I don't know about Top Gear. If they are as French "turbo" TV show then I only look at pictures without listening to what they say as they are only repeating vendor's b*s* and they like only cars that they can drive as their p*n*s...
Prius and insight are SULEV since 1st day (2000) while only 3 expensive diesel are ULEV only since 2010. Every year 10,000 French people are dying because diesel particles. The impact on environment during use is the main one. How do they quantify this impact ?
Now the 3L versions of the Lupo and the Audi A2 are real attempts to make diesel "cleaner" without selling expensive anti-pollution components on a big diesel engine in a big sedan or crossover. They worked hard on weight, aero and a mild hybridization to lower the consumption.
About the environment impact during building, this is only a partial problem. The real problem is the total impact. What is the total impact of these German/French cars with an equivalent size of a Prius ? I remember
Carlos Ghosn (Renault/Nissan CEO) saying the Prius is b*s* because all the batteries so Renault will never build hybrids. Nowadays he wants to be the biggest electric cars seller... but with batteries owned by
Project Better Place.
Anyway I like anybody driving a Prius or a A2/Lupo 3L as they all privileged ecology to their p*n*s, while I will never appreciate these expensive cars which are receiving an hybridization only to have better 0-60 and max speed.
Sorry for the rant
now back to the Lupo 3L
Denis.