It might be worth it - for that price esp. - to buy it there, drive it on vacation, and bring it back as a used car.  Shoot, go on a group vacation, each person buys one, and sell some when you return to pay for the whole vacation.

I've emailed with them and they are definitely working on a US introduction but it will be very difficult.  I would love to just see promotional models driving around DC with NASCAR - like advertising: 157MPG just to put pressure on Detroit to do better.

I like diesels as much as the next guy, but you all are missing the obvious here.

In most of Europe, diesels have little or no emissions controls.  That's why they are so economical.  It's easy to make a diesel engine economical when it's allowed to belch as much smoke as it wants. 

In the US, the EPA just put out very restrictive standards for "visible smoke" for diesel engines in both commercial trucks and cars.  That's why the VW Jetta and several other diesel models are not available right now.  Mercedes has a diesel called BLUETEC that meets the standards but its fuel economy has suffered somewhat over previous years because of the new emissions standards.

The problem with the new EPA standards is that they sacrifice the natural fuel-sipping advantages of diesel engines in favor of better emissions, something diesels are not usually known for.  The result is much cleaner, much less efficient diesel engines.

As a result, this concept will probably never see a US dealer.  I'm going to stick with hybrids for now.

Bob

is that it is much heavier than gasoline fumes and does less damage to the air.

I'm not sure if that is just as bad, say, for the ground water, though. Maybe someone can chime in.

But now, that's completely changed.  Go diesel!

I can't comment on whether diesel smoke is worse for the environment than gasoline emissions, but I can say that the particulate matter in diesel emissions is much more harmful health-wise.  Diesel soot is very carcinogenic (more so than gasoline emissions) and there have been studies showing that city-dwellers have more respiratory problems specifically because of the diesel soot from buses and other like vehicles.

The diesel Jetta will be back in 2008 (Feb, I hear), and will be 50-state compliant.  My understanding is that the smaller diesel engines won't need to use Bluetec - they have other ways to achieve compliance that won't rob as much power from the engines.

One of the holdups had been the poor quality of the fuel - too much sulphur.  That has been corrected.

I think a lot of people would buy these as a second or third car just for commuting.

Just think how many $5.2 billion dollars would buy?

Would be a good start.

Now wouldn't that be better than paying $5.2 Billion to collect under 19,000 rail riders at Tysons Corner?

Now really dazzle me an make it in America.  Our automakers are such a disappointment.

We were once the nation that raced to the moon.  Now we are racing to a meager 35mpg.  And I wouldn't call it a race - more like a crawl.

This is utterly pathetic, considering that Europe, Japan and China are already there.  By 2020, we'll be so far behind our competitors, we'll be lucky to have any auto manufacturing in the United States at all (except for foreign companies who site plants in the US).

is Loremo opens a plant in the US like Toyota does.

that could do more to break the gridlock on some of this than anything else -  UAW is worried about jobs.  Even if cost went to 15,000 to cover costs of union benefits, the cars would still sell like hotcakes, and it would give a big boost to unionization.

We all want unionized labor and we have to fix health care to make it happen.

With the exception of California, the ultra low sulfur diesel that these high performance diesels use is not uniformly available. When it becomes universal (around 2010) look for lots of euro diesels with great performance and mileage to appear.

Sunoco switched over nationwide to ULSD 2 months ago. Sunoco is also the only widely available gas station to meet the Terror Free Oil Initiative.

Terror Free Oil Initiative
http://www.terrorfre...

This is certainly along the right track, but the specs for the 150mpg version are 20bhp and a 0-60 time of 20 seconds.  That simply wouldn't work on our roads.  And there's nothing to say if the acceleration times were fully loaded or with just one person.

It weighs half (or less) than most American cars so it would be very dangerous for occupants in a crash with say, 4500 lb SUV.

Perhaps a great commuter or city car, but it wouldn't work very well on our highways or in sprawled suburbia.

Right idea but just won't work very well here unless we change the U.S. mindset on cars and transportation - which is probably something we (as a country) need to start working on immediately.  The signs are indicating that we just can't continue this free-for-all, feel-good, do-what-I-wanna-do, drive-what-I-wanna-drive attitude toward transportation.  So we need a major attitude adjustment as much as good technology and ideas like the Loremo.

That's 0-60 in 10 seconds. Check your metric conversion. After all Germany isn't known for fast moving highways or safety? Wait, actually they have the fastest moving highways and safest cars. Hmm?

just check the speedometer in your car if you need a second opinion.

The 9 second time (for the 3 cylinder) is reasonable for our highways - not great but it would survive.

"The GT (88MPG) will go from 0-62 mph in 9 seconds"

Loremo debuts 150 mpg concept car in Geneva
http://www.autoblog....

The GT model is ok with a 9 second 0-62 time.

The LS model (the one with 150mpg) is dangerous with a 20 second 0-62 time. 

What's your problem?  My problem is I wouldn't fit in the damn thing but they are working on a roomier center cockpit commuter version with the same 2 seats in the back.

or a semi.  But in fact for overall safety small cars have a better track record - that may be because too many drivers of SUV s are overaggressive

I drive a Honda Civic hybrid -  I have been almost t-boned by Redtop cab and the car suffered only about 9k of damage and the airbag did not deploy.  I ahve side airbags.  And because it is a 5-speed my overal MPG is over 50, and in commuting from near Arl. Hospital to Greenbelt it is not unusual for me to get better than 60 MPG.

You can have smaller cars that are quite safe.  And if we enforced laws on signalling, tailgating, aggressive driving, the weight differential would rarely come into play.

crash-worthiness, etc.

American cars are only slightly better rated than Korea and Chinese cars in crash test ratings.  German cars have always been and are by far the best rated cars across the board. American SUVs have some of the worst ratings because they have no bumpers and are not required to.  They just have big vinyl bulges that look like bumpers.

...we can raise greater awareness and put pressure on Detroit and Capital Hill.  Hopefully more innovative solutions will follow.

Pure genius:

reduces landfill, results in oil...

http://environment.n...

I don't mean to say that there is anything wrong with this, but the general concept of converting various forms of trash to something like oil has been around for a while.

One of the big questions is how much energy is used to power the equipment to do this conversion, and I don't see an answer on the website.  I don't see very much at all on their website as a matter of fact.  It sounds like a small start-up, and I can say from experience that those are tough environments to be working in.

They may in fact succeed, but until they show more progress I wouldn't get very excited about the thing.

See, the flux capacitor will do this just fine, and when you reach 88mph . . .

be for sale in 2009, I've got a freeway to sell you  . . .

of different concept cars out there that get > 100mpg.  Not any in production yet however - this may well be the first to market.

Even if this is Europe-only for the first go-around, it would still be a significant milestone.

One of the challenges to getting mileage this good has to do with aerodynamics.  Mainly to reduce drag considerably over what we get with current cars, and also to reduce weight.  Cars with very good drag coefficients will have a sort of teardrop shape with a very skinny rear end.  Some people might not find this aesthetically pleasing, but frankly that's their problem.

Ultimately we will also need to change our ideas and expectations as to what a car can be used for (carrying capacity, etc), acceleration, power, and all of that.  Lots of people will complain that they don't want any of this, but when the fuel costs get to be high enough they will eventually reconsider.

It's just sad that the cars of the future aren't coming out of Detroit anymore. 

Where is the creativity, the drive, the vision that built America into the most powerful nation on Earth?  For decades now, the American auto industry has basically just been running on fumes.  And they're still lobbying Congress not to raise efficiency standards.  These boys just don't get it...

K St.