50MPG coming in 2009!
 

Hey everyone, great page- I have always enjoyed cars that get 40-60MPG for years now, so fuel price spikes dont bother me much as my civic gets the worst mileage at 40MPG highway and my 23 year old VW diesel gets the best, 45 city and 61MPG highway.

The great news is that we will again see modern cars that break 50MPG on dealer lots very soon. Acura, subaru and VW are all bringing clean QUIET diesel cars to the states, diesel has more BTU's than gasoline and thats why they get great MPG, and are now clean and VERY quiet.
Google key words such as "Honda D-tech" "boxerdiesel" and "TDI" to learn more.

Agreed. My commuter is a 2006 TDI and co-workers don't believe the mileage it gets for "not being a hybrid". It's not as clean as the brand new '09 models, but I needed a solution back in 2006 and couldn't wait for the new engines to arrive. But I did have a co-worker who started looking this year, asked me about mine, and just bought an '09 TDI this month. He loves it.

From 1986-1988 I drove a Volkswagon Dasher Diesel station wagon. Man I'd kill to have that car back today. It got 50 MPG across the board whether on a series of around town shopping trips or a 700 mile long surf trip on the highway with two stacks of surfboards on the roof racks. I suspect that today I'd do quite a bit better on the road since I wouldn't be toting around the surfboards anymore and my driving style has become quite a bit less agressive. Even adding in for the modern low sulfur diesel I would bet that I could regularly see mileage figures well above 50 MPG for my 90 mile daily commute.

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new diesels and will seriously consider one for my next car. Even with the premium that is being charged for diesel fuel these days the increased mileage will more than make up for a few extra cents per gallon at the pump.