Goodbye, TDI; time for a gander at the Outlander!

It's car-swap Tuesday! I've managed to put 1,000 miles on the Golf TDI since it arrived last week. I haven't done all the fuel-economy math -- gotta fill it up once more (sniff) -- but for the first 750 miles the car consumed just under 20 gallons of diesel for an average of about 37.5 MPG. Wow! In its place I'll get a Mitsubishi Outlander, which I first reviewed in '03 for Tropical Bob's site (read my review here). At the time, I thought it was a good car marred by poor product planning. Since then, Mitsi has added a manual trans, more horsepower, and a well-kitted-out Limited model, thus addressing most of my criticisms. I have another vacation coming up (Note to Brooklyn Bob: Ha! Ha! Ha!) and will only have a couple of days with the car, but I'm looking forward to its short visit. -- Aaron Gold