Parked out in front of a Volkswagen dealer is a white Jetta with green leafy stickers on it. A line of text on each side informs us that it’s “Not A Concept Car.” On the rear bumper, it has the URL goodcleandieselfun.com, and a sticker on the trunklid says “take me for a test drive.” So I did.

I drove a development mule Jetta TDI last year and loved it. Now that I’ve driven a full production version, I can say only: go buy one.
Yeah, yeah, I know that diesel costs more than gasoline these days.

That’s an unfortunate coincidence, but the math can still work out in favor of the diesel-powered Jetta. Looking at today’s gas prices (6/30/2008), driving 15,000 highway miles per year, you’d save $376.22 per year in fuel by driving the diesel Jetta.

Details on the Jetta TDI’s $21,990 base price are still sketchy, but we assume that the price premium over the gasoline-engined version is about $1000. That means that the TDI will still pay for itself in less than 45,000 miles of highway driving.

But that’s assuming that you wouldn’t rather have the diesel in the first place. I, for one, would rather drive a Jetta TDI every day than a 2.5-liter gas Jetta - especially if it only had two pedals in the driver’s footwell. The gas Jetta gets a conventional six-speed automatic; the diesel gets VW’s wonderful DSG twin-clutch transmission. That’s reason enough.

Download pdf 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Clean Diesel