TDI

Over the past few years, Audi has become increasingly interested in developing a range of all-electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars under its e-tron brand name. Earlier this week, we told you that its all-electric A3 e-tron test program had officially launched in the U.S. Now the German...

While Volkswagen didn't host a press conference to launch its new diesel Beetle, the carmaker put the 2013 Beetle TDI on display at the Chicago Auto Show in its first U.S. appearance. It's really the return of a long-lost friend, since VW sold the previous-generation New Beetle with a 1.9-liter...

Many automakers claim that their exploits in the world of motorsport go towards improving their road cars. It's a tenuous connection sometimes, but Audi could lay fair claim to motorsport -derived technology in its road cars, from its Le Mans program. With maiden wins for its TFSI technology in...

Hybrids and, more recently, plug-in cars seem to have gotten all the green ink lately, leaving fans of fuel-sipping clean diesels out in the cold. Four makers sell diesel passenger vehicles in the U.S. for 2012: Audi and BMW joined longtime stalwarts Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen a few years back...

'Tis the season for 'car of the year' awards, and we're right there with the rest of the media. Next Monday, we'll announce the winner of our second annual Green Car Reports "Best Car to Buy" Award winner for the 2012 model year. At the same time, our sister sites--MotorAuthority and...

The Volkswagen Group 2.0-liter clean-diesel TDI engine has been fitted to quite a number of VW vehicles over the years, as well as the Audi A3 TDI. Now the company has announced a voluntary safety recall that applies to both Golf TDI models built from May 2009 to September 2011, and the more...

The good folks over at Consumer Reports are the ultimate rationalists when it comes to testing and buying cars. They don't use media-fleet cars, but buy their test vehicles anonymously. Their rigorous assessments make hard-nosed fleet buyers look like flighty schoolgirls in comparison. In the...

A 2011 Volkswagen Touareg, piloted by a trio of German drivers, set a new world record for traversing the length of the Pan-American highway.

Volkswagen's TDI diesel engines have long attracted fans and repeat buyers. But now a second investigation this year into the reliability of its TDI engines may cast a shadow over its newest fuel-efficient clean-diesel vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last week launched...

Despite lack of an official confirmation from Audi of America, we'd bet significant money on the arrival of the Audi A6 Hybrid in the U.S. market. Why? Because the U.S. has the highest hybrid penetration of any market in the world except Japan, and "hybrid" means "high gas mileage" to a large...

Diesel models may account for more than half of all new car sales in Europe but in the U.S. their numbers still hover around just 3 percent of the market. This in part because of a national memory of the noisy and polluting diesels of three decades ago, and in part because diesel fuel and engines...

There's nothing like a rant from an old friend to focus the mind. We recently read a profanity-laced note from a high school pal excoriating all the major automakers for not selling small, high-mileage diesel cars and trucks in the U.S. We referred him to an article about why we can't buy small...

We tend to get a lot of "What car should we buy?" questions at GreenCarReports, and we'll usually respond with a list of questions to narrow down the choices. Recently, though, our high-school friend Sarah Sette in Baltimore sent the following note: We are car shopping, seriously this time. The...

It’s been more than a decade since Volkswagen’s new-generation ‘New Beetle’ first hit showrooms but a successor is finally here, making its debut this week at the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show before reappearing just a couple of days later at the 2011 New York Auto Show. It...

While Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz are the long-term diesel stalwarts in the States, relative newcomer Audi has ambitious plans. During a lengthy teleconference yesterday, Audi confirmed that it would add TDI clean-diesel models to every car it offers in the U.S. market by 2015. Audi has frequently...

Got a 2009 or 2010 Volkswagen Golf or Jetta with the TDI clean diesel engine? Or an Audi A3 TDI? Ever had the engine stall unexpectedly? If so, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration might like to hear from you. The NHTSA announced Friday on its website that it is upgrading an...

With fuel-efficiency and emissions regulations tightening all over the world, carmakers continue to push the limits on how economical a production car can get. The latest entrant in the high-mileage stakes: a future edition of Volkswagen's Up minicar that will return 79 miles per gallon using a...

What's good gas mileage? 30 mpg? 40 mpg? The 50-mpg combined rating of the 2011 Toyota Prius, the most fuel-efficient car sold in the U.S. this year? Nah. How about 261 miles per gallon? Or, for the Europeans in the house, a mere 24 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer. You heard right. The...

Unless you're Argonne Laboratories, putting gasoline into a diesel fueled car is a bad problem. Maybe it was brain fade. Perhaps you rented or borrowed an unfamiliar car. Or you simply didn't realize that nice Volkswagen or Mercedes-Benz was a new, clean-diesel car. (It also happens to particularly...

German automakers have spent time and money on ad campaigns promoting clean diesels as the better way to improve fuel economy, so far with limited results. But that could change when Audi brings a TDI diesel version of its best-selling A4 model to the U.S. So far, its only TDI offerings are the Q7...