I agree with your argument here. However, of those 60 drivers the driver with the lowest mileage has a mileage of 34 mpg. The official combined mileage is 33 mpg. I doubt every driver is a hypermiler or is strongly biased. I will argue that mileage numbers from those 60 drivers should make some people reconsider some of their opinions.

I do not argue it is impossible to get a low mileage on a modern diesel. A modern diesel has a decent powerful engine and if you are driving with a heavy foot both on the accelerator and the brake pedal it is easy to get a low mileage. But on the other hand driving reasonably lightfooted will give you an impressive mileage. It is actually a reason diesel cars is so popular in Europe where we have twice the fuel price compared to the US.

Our regional Gas/Diesel price differential erases much of the diesel efficiency advantage. From a MP$ perspective, less expensive economical gas powered passenger cars are cheaper to operate. Plus there's a massive amount of inexpensive used gas powered mid efficiency vehicles with an extremely low total cost of ownership.

Albany Gas Prices

Some Hybrid SUVs have better city fuel economy ratings than the 2009 Volkswagen TDIs, plus they use fuel that's much cheaper and more widely available.

Cheap used compacts will get around 35 mpg highway for $6,000 or less.

Well I'll be. I might have been thinking of it's 10-15 numbers. My bad.
How is that hype? I mean, outside of everything w/ an advertising slant being hype. In the first article you linked, the author didn't say the car got 60mpg but up to 60mpg, which naturally depends on the driver/conditions/route. Similarly the 2009 Prius may reach up to 94mpg.

As for the second one, I still don't see where the hype is. They drove the Jetta and found...
Which is slightly above what the Jetta averages according to the EPA in the city and entirely in line with the EPA estimates. In fact, on average, the Jetta gets consistently higher mileage than the EPA sticker, while the Prius tends to get right around the sticker, other MY Prius and Jetta listings give similar results. Evidently, the EPA figures tend to underestimate diesel mileage, at least w/ VWs.

Considering the difference in Euro combined mileage of the Jetta versus the EPA's figure, I imagine this Passat wagon will clock in at around 45-47mpg EPA average and pull near 50mpg real world. Which is pretty much what the article said.

Thanks for some suport, yesplease.

NP, although it's not exactly about support, just trying to get the facts straight. If it ever gets to America it'll certainly have a niche as a high mileage station wagon. Something that not many mention is the ability to tow a half ton+, which isn't something the Prius should do according to the owners manual.

That part of my post isn't about hype, but about real world numbers. 31.7 MPG is about what I'd expect with mostly city driving and a modest amount of highway miles.

The Urban Cycle test results of the Volkswagen Jetta TDI are pretty close to that of the EPA numbers. The Extra Urban results are generally the numbers that are substantially higher in comparison to EPA and real world results. (Excluding Volkswagen fanatics, diesel fanatics, conservative drivers, hyper-milers, paid testers etc)

I'm pretty sure cars like this will be the norm 5 to 10 years from now. The EU is on track to make regulations demanding corporate average CO2 emission of max 120g/km from 2012. This Passat has CO2 emission of 109g/km. The US will follow suite as people demands more fuel efficient cars in the future. Of cource it is possible to do it in different ways, petrol hybrids, diesel hybrids and electric only maybe. The US automakers is starting to put down large efforts in design and production of more fuel efficient cars. This change will continue into the future.

MarkJ, have you ever been driving a modern diesel?

I have driven numerous modern diesels. I can tell you for sure it is very easy to drive highway/countryside with modest speed acheiving 10-20% higher mileage than stated in the extra urban european numbers! This may also be the case for petrol cars as well. What I want to say is that these numbers is not inflated! Look at the real mileage numbers for different cars here and here and here and here.

Edit: sorry the links didn't work as anticipated.

The majority of our construction equipment, heavy trucks, tankers, heating oil delivery trucks, propane delivery trucks and service fleet vehicles (GM & Dodge Sprinter vans) are diesels.

I ment cars, not light or heavy trucks.

That seems odd, most of the Propane delivery trucks I have seen here in MI are propane burners, keeps things simpler for the company and all that. They do have a small liquid fuel tank in case they need to go somewhere on regular fuel, but burn mostly propane.

Diesels can run on propane/NG.

I know some diesels add propane to the fuel mix to boost preformance but I don't know of any diesel engine that can run on straight Propane, the stuff has a high Octane low Cetane rating just like gasoline.

Even the EPA equivalent for extra-urban, highway, tends to be higher than what's posted FWIW. Barring high speed runs on the autobahn it seems that in general highway mileage tends to be understated.