Many people think of modern day diesel cars as green, boring forms of transport. Which is true, if you were driving a Toyota Crown, except that it isn't really green.

But if you could drive a car with a mileage like 3.9 litres per 100 kilometres, it doesn't sound so boring anymore, especially in the face of the high fuel costs.

Meet the Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion. It's capable of returning 25.6 km for every litre of diesel burnt in its 1.4-litre engine and will emit just 99 g/km of carbon dioxide. While it isn't as large as a Toyota Prius, both of those figures are comfortably ahead of the Japanese green-car.

Still sounding boring? Scribble some numbers on paper and you will get a theoretical driving range of 1,152 km from its 45-litre tank. If the potential savings don't excite you, you might be better off cycling to work.

Also in the Volkswagen Turbo-diesel range is the menacing R50. With that "R" badge, there's also enough torque to a tow 747 Jumbo Jet - 850 Nm of it. Zero to hundred is done in 6.7 seconds - slightly faster than a Golf GTI! Still think diesels are boring?

Catch the new line up at the Volkswagen Centre Singapore this weekend.