[oldE]

"Volkswagen of America, Inc. today unveiled its cleanest diesel ever for the U.S., the Jetta TDI. Additionally, the company announced that this new clean diesel will be available to the U.S. market in the spring of 2008. This Jetta TDI will meet emissions standards applicable in all 50 states, including the most stringent "TIER 2/BIN 5" or "LEV II/LEV" requirement limiting nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions to 0.05 g/mile."

Having that information, I suspect the relative price or diesel in the US (price is usually around that of Regular in the GWN) is the biggest factor for many.

About 1/3 of the VWs sold around here are diesels (according to a friend who works in a service dept).

I think for many, an automobile is an emotional purchase. I looked at a Sonata before I purchased the Jetta TDi and felt I could live with it and crunched the numbers, but appreciated the way the Jetta felt.
On this board we see dozens of threads with a similar theme: "Should I buy "x". If the numbers were all anyone went by, it wouldn't matter if the car was uglier than a bulldog's back end (or front end, for that matter). We would shoehorn ourselves into a tiny POS and congratulate ourselves for the 'good deal'.
But we don't. We like looking at cars, we like how they feel. Few of us ever wring every last gram of performance (speed, handling, mileage or carrying capacity) out of our cars, but we talk ourselves into things like all wheel drive, extra seating capacity, convertibles and sports cars for God's sake.

Ain't life grand?
Les