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The time: A glorious Sunday afternoon.

The place: Route 95 in New Hampshire and Maine.

The car: A 2000 VW Jetta TDI. The TDI signifies that a turbocharged, direct-injection diesel engine is powering us along.

We’re zipping along about 70 miles per hour in the middle lanes as a steady line of SUVs zooms past in the high-speed lane. Most have one or two people aboard and don’t look to be loaded with anything more than a suitcase or two.

I turn to Mrs. G and say: “It’s a self-righteous feeling to be driving a vehicle that’s getting 49 miles per gallon while all those cars are getting about a third of that.”

Of course, self-righteousness only counts for so much. The truth is that this Jetta is flat-out fun to drive.

My prior experience with diesels was limited.

Years ago, former Sports Department colleague Ken Lord racked up 100,000 miles on a diesel VW Rabbit and used to rave about how much he loved the car – and the great gas mileage it got.

Neighbor Roy, a mechanic for a fleet of oil trucks, had a diesel Chevy pickup truck in the late ’70s. He had nothing but trouble and couldn’t get rid of it soon enough.

My new son-in-law, Stefano, drives a turbocharged Fiat Punto around Milan. My few rides in the car have shown it to be a totally reliable vehicle. It has big rubber bumpers for forcing its way into parking spaces; it’s easy on gas; and it more than holds its own on the high-speed autostradas.

Thus I was somewhat less than fully prepared when this Jetta TDI arrived for a test drive.

Did I have to deal with letting glow plugs heat up before it would start? (No.) Would it give itself away with rocks-in-a-pail diesel vibration? (No . . . just enough rattling at idle to let you know it was a diesel.) Would it smoke like an 18-wheeler? (No again.)

This is a nifty package. On the road, it’s hard to believe that there’s only 90 horsepower under the hood emanating from 116 cubic inches (1.9 liters). The TDI cruises effortlessly at highway speeds – moving with the flow of traffic anywhere from 5 to 15 m.p.h. over the posted limits. From a dead stop, it effortlessly climbs the mountain road leading to home.

At 60 m.p.h., the tach read 2,000 r.p.m. – a tried-and-true benchmark for long engine life.

We’d driven it well over 300 miles and the gas gauge had barely dropped to midway, leading to a common first reaction: “That gauge is broken!”

The Jetta’s previous driver had complained because the best mileage he could get was 49.5. We were hoping to hit 50, but a frantic call from VW recalled the test car before we reached the pumps. It seems that someone put out the word (erroneously) that the car hadn’t been cleared to be sold in Massachusetts (it has).

Our abbreviated test was a disappointment, but it didn’t prevent the family from reaching a conclusion: This package is a keeper.

Certain cars and certain engine-gearing combinations just seem to click with me. The first time I really appreciated it in a four-cylinder was in a ’94 Honda EX. Later, I came across it in a Mazda Protege ES. This Jetta hit my personal bull’s-eye by putting its torque just where you want to use it – on highway on-ramps, in passing situations, when accelerating from the endless traffic lights and stop signs we deal with daily. Did you ever notice that TV commercials rarely place the product in a traffic jam – unless the car is going to magically fly over it all?

The reason to write about this Jetta was strictly the diesel engine. Royal Ford, who regularly presides over this space, gave the top-of-the-line V6 Jetta a solid thumbs-up earlier this fall, and we found no reason to argue with his review.

The TDI was the basic GL trim level and has an MSRP of $17,995.

As the price of gas marches toward $1.50 a gallon – up about 40 percent since spring when I actually filled up for 89 cents a gallon – you’d think folks might look more closely at d sels, but VW’s Steve Keyes doesn’t think that’s the case.

“Our research shows that gas would have to hit $2 a gallon – and maybe a lot higher – before folks would buy for economy,” he said.

On the other hand, there are diesel fans out there.

“Maybe 5 percent of the market will look at a diesel,” said Keyes. “And those are the folks you can’t get out of the car.”

Count me among them. Self-righteous? Not really. Just a guy savoring a car that’s fun to drive.

Annoyances:

The back door shape. You have to make like a matador dodging a bull to let the chest-high curve of the door past you.

The center armrest. In the down position, it interferes with shifting, using the handbrake, and fastening seat belts. In the up position, you can’t get at the stuff stored in the top container – cell phone, directions, etc.

Nice touches:

The red and blue dashboard lights.

Trunk space. You have to see it to believe it.