Why Are Americans So Anti- Diesel?

[Calin]

The american diesel had (I don't know for now) more sulfur than the european diesel fuel. This way, a diesel engine in USA had more emissions.
Someone I know just bought a Peugeot 205 with a 70 HP diesel engine, and it uses like 3.6l at 100km, highway. Not too shabby.
Also, diesel cars are "easier" on their fuel tank (needs less refueling) as the fuel consumption is smaller than similar petrol-powered cars. And the engines "pull" better than the gas engines with the same HP.
(One more thing, those diesel engines are turbocharghed from the factory, and I compared them with non-turbocharged gas engines)

Calin

EDIT: 3.6l/100km is close to 60MPG

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: BullyCanadian
What about those Hydrogran Fueled cars?

They seem good, but there is one thing of concern, if someone in a hydrogen fuel car gets into a bad accident, will the hydrogren explode?

It certainly could, but it shouldn't really explode any more readily than a 15 gallon tank of gasoline, I don't think.

Hydrogen isn't a viable alternative unless we start building nuclear power plants to produce electricty to produce hydrogen. That could change, though.

Energy, energy, energy. Oil is virtually our only source of it. Unfortunately, we can't just pull it out of our asses.

This is why as long as hydrogen can't be generated from renewable resources, diesel and hybrids are better solutions to energy problems. Better fuel economy is at least a short-term solution to an impending shortage of fuel.

Is anyone else thinking about the plot from the Transformers right now?

 

[DeeKnow]

Originally posted by: amdforever2
because not as many stations sell diesel here

that's about as bass-ackwards as you can get 😕

 

[Aharami]

i'm all for diesel. ive seen what the europeans can do with diesel...and im excited to see when the americans will follow suit

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: amdforever2
because not as many stations sell diesel here

and because air quality stuff

and because diesel has bad perception here

gm didnt help in the 80s

Crack kills....


Ausm

 

[OutHouse]

what are you guys talking about on "trying to find a station that has diesel"?

Every station that i go to or see here in colorado has diesel at every pump.

 

[Ryan]

Originally posted by: Codewiz
What I find funny is the comment, "There aren't many diesel pumps". My fiancee drives a diesel golf and we never have trouble getting diesel. We do sometimes have trouble finding pay at the pump diesel but that isn't a big deal.

I certainly wish there were more diesel cars. 50MPG and a hell of a lot better than these crappy hybrid cars.

What? The Honda Insight get's 63mpg, and some members of insightcentral.net have even been able to get high 70's MPG.............Yep, talk about crappy 😕

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: txxxx

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: Shockwave
Have you ever seen a deisel run 11.24 in the 1/4 mile?
We'll take out gas thanks.

How many people buy a car for the 1/4 mile?

Boy ricers ofcourse.

haha.. and many other people who like fast cars... no matter what car i owned, at what age, i'd still be interested in it's power.. it's like who the hell buys a car SOLELY on looks? there has to be SOMETHING else at least to base your decision on.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: rbloedow

Originally posted by: Codewiz
I certainly wish there were more diesel cars. 50MPG and a hell of a lot better than these crappy hybrid cars.

What? The Honda Insight get's 63mpg, and some members of insightcentral.net have even been able to get high 70's MPG.............Yep, talk about crappy 😕

Do you remember the (C&D or R&T?) article where they test-drove one and drafted a huge SUV with a wind-gate, and managed to get 100+ MPG on the trip? That was pretty cool (though the SUV got about 12MPG...)

When you work it all out with expenses and stuff, diesel is quite competitive with hybrid in terms of efficiency and cost. Both have quite reasonable low-end torque as well, for different reasons. I would certainly choose either system over gas for a car if I wasn't planning to race it.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie

Originally posted by: txxxx

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: Shockwave
Have you ever seen a deisel run 11.24 in the 1/4 mile?
We'll take out gas thanks.

How many people buy a car for the 1/4 mile?

Boy ricers ofcourse.

Boy-ricers run high 14's in 'heavily modified*' Hondas 😉


* i.e. big spoiler, K&N filter, loud exhaust, and lots of stickers

I'll tell you right now, there's no way in hell a Civic will break 15s without a swap, turbo, or optimally both. 😀

- M4H

I'm not a Honda freak by any means, but that's far from true infact.
I've seen some quick hondas without crazy mods.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: Shockwave

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Seems like tradition to me, basically. But I'm not a car nut.

Also, I doubt that a lot of people know that diesel is cleaner. When I think diesel, I think big huge semi trucks spewing tons of thick black crap into the air.

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: Shockwave
Have you ever seen a deisel run 11.24 in the 1/4 mile?
We'll take out gas thanks.

How many people buy a car for the 1/4 mile?

Hmmm... Thats a good question.... I dunno...... :roll:

Doesn't take a car nut to go outside and see the tons of low performance cars on the streets.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Tiamat
Exhaust is very very polluting, and smells real bad. Not that normal gasoline isnt just as polluting. It just looks bad when you have a ton of dark colored smoke emitted into the air. It is also expensive.

