Where are all the fuel efficient cars? - Jonathan Pryor's web log
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Where are all the fuel efficient cars?
With my Verizon TV service I get BBC America, which includes the wonderful show Top Gear.
A few weeks ago I saw their endurance race to Blackpool, a 750 mile trip from Basel, Switzerland to Blackpool, UK. (Which is odd, as Google Maps implies that the trip would be 1319km, or 819.5 miles.)
Jeremy Clarkson chose a Jaguar XJ6 TDvi (sorry, no direct link), which gets 32.3mpg, or 8.7 l/100km.
James May chose a Subaru Legacy Diesel (click Economy, then 2.0D R for the mileage), which gets 56.6 mpg, or 5.0 l/100km.
Richard Hammond chose a Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion, which was mentioned as getting 74mpg (though the above site lists 88.3 mpg, or 3.2 l/100km).
Unfortunately, these mileages are using UK gallons, which are larger than US gallons. So, using a handy online calculator, we see that the Jaguar gets ~27mpg US, the Subaru gets ~47mpg US, and the VW gets ~73.5mpg US.
Are there any equivalents to these vehicles in the USA?
Jaguar lists 25 mpg for some models (aside: the US site is far more link friendly than the UK site), which is comparable to the UK Jaguar, so it's covered.
Subaru doesn't offer a diesel engine, so nothing is comparable to the 47mpg that the UK Subaru Legacy gets.
For Volkswagan, the nearest US equivalent appears to be the Jetta TDI, which gets 41mpg, a far cry from the 73.5 of the Bluemotion.
Thus, the question: Why don't we have these cars in USA?
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