Eh, VW and M-B have been selling diesels in the US for years. Don't get me wrong, I've had a lot of them, and I think they're great cars, but it's definitely not a revolution. I really want a new Sportwagen TDI 2.0 TDI.

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I disagree:

1. MB doesn't count because most punters can't afford them.

2. These diesles are much more sophisticated than the US mass market has ever seen before.

3. $3 gas will make a lot more people consider diesels than in the past.

4. Honda offering a diesel Accord is huge in terms of mass market acceptance of the technology. ADM, here we come, baby!

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It is not going to be a revolution unless it has a transverse 8 speed automatic.

Hopefully Honda will move beyond their current 5 speed automatic transmissions.

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In the past few years, VW has not brought enough diesels to America to meet demand. I remember when the MK V Jetta came out, my local dealer was selling diesel Jettas for over sticker price, and they couldn't keep them on the lot. If anything, Volkswagen should import a huge number of diesels and load the television up with TDI ads.

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A large part of the problem VW has had recently with diesel allocation is that the engines were too dirty, so even outside the CARB states they had to offset diesel sales over the last several years with cleaner petrol engine sales, first at 2:1 gas:diesel, then 3:1, etc...

I think the reason there were no diesels in 2007 was that the offset program disappeared and they were not ready with the cleaner engines, and the low sulfur fuel was not yet fully available. I'm sure the diesel heads at tdiclub have the details.

I doubt that VW will hold back to pen up demand. They realize that they have about a year to make hay until Honda, Nissan, et. al. come out with lots of diesel competition.

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EEGeek: The Jetta TDI was classified as a Tier II Bin 10 vehicle, at the time the least restrictive "bin" of the 10 then available for passenger cars. Bin 9 and Bin 10 classifications went away at the end of 2006 (they'll disappear at the end of 2008 for trucks).

The only realistic way to get diesels which are cleaner than Bin 10 was to use ultra-low-sulfur diesel, which in turn allows for particulate filters and special catalytic converters. However, ULSD didn't appear at pumps in the U.S. until late 2006. Volkswagen wasn't able to roll out their clean diesels fast enough, so there's a year delay.

The diesels coming to the U.S. in 2008 are all targeting Tier II Bin 5 regulations, which is the same level of output as California's LEV II. Diesels actually have a few emissions advantages over gasoline engines. Evaporative emissions are nil, and things like formaldehyde don't appear as much, so in some ways they hit PZEV levels. The big things that hurt diesels are NOx and particulates.

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EEGeek: The Jetta TDI was classified as a Tier II Bin 10 vehicle, at the time the least restrictive "bin" of the 10 then available for passenger cars. Bin 9 and Bin 10 classifications went away at the end of 2006 (they'll disappear at the end of 2008 for trucks).

The only realistic way to get diesels which are cleaner than Bin 10 was to use ultra-low-sulfur diesel, which in turn allows for particulate filters and special catalytic converters. However, ULSD didn't appear at pumps in the U.S. until late 2006. Volkswagen wasn't able to roll out their clean diesels fast enough, so there's a year delay.

The diesels coming to the U.S. in 2008 are all targeting Tier II Bin 5 regulations, which is the same level of output as California's LEV II. Diesels actually have a few emissions advantages over gasoline engines. Evaporative emissions are nil, and things like formaldehyde don't appear as much, so in some ways they hit PZEV levels. The big things that hurt diesels are NOx and particulates.

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I thought so too, but the pictures from the NY Autoshow of the red one with the sports package and 18 inch wheels look a lot more promising

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Anything more than 6 speeds is just showing off, not gaining enough speed or efficiency to make the extra cost and complexity worthwhile.

Then again, pretty much anything by VW/Audi suffers from electronic reliability issues. I'd be at the front of the line to pay above sticker for this Jetta Wagon if I thought I wouldn't see the check engine light on within 12 months. But I don't, so I won't

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