My old VW Rabbit Diesel got 42 city and 57 highway.
I wish I still had that car for commuting.
I guess what I was trying to say is that there are cars on the market today that exceed the proposed standards that would be suitable for most Americans. People just need to say no to cars that don’t get at least 30 miles to the gallon and the manufactures will build them.
Way back when, our department secretary had a Rabbit Diesel. One day she showed up late, having had to take the bus. She was madder then a wet hen too. It seems that the night before, as she arrived home her Rabbit had failed to stop running when she turned off the key. Not only did it keep running, it accelerated to higher and higher RPMs until the engine seized.
It turned out that the cylinder walls were scored enough that the oil control rings didn't maintain a seat and allowed crankcase oil to enter the combustion chamber. A Diesel being what it is, burned the oil and kept on running after the fuel was shut off. The longer it ran the more oil it burned and faster it went until all the lubricating oil was consumed (a mater of a few minutes!).
Bottom line, engine was a basket case and needed to be replaced. The punchline is, the car had just turned over 30,000 miles and Volkswagen refused any warranty coverage. They junked the car as a total loss. That was not an uncommon failure mode for the Rabbit Diesel.
Regards,
GtG
A fine car until you wanted to go uphill. Or turn on the air. I can remember having turn our air off every time we had to merge onto the highway.