Regular Car Reviews Checks Out a 2012 Golf TDI, Talks About Cheating

The first is that everybody cheats, and he proves this by explaining how he used to engrave all the test answers into a wooden pencil. Spanish, Latin, Biology, Chemistry - these are all things he passed using this method.

I cheated on plenty of my tests and regretted nothing, but I bet Volkswagen wishes it had never built a TDI defeat device because it cost the company way more than it was worth.

The second point is that Harley Davidson also cheated on emissions testing, leaning out the mixtures at the factory and installing the good software tune, the one people wanted to have at the dealerships. But because Harley is all-American and all that, it got away with a $15 million bill.

Of course, the scope of the TDI scandal is much greater than what VW did. But if the past year has taught us anything, it's that everything is an emissions cheating device, probably because it's nearly impossible to achieve those diesel emissions targets.

What I like about this video is the background story. The owner paid over $29,000 for the car, thinking that he was going to hold onto it forever. Over its 91,000 mile life, it has averaged 41.6 miles per gallon, which is pretty impressive. That's probably 700 gallons of fuel saved right there.

The amount of torque available dominates the driving impressions, because the power just isn't there. The sound insulation is excellent, so you never hear those diesel engine noises either, unless you are revving it hard. It's reliable, dependable... everything a good daily driver is supposed to be. Well, we'd argue that the complexity of the TDI makes it more expensive to service, but that's another story.

And apparently, the Golf TDI is the Keanu Reeves of cars. Bu you'll have to watch the video to the end to find out why. Trust us; it's worth it.