May 12, 2010 Featured No Comments
My dad owns a minivan. I don’t think that was what he intended when he was a wild, cigarette-smoking, guitar-playing hippie in the late 1960s, but it’s how it ended for him once he had six kids that needed be hauled around all over the place throughout their childhood. … But one thing has always sort of held true no matter what kind of van he was driving: none of them got particularly good gas mileage.
And that’s no surprise, really, considering the size of these things. … But the thing about my dad is that he’s also a pretty responsible dude when it comes to the environment. … On a recent trip to the city, my dad looked over at me and said, “You know, it’s a miracle that with all the hybrids they’ve got out there, you can’t get a hybrid minivan. It’s kind of ridiculous.”
And he’s right, as Pugi Downers Grove shoppers would tell you. In Downers Grove, Volkwagen Routan and Touran models have always been moderately successful in terms of sales, but it was poor mileage keeping them from really turning into big-time sellers. Now, of course, the new Touran has incorporated this awesome Bluemotion technology to help bump up the miles per gallon on those suckers. It’s not exactly hybrid technology, but it’s enough to make the mpg numbers pretty eye-popping.
How eye-popping, you ask? How about over 51 miles per gallon? That do it for you?
The inline 1.6-liter four-cylinder diesel engine with six-speed manual transmission is the pick if you want to maximize miles per gallon, and the good news is that VW is developing ways to incorporate Bluemotion into several of their other vehicles, as well. Before we know it, the gas guzzling minivan will be a thing of the past, and men like my father—who have resigned themselves to admitting that they do, in fact, need to own one of these beasts—can finally drive one that can stretch a dollar at the pump further than ever before.
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