VW turbo diesels -- a summer sales blockbuster

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The automotive market is a lot like the personal technology market -- if you really need to upgrade, you can snag something that’s super-cool, way different or just plain awesome. These, mind you, are all technical terms used in reviews of cellphones, bleeding-edge computers, hi-def LCD TVs and the new video game system of the moment, but they occasionally can be used in automotive journalism, too.

If silicon-based gadgets are to fly off the shelves, they had better be great, and the same goes for cars. That said, Volkswagen recently announced that last month it sold 19,027 units, an 18% decrease over June 2008 sales, but the drop was to be expected in today’s ‘new economy.’

There is a bright side to those numbers. Ladies and gentleman, may I present Volkswagen’s version of the Apple iPhone 3GS, the TDI turbo diesel line-up of cars.

Volkswagen’s clean diesels posted their best sales month ever since their re-introduction to the American market earlier this year, with 5,072 units sold last month alone. That represents a whopping 26% of Volkswagen sales, which is an amazing number for American diesel sales, but not so much for Europe, where in some countries diesel sales hover around 60%.

Jetta SportWagen TDI sales lead the pack with 1,982 units sold in June. Clean-diesel TDI models, according to Volkswagen, accounted for 81% of Jetta SportWagen sales, 40% of Jetta sedan sales and 29% of Touareg sales.

We’ve driven all three models and have to say that compared with the anemic Toyota Prius, we’d take a torque-heavy and fuel-sipping TDI any day of the week over a gas-electric hybrid.

Perhaps Southern California will soon equate diesel with automobiles instead of overpriced, cheesy Euro denim.

-- Jon Alain Guzik

Guzik is editor-in-chief at DriverSide.com.