A little side-tracked response, I just came back from a business trip to northern Europe and had a brand new Ford Mondeo 5-door with 1,500 Km on the oddometer for rental car, it's powered by a DuraTec 1.8L turbo diesel motor.
In a few days of driving totalling 430 Km with 75% city and the rest highway, I got 37 MPG with lots of heavy acceleration on my part (just for fun), it's a strange sensation stepping on the gas in gears/RPM lower than I would in my V6 Coupe, to hear the groaning from the engine but the RPM and speedometer climbing steadily upwards, and no black smoke pouring out from the exhaust pipe either.
The part I did find impressive is the diesel fuel did not smell anything like the stuff in North America, in fact the regular gas smelled much stronger than the diesel when I got some on my hands during fuel up before returning the car.
BTW, the fuel gauge was still showing more than 1/2 a tank after the 430 Km when I pulled into the gas station.
The kind of mileage from this Mondeo is 50% better than what I can expect in my V6 Coupe while driving gingerly................
