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What Would It Take for YOU to buy a diesel car?
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Funny how much of this is coming out of France, when France once got their ruling class under control via less than subtle means. Maybe they need to do so again.
Oops, that was crass. What am I saying, "maybe",
Sequoia Weight 6,025 pounds Exterior body width 80" Exterior height 75"
Touareg Weight 5,060 pounds Exterior body width 76" Exterior height 67"
The Sequoia weighs more, has a much bigger frontal area (more drag at speed) and only has a 5 speed transmission. I would wager to say that half of the mpg improvement is due to the reduced weight, reduced frontal area and the more modern 8 spd trans. The transmission alone is worth 5-10% improvement.
Your 2007 Sequoia had 4.6L motor (Horsepower 273-hp @ 5,400 rpm Torque 314 lbs.-ft. @ 3,400 rpm) Yes? I am sure the 2008 would have been much better on the inclines with the bigger motor (Displacement: 346 cu in, 5663cc Power (SAE net): 381 bhp @ 5600 rpm Torque (SAE net): 401 lb-ft @ 3600 rpm) and 6-speed automatic.
I am familiar with the long uphill grades you describe. Drove a Camry (2007 with 5spd auto) to the west a few years ago. The car, which was perfectly adequate here, struggled to get up the mountains. Spent a fair amount of time at 70-75 mph and 4,000 rpm. Going up the inclines was a lot of WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA But I had fun...
I am also not surprised you think the Touareg is a superior vehicle. Vehicles have improved a great deal since 2007. This is why I like to get a new vehicle every few years. The improvements keep on coming. Some of the new nanny aids are a bit disconcerting, however. So far we have been able to buy a vehicle without Eyesight, adaptive cruise control, a built in Breathalyzer (don't drink and drive, so it would be useless) or a brain wave scanner!! But that topic is post better suited for another forum.
Some vehicles may have improved. The Sequoia mileage is worse. The 2008-2014 show 12.6-15.6 MPG. And they are uglier than a mud fence. I miss the extra room in back. However I had to pull out the 3rd row seats to use it. Not laid out well. The nanny devices on the Mercedes was part of the negatives in my mind. I don't use cruise in heavy traffic, so adaptive CC would be a waste of money. I wish the NAV was equal to Google maps. Blue tooth for the cell phone is handy. I also wish it had 17 inch wheels and tires vs the 19 inch. I think that costs a couple miles per gallon. Overall, I think Toyota is living on their past laurels. The latest Sequoia has lower towing capacity than my Touareg.
http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_27620069/late-winter-storms-spread-across-areas-california-southwest
ULSD $2.99
RUG $2.89. MG $2.99, PUG $3.09
"The British government rejected calls on Sunday to raise taxes on diesel vehicles to reduce air pollution but said it will consider a national network of low-emission zones.
Britain has consistently failed to meet European Union limits on nitrogen dioxide, which is produced by diesel engines and is harmful to respiratory systems, as well as another pollutant, known as diesel particular matter."
UK government rejects calls for higher diesel tax to cut pollution (businessinsider.com)
I have not even TESTED the C/C's in the 12 VW Touareg and 14 MB 250 BT, or in 70,000 miles ! ? I guess @ some time, I should test BOTH. While I am at it, I probably should test the 09 VW Jetta TDI's C/C, again haven't tested in (another) 91,000 miles. The only thing that I am even halfway glad about is Bluetooth. However as a rule, across ALL makes and models, most CAR drivers do not rate user friendliness and ease of use well, for bluetooth !!!
As you indicated, some to most of these options are of dubious utility AND in addition drive UP the costs of operation as in 17 in tires vs 19 in tires. Longer term, getting higher % value from options to almost mandatory options, on resale is specious @ best.
I have been a (long term ) fan of Toyota's products, sans the 1985 Camry). I doubt right now that its current line of gasser products could entice me to switch (given like model diesels, which they do not have), even as Lexus AND Toyota lead the markets in reliability.
I would agree that it is unfortunate that we do not have a small pick-up with a diesel in it. A small 2.0 liter diesel would work well in that application. Like I said before, it is all about pulling out tree stumps... I seem to remember there being an import tax on PU at one point. Not sure if it is still around. Another issue is that only VW and MB seem to have invested the tech to get diesels in the U.S. Most other manufacturers gave up in the 80s.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/diesels.jsp Also, around here people won't even look at a small truck. People love their full sized trucks. I suspect it is the same in Texas where they sell a billion or so a year. The first thing someone in the oil patch, making the big bucks, buys is a $40,000 + truck. I read an article a few years ago where a young 17 year old kid's main goal in life was to work in the oil patch so he could buy a new Ford truck...
Last year I drove a 14 Sonata while on vacation. It was a decent car. Plenty of power for dealing with the Tampa traffic. The 2015 Sonata would be on my short list of cars to look at if I needed to replace the Altima.
