This will come as the shock to many people. The Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen is a very unexceptionnal car. An affordable family car, that nobody buys for its performance. Jetta’s buyers expects dependability, and frugality. This is the kind of car where fuel economy matters most, and the diesel engine certainly delivers. The Sportwagen is available with a 140-hp 2-liter diesel, 85% of customers requested it last month. I’m not talking about Europe, where diesel sales have been plentiful for years, but of the United States. An 85% diesel marketshare was unseen in America, but that is the present at Volkswagen’s, for the Sportwagen.

We’ve been talking about diesel for years, wondering if it will ever catch up in the US, well, it has.