The EA288: The holy grail of small engines

 The perfect engine for small to midsized cars?

It's a never ending search in the small to midsized car market for something affordable, with some power, with good fuel efficiency that doesn't suck to drive, and that doesn't break down. Well it seems like the geniuses over at Volkswagen have solved this issue with their new with their new EA288 diesel engine. Right now it's shown up only in the  Audi A3 Sportback. From Autoblog's first drive it seems to be up to the task of propelling the A3 to 60MPH in about 6.8 seconds while maintaining somewhere around 45MPG. the only thing missing so far is the pricing, considering an A3 starts at about $29K and is generally found for more than $34K at actual dealers. However that's the Audi, a luxury brand, this is the same engine that should be showing up in the new TDI Golf and Jetta. Hopefully it'll retain the 181HP of the Audi, which essentially turns the Golf into a GTD, a car not available in the US. Of course this is all optimistic at best, the 2014 Golf, has already been tested and shown to have 148HP, taking a crawling 8.6 seconds to get to 60MPH. Here's hoping it's upped for the US spec, or at the very least a GTD model does make it over. I also hope that other manufacturers take note, diesel is a great alternative to hybrids which tend to be underpowered, heavier, with less space, not to mention the battery itself which you better hope is covered by the manufacturer. Diesel is starting to shake the stigma of dirty and smelly cars polluting the roads, it's time for them to make a surge. So is it possible this new EA288 engine is the holy grail of engines in the small to midsize sector? Quite possibly, it all depends on VW and what they decide to do, either way it's something to look out for.