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Hi All,
A little late to the party here on this one.
So what is the trick? A 1980 Rabbit Diesel does not need to meet the same emissions as a 2009 Diesel car. Indeed, they said that to be registered in CA, they did not even need to take the car in for an emissions test, even tho its 29 years old. What does emissions that have todo with it? It means they can increase the effective compression ratio into the NOX generating stratosphere. Which they did with the turbo/tuning. So, this is just not a practical solution for any vehicle manufacturer - its just a loophole in the law that the privateer can exploit. Make it meet the T2B5 and crashworthyness and what you got is a 40 some mpg highway car 35 mpg city car. Just like 2009 VW TDI's.
Not sure what that 83 mpg was driven as. If its highway, its matching the Prius performance, per unit fuel energy (cost?). 83/1.13 is 74 mpg, which is about what Wayne Gerdes did, not for 70 miles, but 700 miles highway trip from Chicago to NYC last spring for the CBS morning show, in a Prius.
Love that creative accounting - car shell $0. Enron would be proud Hmm. Not unless it was stored out in the desert near Tucson for 25 years. Rust repair would be significant.
Finally, what I want to know is when are they going to take it out in the desert and let somebody fill it with 50 caliber machine gun bullet holes!!!! In case anybody reading does not catch the reference - that is what Top Gear did to a Prius.
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