That New Car Smell

The new car is a thing.  The mechanic called this morning and said, "I don't have good news."  Outside of your doctor, the mechanic is the person you least want to hear say those words.  So my plans and considerations got kicked into high gear, no more deliberations, no more prowling through Carmax, cars.com, autotrader and various other consumer review sites, no more waffling back and forth between models and agonizing over whether or not it was finally time to abandon one of my final youthful ideals and buy a minivan.
In the end it was a stewardship issue: fuel economy, that saved me from that fate.  Though I admit the word "turbo" may have also factored into my decision.  The new VW sportwagen that is sitting in my driveway is actually a testament to where I am in life right now: it's practical, it gets upwards of 40 miles to the gallon, it has room for the kids and the dog, it has heated seats and hands free phone operation, it's gray and no nonsense, in short it's very German.
Oh yeah and about the turbo, it has a 4 cylinder turbo diesel engine, clean diesel, one of the few you can actually get in a mid-size station wagon.  It purrs and gets up and goes like one of it's cousins with much larger displacement.  Oh yeah, and it has a reputation for running forever.  I read a bunch of reviews that absolutely gushed about the TDI, but until I put my foot on the pedal, I'm not sure I really drank the kool-aid.  I have now.
I'm kind of wondering why they don't do more diesel engines like that around.  The sales guy says that most American car manufacturers can't get a diesel to be anything like "clean."  Therefore, while most of Europe chugs away in little cars that get upwards of 60 kpg, that's at least about 30 mpg for you who insist that metric is the work of Satan.  We think diesel is for big trucks and things that belch black smoke, but my little sportwagen begs to differ.
Yeah, you can probably tell, I'm a little pleased with it right now, and maybe there's really no point to be made here other than that.  But I've been thinking lately that, while technology is giving us some really darn good gadgets, it's not really stepping up to the plate in some of the more vital areas, like energy and fuel efficiency.  Is it just our sheer commitment to the status quo?
I know I have spent years driving around a gas guzzling Chevy Tahoe, largely because I felt like I had to, even though I very rarely hauled anything.  Even in my current euphoric state, I still wonder about what I'm going to have to give up for the sake of driving this much smaller vehicle.  I just don't know and that not knowing was the thing that kept pushing me towards minivans.
Most days, I think I'm going to like my little VW a lot better.