Fans of diesel vehicles have long looked at the European market and wondered why the U.S. doesn't get all the best diesel models sold overseas.

There are plenty of good reasons of course, but every so often one slips through the net--such as Volkswagen's sporty Golf GTD.

Only now, it looks like Volkswagen may have changed its mind due to cost concerns.

In Europe, the Golf GTD is the halo model of the diesel Golf range, sitting alongside the gasoline GTI and the newly-launched plug-in hybrid GTE.

With GTI styling cues, a sporty interior and uprated suspension, it's a step above all the other diesel Golfs--and that's before you get to its engine.

The car uses a development of the new 2.0-liter TDI rolling out across the Volkswagen range, tuned to 184 horsepower from the standard 150 hp.

That, and the car's 280 pounds-feet of torque, slingshots it to 60 mph in seven seconds, with economy little different from the regular TDI--in the case of the Jetta TDI, around 45 mpg highway.

Volkswagen had previously confirmed the car for U.S. sales based on the growing popularity of its regular diesel models.

The GTD was expected to debut in 2015, priced at around $27,000--but Automotive News quotes Volkswagen's American boss Michael Horn as saying its probability is "diminishing".

VW has decided it can't make the higher-output diesel engine at its Silao plant in Mexico, meaning GTDs would have to be shipped from Germany, adding too much to the car's cost.

"The price point is not really attractive," Horn told reporters at the New York Auto Show.

The news will be hugely disappointing to VW fans, who've clamored for a sportier diesel since the first Golf diesels started hitting U.S. shores.

It isn't all bad news for VW's loyal supporters though--while the GTD is looking less and less likely, Horn suggested that a successor for the current Volkswagen Scirocco may come to the U.S. if VW chooses to build one.

The current car--also sold as a diesel in Europe--cannot be sold here, as it wasn't designed with U.S. safety standards in mind.

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