Porsche Builds 500,000th Cayenne at the Leipzig Plant

Porsche today celebrated the production of the 500,000th Cayenne SUV at the Leipzig plant in Germany. The milestone comes after 11 years of production, with the first Porsche Cayenne rolling off the assembly line in 2002.

“We started with around 70 units a day. Today we produce five times as much owing to the high market demand. In the past year alone, over 83,000 Cayenne vehicles for customers in more than 125 countries have rolled off the assembly line. A genuine success story of the Porsche plant in Saxony,” said Oliver Blume, Porsche Member of the Executive Board Production and Logistics.

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EVO Impressed by New Maserati Ghibli with Base V6 Petrol and Diesel

There was a real fear that Maserati would have ended up making a plain and ordinary car, when they announced that they were planning to sell 25,000 examples of their new Ghibli per year.

However, they did make the car very noticeable through its design (though opinions are split on its true aesthetic merits), and the car looks like a true Maserati both inside and out. Even the diesel was put into context, when they announced that Ferrari had developed the three-liter V6 unit.

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German Owner Reaches 1 Million Kilomter Mark in Skoda Fabia Diesel

Peter Kirchhoff from Sprockhövel near Wuppertal, Germany, has driven his 2000 Skoda Fabia 1.9 TDI 74 kW (101 PS) for 1 million kilometers (621,371 miles). As a true German, Kirchhoff meticulously planned the moment his Skoda’s odometer would show 999,999 kilometers so that it coincided with a trip to the Skoda Museum in Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic. Read more »

New VW Golf GTD Will Come to the U.S. in 2015, Priced from Around $27,000

Volkswagen plans to bring the new Golf GTD to the United States along with the other models of the seventh-generation Golf, after all, says a report from Autonews. The GTD will be the brand’s first performance-oriented diesel car ever sold in the United States.

While the Golf and the Golf GTI will launch stateside next year next year as 2015 models, the Golf GTD will arrive in 2015 as a 2016 model, according to Andreas Valbuena, product manager for the VW Golf. The German automaker's exec estimates the Golf GTD will have a starting price of around $27,000 (€20,750).

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New Mercedes A160 CDI and B160 CDI Variants Gain 89HP Diesel from Renault and Dacia Models

Joy of joys for those looking to get into a premium badge for as little money as possible, with very low running costs. Mercedes-Benz has just launched the most affordable variants they will ever offer for their A- and B-Class offerings in Europe.

Dubbed the A160 CDI and B160 CDI, they sport very frugal Renault-sourced diesel engines, six-speed manual gearboxes, and starting prices of €25,882 and €27,310 respectively, in Germany.

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Study Finds Cost of Owning Diesel Car in the US Lower Than Gasoline Equivalent

If you live in the US and are still not convinced of the financial gains brought about by diesel-power, then perhaps this latest study from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) on the finer details of the problem may help you understand it.

In fact, the values and differences presented in the study really shocked us, especially the most extreme ones like the Mercedes-Benz GL, which according to the information presented, should really only be bought as a diesel.

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First Video Proof That Maserati Ghibli's Diesel-Fed V6 Will Sound Good

Diesels have migrated in perception from being associated with clattery farm equipment, to sounding almost like their petrol counterparts, aside from at idle, when the difference is more obvious.

In fact, with new direct-injected petrol engines, the idle noise is suspiciously diesely, so even if some modern oil burners still haven’t done away with the characteristic small hammer quickly tapping on pipe sound, they should be given a chance and tried out, even (or especially) by those who thought they didn’t like them before, simply to have an informed future opinion, if nothing else.

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Ram's Updated 2014 Truck Line Comes with a New V6 Turbo Diesel

Not to be outdone by its chief rivals Ford and General Motors with their F-Series and Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra respectively, the Chrysler Group has revealed its updated 2014MY Ram truck lineup, with the biggest news for the 1500 being the introduction of a diesel engine. Read more »

VW Says Passat TDI Set World Record Fuel Economy Across 48 States at 77.99 MPG

Volkswagen informed us today that a Passat TDI Clean Diesel set a new Guinness World Record for the “lowest fuel consumption - 48 U.S. states for a non-hybrid car” category returning 77.99 mpg US, which is equal to 3.01 l/100 km.

Ze Germans state that the diesel-powered Passat managed to beat the previous record for a car with a conventional powertrain by more than 10 mpg (0.45 l/100 km), while also breaking the hybrid vehicle record of 64.6 mpg (3.64 l/100 km).

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A Third of U.S. Car Buyers Are Considering Diesels, Survey Finds

The times they are a-changin’ indeed, as Bob Dylan said in his famous song. Not long ago, diesel fuel was mainly used by trucks in the U.S. but now it looks like a third of consumers are considering buying a diesel car when the time of purchase comes.

A recent survey conducted by the National Association for Convenience and Fuel Retailing (NACS) shared by Consumer Reports revealed that among consumers likely to purchase a vehicle in the next two years, 31 percent are likely to consider a diesel. The main reasons for this are obviously fuel economy and environmental concerns.

