Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Diesel Downers

Diesel-powered cars could be the ticket — as far as giving us very high-mileage cars (50-plus MPGs) with excellent power/performance and without the liabilities of hybrids — including the additional expense/complexity of having two powerplants (a gas engine and an electric motor) in the same vehicle — or the compromised economy/performance of hybrids at highway speeds.
But, as my week in the just-launched 2014 Chevy Cruze diesel made all-too-plain, the government is making it very hard to make a case for diesel-powered cars.
I’ll explain.
The Cruze I test drove (read the review here) comes with two features that many potential buyers may not like. Unfortunately, they are not optional. If you buy the car, you’re stuck with them — just like Claymores in the dashboard (air bags), always-on headlights (Daytime Running Lamps) and other such things force-fed to the American car buyer.

http://spectator.org/archives/2013/07/10/diesel-downers 

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