Today’s adventure in “how to keep a straight face” comes to you courtesy of Volkswagen, diesel, and a couple of older ladies who have reached the point in their lives where they don’t appear to care about things like decorum or restraint.
Why pick older ladies? Because diesel has come a long way since they were young, and if America’s Funniest Home Videos has taught us anything, it’s that older people know how to react.
Diesel used to be associated with sluggish performance. Gasoline was crisp, explosive, and didn’t worry about things like fuel efficiency. The 0-60 time for the Golf TDI (that’s the diesel) is about on par with the gasoline at just over seven seconds. From experience we can say that the torque of a modern diesel can be even more impressive than a gasoline engine.
Paired with a talented race driver, like the one behind the wheel, and you have yourself a car full of screaming old ladies. The driver is Tanner Foust, by the way, rallycross champion.
The second old wives tale to be dismissed is that diesels are noisy. For those of y’all who have never heard one, there was a telltale knocking noise to old diesels, something you might hear today on UPS trucks. For a regular sedan, this could be quite off-putting. Thanks to smaller fuel injections in modern diesels, noise isn’t really a factor any longer.
TDI stands for turbocharged direct injection. This speaks to the performance that is combined with clean diesel. Together they can yield a driving range of up to 795 miles in the Passat. Each of those miles will produce fewer CO2 emissions than gasoline, too, so you can take pride in your environmental stewardship.