[g.orwell]

I remember when diesel fuel was less than half the price of gasoline

[JAKraig]

Diesel fuel is the same as heating oil. It goes up in winter and down in the summer. Europe has caught on to the good of diesel engines and over half of their cars now use it thus creating a significant increase in demand which increases price.

I am on my 4th VW TDI Passat, I love the mileage and the power. I frequently drive back and forth to Florida from Kentucky, a little over 1000 miles, it costs about half of what my wife's mini van cost to drive down.

The thing is the government specifies that at a certain RPM the emissions must be below a certain level, well they are. If you don't like the results change the test, they made the car to do what the government told them to do.

The car does not sense the test it is just that the test is a certain set of parameters and VW makes sure that at those parameters they meet the level. If they want to make it better just ad more parameters, different RPM ect to the test.