Volkswagen Jetta diesel named Green Car of the Year

December 11, 9:01 PMGreen Car ExaminerEvelyn Kanter

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Say the word 'diesel' to anybody who can remember the 70s or the 80s, and it conjures up an image of something that was all but impossible to start on a cold day, belched clouds of black smoke when you coud start it, and then was so noisy that you had to run the car stero at full throttle to drown out the engine.

That was then.  Today's diesels are clean, efficient , quiet, and absolutely reliable.  So clean, in fact, that a diesel has been awarded the title of 2009 Green Car of the Year by the Green Car Journal.  It's the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI clean diesel.  Yes, a diesel.  And it's not the only clean diesel.  Mercedes-Benz BlueTec diesels and Audi TDI diesels are just as clean and efficient.  But the VW is the award-winner.

While hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells and plug-in electrics have dominated the headlines in the US, diesels have been quietly getting all the buyers in Europe, where nearly half of cars sold there are diesel.  And since environmental rules in some European countries are even more stringent than they are here in the US, it makes you wonder why diesels have not been more popular in the US. 

Some of that has to do with the left-over memories of those old-time diesels, and some of it has to do with the fact that diesel fuel costs more than gasoline, even though diesels get better mileage -- comparably -- which evens out the cost per mile.  But try to explain that to somebody pulling up to the pump and seeing that diesel fuel costs 10 percent or 20 percent more than regular gasoline.  Even high octane gasoline.

I had a chance to test drive the award-winning VW Jetta TDI diesel at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November.  Great torque, ample acceleration and cruising power, easy to steer and brake, sumptuous creature comforts, large trunk.  What's not to love?  If I didn't know I was driving a diesel, I wouldn't know I was driving a diesel. 

And I could say the same thing about the Mercedes-Benz BlueTec models I tested recently in Vermont -- the GL320 and M320 SUVs and the R320 Crossover.  All, stable-mates to the E320 diesel sedan.