Ultra-Efficient VW XL1: Now An Urban Legend, Debunked By Snopes

Ah, conspiracy theories and urban legends. They lure us in with the promise of dark plots and amazing events--even as our rational minds suggest they're likely not true.

Now the ultra-efficient Volkswagen XL1 economy car, the highly aerodynamic two-seat diesel plug-in hybrid we drove last fall, has become the subject of a conspiracy theory.

DON'T MISS: Volkswagen XL1 138-MPG Diesel Plug-In Hybrid: Drive Report

A circulating Internet story suggests that the Federal government has banned the XL1--a "normal production car"--because "it is too efficient for the American public to be made widely aware of, and oil profits are too high in America with the status quo in place."

Luckily, there's Snopes.

The popular website investigates urban myths and conspiracy theories, fact-checking the assertions and referred to numerous sources (including, in this case, this very site) that provide facts to counter the conspiracy ideas that catch readers' attention.

In a calm, reasoned manner, its Monday post demolished the various paranoid assertions of a "freelance journalist" named Jim Stone.

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