48 mpg...Supercharged and tubocharged!

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/automotivetec...ecbccdrcrd.html

Article says: "The pint-size power plant gobbles oxygen, not gas," which does'nt seem to make much sense, though.

cool car, I just love my 1.8T Passat and get nearly 40mpg on the long drives now.

QUOTE (michel richard @ Apr 10 2006, 07:27 AM)

Article says: "The pint-size power plant gobbles oxygen, not gas," which does'nt seem to make much sense, though.

You have to realize that automotive writers have long since run out of adjectives and have been reaching for, shall we say, "interesting" uses of the language to make their drivel stand out from the drivel of other writers. The Cap'n

I am really surprised that it has taken this long for car makers to scale down displacement. With cars making close to 100 HP/liter(this car makes 120 HP/Liter) , why do economy cars need to have such large engines?

European cars have smaller motors as they get taxed by displacement size. Here in the USA bigger is better as people want automatics, bragging rights, and "Honey, we can pull the boat with it" excuses for the larger V6 or V8 Hemi in the new car (Chrysler).

Its common to see 1.1L cars in the Netherlands etc with turbos and manual trannys.