Volkswagen Jetta Diesel
Watch for it to hit New England and California first when it debuts in March with a 2.0L common-rail engine.
Bob Lutz on Diesel
"Diesel: Always a favorite subject. But here's the real truth on diesels: With the upcoming Tier 2, Bin 5 diesel emissions regulations, which we now know how to meet-up until a year ago we had no clue how they could ever be met, and could only be met through the use of urea-the good news is the standard can be met. The bad news is that meeting these standards is about another $2,000-$2,800 of emissions hardware and control systems on top of the already existing premium of a diesel engine over a gas engine." -Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman, Global Product Development
"Making vehicles Tier 2, Bin 5 compliant is not the answer to a low-cost CAFE solution. In fact, even with Euro 5, many European producers-including ourselves, by the way-are starting to ask, 'Are the buyers of smaller cars actually going to pay a $4,000-$4,500 premium to get a diesel engine?' With the tougher emissions you meet with diesels, the more the fuel-economy advantage of diesel over a modern gas engine shrinks. We're probably going to look at the diesel advantage being sharply reduced to maybe 15 percent improvement over gasoline engines; maybe even only 12 percent. And with further improvements in gasoline engines that difference is just going to shrink and shrink . . . the difference will basically go away."-Lutz (continued)