He makes good points, but not 100% accurate. The reason that the Passat in the UK makes more mpg has probably more to do with the size of the gallon then anything else.

I checked the website and it shows the following for the passat:

Urban: 54.3
Extra Urban: 74.3
Combined: 65.7

Two things to consider:
1) The UK gallon is 4.54 liters whereas the US gallon is 3.78 so there about a 20% increase here which is not real.
2) I have no idea what urban or extra urban means but I would suspect that it's a different calculation to the city/highway driving calculations that we use in the US which have been revised and bought down in recent years by the EPA from what the manufacturers initially suggested.

I'm not saying that I don't share his frustration about the fact that there are many models with small diesel engines in Europe that offer tremendous fuel economy which we don't have. But I suspect that it's a bit more complicated then to blame it on the 'administration'.

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With best regards

Al