The 2010 Golf is named "World Car of the Year" by a panel of journalist and auto industry folks.
The real good news in the story I saw at Wired.com though. Its coming to the US in diesel. Now the only issue will be whether or not it can handle a blend of biodiesel higher than B20. The latest clean diesel VW's have an oil dilution issue with higher blends of biodiesel. It occurs where the particulate trap on the vehicles must maintain a temperature to burn out particulate. With B99 biodiesel it doesn't fully burn all of the fuel in the particulate trap depositing this residual fuel into the oil pan of the vehicle. This dilution should not cause issues with the actual wear on the engine if the fuel is ASTM spec (this according to a presentation I saw from a VW engineer discussing their engines). The issue becomes engine lights go off requiring an oil change between 2,000 and 3,000 miles (as the oil pan fills up over capacity).
I saw it first in a recent issue of Biodiesel Smarter magazine (a insiders type zine dedicated to sustainable biodiesel news). By far the best biodiesel trade magazine you will ever find. Dedicated to B100 and B99 market development.
I'm curious to see how the industry deals with this. My bet (and this is a bad thing) biodiesel enthusiasts will just disconnect their particulate trap. This creating a conflict not just with OEM's and biodiesel users but also the EPA and local regulators.
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