I have been driving diesel Volkswagens since 1983, and I'll never go back to petrol -- I love that feeling of passing filling stations. Here in Ottawa, the in-city mileage (kilometrage!) is not that much better than with a gas-fired car, but on the highway the difference is startling; we can go to Toronto and back on 50 litres, and drive around for several days after. My first diesel car, a Rabbit, was a pain in the neck, but the 1986 Golf that succeeded it is still running sweetly -- I sold it last year to a guy who was trading up from a 1982 diesel Rabbit that his wife refused to ride in any more. We are now driving a 2003 diesel Jetta station wagon.

Ontario has a "Drive Clean" program that tests the tail-pipe output of cars over three years old for particulates and various noxious gases. The Golf was tested before sale, and passed with flying colours without even a pre-test tune-up. The Jetta is a turbo-diesel that performs at least as well as any gas-fired car on the road (short of a Mercedes, of course), and better than most. The closest contender in our pre-purchase test drives was a Volvo that cost half again as much, and flunked my taste test because of comparatively mushy handling and poor cornering.

Ontario is notoriously hard on cars -- after seven years most of them act as if they don't owe you anything, shedding body parts and generally crapping out. Despite the salt on the roads and the miserable witners, elderly VW diesels are to be found in every parking lot in town. If you can keep the body together, the engine will just keep going, and going, and going ...

The City of Ottawa has bought a fleet of diesel Golfs for its by-law enforcement officers, inspectors and property-standards people. They look efficient, comfortable and cute.

Charmion