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Report: Next-Generation Mercedes C-Class to Get Renault’s 130PS 1.6-liter Diesel Engine

It looks like the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and Citan won't be the only models from Stuttgart to get a diesel engine from Renault. A new reports says Renault’s new 130PS 1.6-liter four-cylinder common rail turbodiesel engine will find its way into the next Mercedes-Benz C-Class, following the introduction of the 1.5 dCi on the A180 CDI BlueEfficiency and Citan small van. Read more »

BMW Jumps On the Paramedic Bandwagon in Germany with X3 SUV

If you happen to travel to Germany and see a two-tone BMW X3 with bright blue lights approaching at speed, there's a good possibility it's one of the new ambulance vehicles for the Bavarian Red Cross – that or a crazy tune from the likes of Hamann or G-Power… Read more »

GM Says Cruze Diesel’s Overboost Feature Puts It on Par with Camaro Z28...from 1972

The 2014 Chevrolet Cruze Clean Turbo Diesel uses a turbocharging feature called “overboost” which shortly lifts torque for better acceleration. The turbocharged 2.0-liter engine delivers 151 horsepower and 264 lb-ft of torque (358 Nm), but overboost can increase peak torque to 280 lb-ft (380 Nm) for about 10 seconds of stronger acceleration. GM compares it with the equivalent torque delivered by the 1972 Camaro Z28’s heavier 5.7-liter V8. Read more »

Holden Launches New Malibu Sedan in Australia Priced from $28,490

Sporting the same exterior looks as the pre-facelift Chevrolet Malibu sans the Holden badges and front grille, GM's Australian unit confirmed the model line-up and pricing for its new mid-size sedan that will slot between the Cruze and the Commodore in its range going up against the likes of the Honda Accord, Ford Mondeo and Mazda6.

The Holden Malibu goes on sale in Australia this month offerings customers a choice of two trim levels, CD and CDX, and a pair of engines, a 2.4 liter petrol rated for 165hp (123kW) or a 2.0 liter common rail turbo diesel developing 157hp (117kW), with prices ranging from $28,490 to $35,990.

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New VW Amarok Special Edition for UK Limited to 300 Units

Here's another special edition model for Britain, this time from Volkswagen that created a limited batch of Amarok pickup trucks fitted with more than £3,400 of additional equipment, which it says offers a customer saving of over £2,000.

Only 300 will be made available in the UK beginning from July with prices starting from £22,495 (excluding VAT) for the manual transmission model and rising to £24,225 (excluding VAT) for the automatic transmission version.

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Jaguar Gives XF Minimal Revisions and Efficient Diesel for 2014 Model Year

The Jaguar XF has slowly evolved, from the buggy first generation car, and now yet another set of improvements and changes have been made to it, for the 2014 model-year. We note minor changes in its trim grades, two new paint finish options on the aesthetic side, and a detuned version of the 2.2-liter diesel engine is the main point of interest (for company car drivers, especially).

That’s not because of its 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) time of 9.8 seconds, which brings it dangerously close to being slow, because its main attribute is efficiency, and the official numbers are promising.

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This is One Very, Very Bizarre eBay Ad for a Mercedes E320 CDI

If you are like us and visit online auctions sites such as eBay on a regular basis, you are bound to stumble upon the occasional strange find, but that usually has to do more with the car itself than anything else and yet, as they say, there's always that exception that makes the rule…

In this case, it's a UK ad from eBay for a run-of-the mill 2000 Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI with a voluminous lady posing around the car and even…in the German saloon's boot.

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Nissan Juke Gets Upgraded 1.5 dCi Engine with More Torque and Better Fuel Economy

The European market version of Nissan’s compact crossover, the Juke, has received the latest generation 1.5 dCi engine with increased torque, greater fuel economy, lower emissions and the adoption of Stop/Start.

Developed by Nissan's alliance partner Renault, the new version of the direct injection diesel engine also comes with reduced noise levels for greater refinement and revised gear ratios for improved drivability and fuel efficiency.

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VW Releases New Photos of the Golf GTD, Equipment Details

VW’s diesel alternative to the Golf GTI, the GTD, comes with more power, better fuel economy and less emissions than its predecessor. Although we already knew that, VW decided to remind us all these things and offer new details about the car’s equipment. Moreover, there's a new photo gallery of the diesel-powered hot-hatch. Read more »

New Skoda Octavia RS Revealed, Offered With 217HP Petrol and 181HP Diesel Engines

The Skoda Octavia RS (dubbed vRS in Britain) has been a very eagerly anticipated car for 2013, and now it’s here, in all its subtle glory. It looks exactly like you would imagine it to, it has the 220 PS (217 hp) we were expecting it to have, and its exterior modifications over the regular Octavia are visible, but they are characteristically subtle, again, like you were expecting.

If you were anticipating it to reach 62 mph or 100 km/h in just under 7 seconds, your guess was spot on, as it does it only two tenths faster than that at 6.8 seconds. Top speed is 155 mph (248 km/h). These figures are for the 2.0-liter petrol engine, while the other (predictable) option, the 2.0-liter diesel with 184 PS (181 hp) is a bit slower, but a lot more economical. It deals with the benchmark sprint in 8.1 seconds, and its top speed is 145 mph or 232 km/h.

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