Thanks for the informative post, Wayne. You have summed up what I imagined my experience would be in a VW TDI, but since I live in California, I would never be able to try.

Personally I look on hybrids and diesels as being on the same side in the battle against over-consumption of oil. Hopefully we will get a cleaner diesel sometime soon so that we can have both of these technologies available in the struggle to use less oil and be kinder to our planet as well.