Test Drive: 2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Highline

By Kevin Harrison

There are a lot of things about North Americans that I really don’t get. For instance why do we like Walmart enough that it has to be open 24 hours? Have you ever bolted up at 4 am wanting to buy a new set of silverware?

Likewise, why are we so opposed to diesels? For some reason we’ve asphyxiated them with a bad reputation, and as a result, North Americans have not responded well to them.

This attitude is in complete contrast to Europe where selling a car without a diesel option is like ordering a hamburger at a Chinese restaurant – it just doesn’t make sense.

VW has been trying for decades to make diesels more mainstream in our market but they hit a bit of a snag in 2007 when stricter emission standards forced them to axe their diesel and revamp it. During that period TDI’s were missing in action in our market.

But they’re back and VW promises them to be even more powerful yet more efficient than before.

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Test Drive: 2010 Audi A3 TDI

By Kevin Harrison

I was driving behind an old Mercedes-Benz diesel a while back and I have to say, it was about as desirable as playing strip poker with your parents. It was just awful.

I actually had to turn my radio up because that diesel clatter was making my ears bleed. Then, despite being 30 degrees outside, I had to roll up my windows because the exhaust coming out of the tailpipe had a rather black/purple-ish hue that would make even Stephen Harper concerned about its effect on the environment. On top of that, the smell was less agreeable than a hockey player locker room after the second period.

For the first time ever, I finally started to understand North American tendencies. Diesels of the past were terrible.

Since then, many automakers have refined diesel technology, most notably Volkswagen. Even though most automakers bailed on the idea of bringing diesels back, Volkswagen stuck with it, leaving them with virtually all the market share. Not a bad move. BMW and Mercedes-Benz have followed suit with each brand offering a small dosage of their diesel technology for open minded North Americans.

Volkswagen has expanded the technology into four of their models. But what if you want a little premium with that oil burner? Well, for the first time Volkswagen has made its famous TDI engine available in the Audi A3. Is it worth it?

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Canadian Car & Utility of the Year Announced

Great minds think alike. We chose the 2010 Subaru Outback as our pick for the Canadian Utility of the Year, and AJAC agreed. You might as well give us our membership now, AJAC.

Volkswagen took Car of the Year honours and even though our pick was the BMW 335d, there is absolutely no disagreement from us that the GTI is just as deserving.

Congrats to the VW and Subaru!

To find out the winners in each individual category, hit the jump.

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Oh Hi: 2011 Volkswagen Touareg

Very nice!

After saying that it would make its official debut about a month from now at the Geneva Auto Show, VW decided that we couldn’t wait that long and gave us a few pics to oggle.

The upgrades help it stay more in line with VW’s new three barred grille theme and tail lights get a similar family resemblance treatment as well. The sides are a lot more sculpted and eye-catching. The overall size remains the same. Although the previous generation’s design is now eight year’s old, we are still fans of the old version. This new Touareg is still agreeable though.

Apparently fuel efficiency was a big factor in the Touareg’s redesign. We criticized the current generation Touareg for being obese, which negatively affects fuel consumption. VW obviously read our review ( we like to tell ourselves that anyway) and took our advice of putting the Touareg on a diet. The 2011 version will lose 460 pounds.

Also helping out in the fuel efficiency department will be a hybrid model in addition to the great TDI engine (only making its debut for the 2010 year). The hybrid will be VW’s first ever and will have a 3.0 direct injected V6 matched to an eight speed automatic. Normally we’d make some smart ass comment about that being too many gears, but for the benefit of fuel efficiency, it actually makes sense. The Touareg Hybrid is expected to produce a combined rating of 8.3L/100 kms. The diesel is expected to be tweaked for efficiency as well and will get an expected 7.3L/100 kms.

More pics here

Test Drive: 2010 Volkswagen Touareg TDI

By Kevin Harrison

A few days ago, I was on my way to Halifax from Dartmouth via Metro Transit’s superb bus services. It was around lunch time and I expected it to be quite busy. It was. However I was able to get myself a seat near the front of the bus which is typically reserved for the elderly, people who are disabled or have  young children. At one point a woman got on the bus and sat down next to me. This annoyed me because at no point during her time on the bus did she do anything remotely surprising. I had her ‘type’ pinned down as soon as the bus pulled up. She was clearly a crazy woman. Now, normally I don’t tend to judge books by their covers, but there seems to be a law in the universe that anyone that is remotely ‘loony tunes’ will interact with me, no matter what the circumstances.

I knew that this woman would choose to sit next to me rather than take the empty seats across from me. I knew that she would hit me in the face a few times with her bags as she attempted to sit down. I knew that she would ask me to hold her travel mug while she composed herself, then once settled in, act like the mug wasn’t hers. I knew that she would spend the majority of the trip talking to me about her dog “Jack” who may or may not exist. Seriously, the way she spoke about him made me question whether he was all in her head. It was at this point when I had started to pray that an elderly woman would get on the bus so I could give up my seat and get a break from hearing about how she once met a man with the same name as Tom Cruise, but wasn’t Tom Cruise, yet she still asked for his autograph anyway.

Sometimes you can nail down the personality of a car before driving it too, which is also irritating. For instance before you get into a Toyota Corolla (it does not matter what year) you know you will be in for a rather boring ride, but at least nothing will go wrong the gas pedal you’ll be able to save some gas. Before you get behind the wheel of a Ferrari 599 you know you’ll be in for one of the most thrilling adrenaline inducing rides of your life, but only if you can get it started first without jumper cables.

I thought I had the Touareg nailed down too. Turns out, I didn’t.

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Canadian Car of the Year Finalists Revealed! We Make Our Picks!

Those lucky ducks that have coveted AJAC (Automobile Journalists Association of Canada) memberships all recently got together to rate the best new car of the year from the Canadian perspective for 2010. They tested them, rated them, and broke down the finalists into five categories.

Since Car Driven is literally only hours old as we write this, it seems a bit premature to have our own COTY awards. So instead, we’ll just use AJAC’s finalists and make our own picks.

Find out the finalists and our picks after the jump!

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