Hasta La Gadget!

This Digital Drive Top 10 award is a twofer, going to the economical Volkswagen Golf TDI diesel and, as long as we’ve got the Golf diesel in the winner’s circle, the fire-breathing VW GTI that is based on the Golf. Both start with the nicely upgraded 2010 Golf chassis and interior. The Golf TDI gets 42 mpg on the highway, 40 percent better than the gas-engine Golf, and most drivers should be able to match or better that EPA rating.

The GTI’s most impressive statistic is smiles per gallon: You reach 60 mph in 6.7 seconds, while the highway mileage rating is the same 31 mpg as the vanilla gasoline-engine Golf.

If you want current car technology cheap, look to a two- or three-year-old car coming off lease that hasn’t had a major model change in the intervening years. Automakers go three to seven years between complete model changes. Our pick for the Digital Drive Used Car of the Year is the Infiniti M35 and Infiniti M45 from 2006 through 2009. This third-generation M has a fabulous cockpit with the best one-screen integration of navigation (by Xanavi), audio, and climate control I’ve seen on a car to date.

BlueAnt has unveiled the Interphone F4 hands-free communication system for motorcycle riders–and at first glance, it looks brilliant. The system lets riders speak to each other via a wireless intercom, and also lets each rider make or receive cell phone calls using their voice–without having to let go of one of the handlebars.

The Interphone F4 comes with a main unit that mounts on a helmet, plus two earbuds on wires and a extra-long boom mic (pictured–helmet is translucent). Riders can answer calls simply by saying “hello.” (I wonder if that means you’ll have to say hello twice–once to answer the call and again to greet the other party?) The system also streams stereo music through A2DP, and supports voice dialing and redial.

BlueAnt designed the Interphone F4 to work clearly at speeds up to 110 mph, and can connect with other F4 units as long as bikers cruise within 1,640 feet of each other (just over a quarter of a mile apart). Each F4 will pair with up to eight Bluetooth devices, and contains multipoint technology for pairing with two of them simultaneously. The F4 offers 10 hours of talk time, 700 hours of standby time, and comes with a 2-year warranty.

The Interphone F4 is available now at www.blueantwireless.com for $225.00.

Make it two in a row for clean diesels: The Audi A3 TDI was honored Thursday as Green Car of the Year by Green Car Journal. Last year’s winner was the Volkswagen Jetti TDI, also a clean diesel. The Audi won in no small part because the diesel version gets 42 mpg highway, 50% better than the gas edition. The Audi A3 TDI won over the Honda Insight hybrid, the Mercury Milan hybrid (sibling to the Ford Fusion), the Toyota Prius hybrid and the Volkswagen Golf TDI clean diesel.

For the full story, see Good Clean Tech.

I’m not sure what’s up with these expensive car kits for iPhone GPS apps, but it looks like Magellan wants in on the action. The Magellan Premium GPS Car Kit works with the iPhone and any GPS app–including, of course, Magellan’s brand new RoadMate app.

The car kit mounts to the windshield, charges the iPhone while mounted, and includes a noise-canceling, hands-free speakerphone with a powerful amplifier. It rotates for use in both portrait and landscape modes. And interestingly, it features a built-in GPS receiver that enhances performance or adds it to an iPod Touch.

None of this comes cheap, though. The kit costs a whopping $130–more than some solid Garmin and TomTom standalone devices, I might add–and doesn’t come with the app either (same as with the TomTom kit). In other words, either one could put your iPhone GPS solution over the $200 mark in total. Despite the cost, Magellan’s kit looks good, and the iPod touch compatibility is a unique twist.