I drive a diesel. It's not one of those massive pickup truck "doolies" with the four doors and the four rear tires, but I get some of the same sense of solidity and harnessed power on the road. It is a triumph of engineering that a little car like the Volkswagen Jetta with a 1.8 liter engine could engender such a not completely irrational response. The five-speed manual transmission is not for everyone and doubtless contributes somewhat to its peppiness. With its solid handling and ABS braking, it has all the basic elements of "sportiness" in a neat, small package.

But driving pleasure was not my primary motivation for purchasing this vehicle. My initial attraction was purely aesthetic. While more plentiful, apparently, in the Northeast, Jettas are still a rarity in Atlanta. When one passed me, or more often in the city's gridlock, planted itself near me for great stretches, I fell in love with its confident, competent appearance. Some research in "consumer" sources convinced me of its quality. And then I discovered the optional "TDI" diesel rated at 49 miles per gallon (which has its own cult following). Intellectually, I was convinced that this was the ideal car for me. After driving one and finding it easy to start and smooth, quiet and responsive on the road, I knew I had to have one.

Somehow, I don't think that anything I have to do can justify dragging a massive piece of metal across the landscape, generating the toxic byproducts of a gallon of gasoline every fifteen or so miles. Though diesel has its own problems, which a cleaner mandated version of the fuel should soon help to mitigate, using more than two or three times less fuel on the road than most private vehicles should certainly allow me to preserve my ecological self-righteous indignation. I'll certainly laugh when the price of gas goes to $5.00 a gallon (though I've been waiting for this to happen for fifteen years).

Especially in contrast to the "urban assault vehicle" mentality which seems more and more to predominate. And now the insurance companies are starting to encourage this attitude by offering discounts because of the relative safety of the occupants of SUVs in crashes without regard to the increase in injuries they cause to those in other vehicles! This version of the the suburban "fortress mentality" reminds me of the turtle dragging its shell around. The ridiculousness of the situation is compounded by the vast distances that must be driven in Atlanta to get just about anywhere. My round-trip to work right now is 74 miles and I've so far spurned an offer to carpool because of the "inconvenience." So my ecology-mindedness is a pitiful thing compared to the intense idealism of my youth, but it salves my conscience somewhat to at least tread relatively lightly on the earth in my Jetta.