I personally think that any vehicle that gets better than 30MPG should get a tax credit… and anything getting less than 20 should be subject to a minimum $2000 gas guzzler tax.

jetta is a good valu
i say no gass guzzler taxes

Also… any engine displacing more than 5.0L should add another $1000 to that penalty as well.

If GM can get 300hp out of a 3.6L V6… why does it take a 6.0L V8 to make 400?

Not quite sure why these disappeared from the American landscape for a few years as they are and always have been extremely popular North of the border. Still, they are very much a word of mouth car. I guarantee when the first one shows up in your neighborhood it won’t be the last.

The reason why they disappeared is because of the regulations governing diesel emissions. It first started with CA, then NY adopted it, and then about a dozen more states adopted the emissions standards. The diesels couldn’t match the standards, so they stopped selling. Now that they have the clean diesel they can reintroduce it to the market.

Are you people really asking for more taxes, WTF.
canuck: The Jetta is considered a “chicks car” by many and always seems pricey next to competition. Not to mention consumer reports nerds and the resale value obsessed avoid VW like plague. Viva la Mexico!

Are the diesel VW’s tuneable? I know you can get 100+hp out of a truck diesel with just an exhaust and ECU reflash… how about the cars?

Raine:The trannies are already at or near their maximum torque rating. So upgrades would be risky for the tranny. But this applies to the GTI too.

Ah… good to know. Thanks shaver.

Another good question. Why does the govt. feel that it needs to regulate diesel cars so strictly when there are millions of semis and pieces of construction equipment out there every day belching tons of diesel soot into the atmosphere? Are the few thousand diesel cars produced really going to contribute that much more?

Well put RaineMan. This is exactly the issue I have with the government trying to regulate diesel passenger vehicle emissions so much. This is an obvious example of how corrupt our political system is – the reason commercial diesel trucks have much more lax emission requirements are because the industry has so many lobbyists who bitch that it would cost too much money to clean up their truck emissions. Same industry who donates funds to support the politicians to keep them off their back with regards to emissions. The U.S. is just as corrupt as China, Russia, etc. We’re just a little more tactful about it, and wear a nice suit while doing it.

The govt, from what I understand, is going to be putting stricter regulations on diesel tractors (semis, construction equipment, etc). I read a story about Wal Mart buying up a lot of new diesel tractors that output ZERO soot and meet the federal regulations for NOX that diesel cars have to adhere to (I think that’s the gas that diesel puts out a lot of, I might be wrong).

shaver you are an absolute fool
go look at the resale value of any diesel jetta out there
it is incredible, many have been practically going for their window sticker with 20-30k miles on them.

The problem isn’t with the new trucks. It is with the issue that the older unregulated vehicles are going to be on the roads for at least another 20 years… and construction equipment (which has never been regulated) will be in service for 50 years or more. Cleaning up the emissions from these things would be prohibitively expensive… but I just don’t understand why the emissions regulations get tighter and tighter for new cars while older ones are allowed to slip through the cracks. It’s so hypocritical.

Although it is nice blame everything on government, it gets in the way of truth now and then. First of all, diesel emissions were (were!) obscene in US. But it was primarily because of our horrid diesel fuel. It was horrid in 2 ways. First it had huge amount of sulfur and I am not aware of reason why it was so. The government regulation as of 2006 reduced sulfur amount more then 10 fold. So now fuel is a bit cleaner. Secondly, US made diesel lags behind European in cetane number (combustion quality of diesel). As of now we are up European diesel standards of the last century. This is why for engine manufacturers it is difficult to make diesels to comply with US standards. In Europe diesels are more common then gasoline engines, and even BMW drivers don’t miss gasoline engines.
Tractors and industrial machinery still allowed to burn “dirty” (sulfur laden) diesel but not for long.

Raineman, don’t live up to your moniker. If you’re taxing vehicles with low fuel economy, what is the purpose of an additional tax on large engines? If a 5.0l engine achieves 30+mpg, why would you still have a problem with it?

Isn’t it illegal to claim a MPG rating, no matter higher or lower, different than the EPA estimate?

Will BMW’s X5 3.5d and 335d get tax credits too? That would just be a great incentive above the BMWCCA Discount and the European Delivery Discount.

How come these tards can sell diesels but GM, Ford, Chyrsler can’t??? Somebody tell me that.