Dear Scooby...what a quaint, innocent way to view the USA

Several states have followed CA's lead and adopted emission standards that go way beyond environmental concerns. In CA, VW operates under the threat of fines for selling their extremely efficient (50+ mpg for the passenger cars) and exceptionally clean burning TDi vehicles. I have heard that for every TDi sold in CA or sold to a CA resident by a dealer in another state, that VW has to either pay a heavy fine or reduce the number of Gas cars they sell by 2 (to meet fleet emission standards for the brand). So, VW "voluntarily" withdraws the TDi's from the market and also prevents dealers in other states from selling to CA residents. Only way around it is to buy used (7500 miles on the clock) from out of state or have an out of state friend "buy" it. You pay the friend and drive it home...wait until the 7500 miles tick off then register it & pay your sales taxes to the CA DMV.

The real kicker is you can walk into a domestic brand dealer and buy a diesel truck (which are less technically advanced in terms of fuel mileage/pollution control) off the lot, no problem.

There is hope though. Supposedly we will be getting low-sulphur diesel fuel in '06 and that will allow the current TDi engines to meet the current emission standards. I would not be surprised if the state again raises the bar on the levels allowed, just keep the protectionism running longer.

Sorry for the rant...

Mike.