Angus MacKenzie loves diesels!
Click the A4 for a high-res gallery
Motor Trend may be one of those stalwart publications that still sends out bound and printed piles of paper every month but they aren't complete luddites. The boss man over there, one Angus MacKenzie just spent a few days back on the continent and took a road trip in a new Audi A4 TDI. Unlike the 3.0L V-6 diesel I drove recently, Angus got the 2.0L four cylinder engine (essentially the same unit coming to the VW Jetta this summer). On a 525-mile jaunt up and down the length Portugal, Angus certainly did not spare the whip with an average speed of 83 mph and he still averaged 34mpg. On a lower speed stretch he got 47mpg. The gist of his story is that diesel power can make for a great all around car with great fuel efficiency that doesn't have to sacrifice driving pleasure. This correlates perfectly with our own recent diesel experiences. Now, if MT would just get out of the tree killing business.
[Source: Motor Trend]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kevin Nugent 6:23PM (5/06/2008)
I love this car
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imoore 9:58AM (5/07/2008)
Lay off Motor Trend, Sam. I enjoy Autoblog, but I cant read it while at the kitchen table, on a bus or plane, at the doctor's office, or in the bathroom. And I surely can't read Autoblog in bed at night. (Who takes a computer to bed -- on second thought, forget it, don't answer that). Besides, they use recycled paper for magazines. Here's an idea--how about a print version of Autoblog?
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montoym 10:24PM (5/07/2008)
Angus also drove an Audi A3 1.9TDIe which he wrote about a few months back.
http://www.motortrend.com/features/editorial/112_0805_big_picture/index.html
Here's a quote from that link
"On a 48.5-mile run to London's Heathrow Airport around the jammed M25, one of Europe's busiest freeways, I averaged an impressive 50.5 mpg in the sort of bumper-to-bumper stop-start traffic you find in L.A. every day. Flicking through the A3's trip computer at the end of my drive, I found the car had averaged 42.6 mpg over the last 1454 miles at an average speed of 51.2 mph. By contrast, our long-term Prius never managed better than 47 mpg between refills and averaged 41.6 mpg over 22,278 miles, most of which were on L.A. freeways."
I personally can't wait for more efficient diesels to be offered in the US. I'm more than ready to buy one as my next vehicle.
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