Not anymore. Have you seen a new TDI? No black smoke, not loud, and frankly I don't mind the smell of diesel at all.

 

[Cat13]

When I was in Germany a few months ago, my rental car was a diesel. It was a great car, ran great (6 speed turbo🙂 ) and got crazy milage for the 3 months I had it.

 

[Cobalt]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
Also, I doubt that a lot of people know that diesel is cleaner. When I think diesel, I think big huge semi trucks spewing tons of thick black crap into the air.

 

[SuperTool]

Most companies don't offer diesel versions of their popular cars. I think an Accord diesel would do well here.
Also there is a question of price. TDI Golf is a couple grand more than gasoline GL, and less rebates. On an economy car, that's a big deal. Then there is the emissions, especially small particle emissions. They can be reduced with new expensive technologies, but that gets back to the price question.

 

[Kibbo]

Simple reason:

Gas is cheaper in NA than in Europe. This means that MPG is less relevant in making a buying decision. It's the same reaon you have smaller cars.

 

[StageLeft]

Gas engines have typically been faster, without any smell/loudness sterotypically associated with diesel. Gas is almost free in the US, so people have no motivation towards gas conservation, which is why it represents a small priority in the purchase decision of most.

 

[Xionide]

Originally posted by: Shockwave
Have you ever seen a deisel run 11.24 in the 1/4 mile?
We'll take out gas thanks.

No but I have seen better.

-Xionide

 

[Armitage]

Stink (Can't stand sitting next to/behind a diesel PU at a light)
Noise

I could maybe live it, but frankly haven't seen diesels in the kind of vehicles I'm interested in. At least not in the US. The turbo diesel in the 80 series land cruiser is supposed rock, but wasn't sold in the US.

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: moonshinemadness
Even though diesel costs the same as petrol now the MPG still means is cheaper to run than a petrol

"Equivalent" isn't an incentive to switch over someone who's comfortable with gasoline. Hybrids have the advantage of not needing a whole new "fuel philosophy," but at the cost of a lot of driving excitement. A Shockwave-Endorsed muscle car will rip a 1/4 mile faster than these things will accelerate to 60. 😛

- M4H

where do you see equivalent?

if you're getting gas for 1.70/g and you get 18 mpg and you can get diesel for 1.70/g but you get 40 mpg how is that the same?

i've been looking at the vw diesel for awhile now. i loved my gti, but i really like the idea of being able to run a month on a tank of gas. it doesn't take much tuning to give those things some pep either.

 

[kami333]

There's no reason why diesel and hybrid technology are mutually exclusive. Imagine the kind of mpg you could get with a hybrid Golf TDI😀

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: Tiamat
Exhaust is very very polluting, and smells real bad. Not that normal gasoline isnt just as polluting. It just looks bad when you have a ton of dark colored smoke emitted into the air. It is also expensive.

However, on the other hand, Diesel is more efficient because it burns at a higher temperature ~ think theoretical Carnot heat engine where temp difference is the driving force for higher efficiency.

that's just ignorance based on old data. do some research and try again.

 

[fredtam]

Originally posted by: fisher

Originally posted by: Tiamat
Exhaust is very very polluting, and smells real bad. Not that normal gasoline isnt just as polluting. It just looks bad when you have a ton of dark colored smoke emitted into the air. It is also expensive.

However, on the other hand, Diesel is more efficient because it burns at a higher temperature ~ think theoretical Carnot heat engine where temp difference is the driving force for higher efficiency.

that's just ignorance based on old data. do some research and try again.

You do some research. That is current data. A lot of places diesel passenger cars can't be sold because of emmissions. While gas creates more CO2 it has far less particulates.

 

[Aquaman]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: Shockwave

Originally posted by: moonshinemadness
Im not talking about sports cars being diesel but things like your little run a round, pickups, suv's stuff like that.

What do your "little run around" diesel engines get for miles to the gallon? (Asking because I really dont know)

Considerably better than a gasoline engine of the same displacement in a car that weighs the same.

One word: Volkswagen TDI.

The 1.9L Golf TDI gets 38/46 city/higway, ~2900lbs.

That's a pretty small car, though. How about the Passat TDI?

2.0L, 27/38 city/highway, ~3400lbs.

It appears that many Passat TDI owners are getting over 40MPG highway, though.

I was getting 43 mpg on the Corrola I rented for a recent road trip. We were booting it all the way. 🙂

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: fredtam

Originally posted by: fisher

Originally posted by: Tiamat
Exhaust is very very polluting, and smells real bad. Not that normal gasoline isnt just as polluting. It just looks bad when you have a ton of dark colored smoke emitted into the air. It is also expensive.

However, on the other hand, Diesel is more efficient because it burns at a higher temperature ~ think theoretical Carnot heat engine where temp difference is the driving force for higher efficiency.

that's just ignorance based on old data. do some research and try again.

You do some research. That is current data. A lot of places diesel passenger cars can't be sold because of emmissions. While gas creates more CO2 it has far less particulates.

i have done research. i looked into buying a tdi when i bought my gti. there was no smelly trail of smoke coming out from behind the test car i drove, but hey maybe it was MAGIC.