya Tree huggers
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While I agree the we in the states could be doing better, a lot better, I compared the US equivalent of the Golf... the VW GTI to the Prius. Not for gas mileage and emissions... but for size.
If the Prius was as small as the GTI, I believe the Prius would be doing better, much better than a Diesel Golf. People seem to forget that the Prius is not considered a small car. The first model was, the current model is not. This is a mid-size vehicle that gets over 50 miles per gallon. If you want proof of that, I have photos... just last week we put over 500 miles on one tank of gas in our Prius and the average was 50.9 miles per gallon.
On to the size... the Prius compared to the GTI (which I assume is the same as a golf):
- Is longer
- Has a wider wheelbase
- Is taller
- Has more rear headroom
- Has more front leg room
- Has more rear leg room
Aside from all that, according the the specs from VW on the new Diesel and the specs from Toyota on the Prius, the Prius is still cleaner... and it's larger.
Now... if they were to shrink the Prius to the size of a GTI (Golf), then we could talk. Until them... shhhhhh
One other thing to think about... if the clean diesel catches on in the states (and I hope it does), imagine putting a clean diesel in a hybrid... you would have the best of both worlds. The beauty of Toyota's hybrid system is that this could be done. The hybrid system is not reliant on a gasoline engine.
Diesel hybrid that you could plug in... that would be cool!