We have recently been talking about where to retire. Florida is on the list as is building a new home. I started thinking about going solar on the home and getting an electric car as a second vehicle. Seems like a good fit. The primary vehicle would still be petrol based as we will want to make some longer trips. In the mean time I plan to keep our options open. It is good to have options.
The times for the normal commute we have used the 09 VW Jetta TDI in , (27 miles) can range from 45 min (rare) to mostly 1.5 to 2 hours. (I am sure you can calculate average speeds) for a DSG.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KIo9dwpfNU0WgA89D7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTByZWc0dGJtBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDMQ--?p=Lamborghini+Veneno.&vid=83de291ee5aa1eb7e1ac90f1a622109c&l=7:41&turl=http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=VN.607986396858155781&pid=15.1&rurl=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYMkTznrJb4&[non-permissible content removed]=Lamborghini+Veneno+SOUND%21+Start+Up+%2B+Driving+On+The+Road%21&c=0&sigr=11bhomg91&sigt=11pp3icft&sigi=11rg1gae4&age=1383311419&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&fr=aaplw&tt=b
https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KIo9dwpfNU0WgA9ND7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTByZ2N0cmxpBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDMg--?p=Lamborghini+Veneno.&vid=73fc18eb1ae136e0ceb9a361a72222d2&l=3:56&turl=http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=VN.608036592137801021&pid=15.1&rurl=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te_HMhL40y0&[non-permissible content removed]=Lamborghini+Veneno+SOUND+-+Start+Up+and+REVS%21%21&c=1&sigr=11bms3d4h&sigt=11ev4hl14&sigi=11rolgsn1&age=1365988636&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&fr=aaplw&tt=b
Pick the right spot in Florida and your EV will be a golf car. Be careful though - the retirees trick them out so much they cost more than a Leaf or Volt.
"Supply and demand" says diesel prices should be going back down. Who knows if Bloomberg's bears have a clue though.
Erika Rawes Twitter MORE ARTICLES
March 01, 2015
Defacto, two "affordable" diesels in the mix !
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/personal-finance/5-new-cars-that-a-middle-class-worker-can-afford-for-2015.html/5/
Diesel? The IRS crafted a $1,500 tax CREDIT for the 2009 VW VW Jetta TDI, which by way of nexus paid for the American made (NY state) emissions equipment. So after the "best" deal, the IRS tax credit was a nice "discount".
Senate Bill Introduced To End Ethanol Mandate For Gasoline
Green Car Reports By Stephen Edelstein
February 27, 2015 7:30 AM
https://autos.yahoo.com/news/senate-bill-introduced-end-ethanol-mandate-gasoline-123009864.html
The initial legislation should have included a sunset provision in the first place.
Keystone reminds me of the TransAlaska Pipeline - half of Congress and the administration wanted that to go through and skip all the review processes (which is still ongoing for Keystone). Spiro broke the tie, NEPA was bypassed, and it was boom times. For a while. The housing bust in the 80s was a big blip but now who knows if they'll every fill up the pipe again. May be TAPS for it (a little inside joke for @gagrice1 and @xwesx there ).
Like GW, the news never stops for diesel, although it's been a couple of weeks since a big "anti" story hit the papers.
California scientists link tiny particles in car exhaust to heart disease (newsok.com)
I keep mentioning all these particulate stories to my diesel-hating wife, yet she still won't let me replace the gas stovetop for something better, like induction. And so it goes.
The Anchorage housing bubble started in 1980 and crashed in about 1985 when the price of oil dropped from $32 a barrel to around $12. It was still in the dumps during the early 1990s. With a building boom in the late 1990s. This current drop in oil price does not seem to be having the same effect in Alaska as in the lower 48 fields.
TAPS may be on its final days. I think a new Trans Canada pipeline is likely. Which would tie into Keystone XL when it is completed. And it will be completed. Canadian greed will assure the exploitation of the second largest known oil reserves in the tar sands. If I was king those against oil production would not be allowed to own any vehicle that depended on fossil fuel. They should be the first forced to live in caves. That would include any form of transportation that fossil fuel was used in its manufacture.
>If I was king those against oil production would not be allowed to own any vehicle that depended on fossil fuel.
That could actually increase EV adoption lots faster than subsidies. And there was a hermit who lived in a cave about 4 miles from here for many years....
Be tough building any mode of transportation without burning fossil fuel. Even the solar panels or wind gensets require a lot of energy to manufactured. I just find it short sighted to think we can EVER do away with all fossil fuel. Can you imagine trying to forge steel with a wood burning furnace? I love new and inventive forms of alternative energy. I just don't like paying 4 times as much for the energy so some wonk in Sacramento can look green.
Have you visited La Cueva? So many great stories like that one.
Well no !! Look how long it took gasser hybrids to get to less than 2% of the PVF and it does NOTHING/ZERO/NADA to get OFF RUG ! Hard to talk environmental religious fuel conversion when the ANSWER has been 95% + % RUG/PUG? The alternative (diesel) fuel has been vilified, for easily a biblical generation and there has been, is and remains no will for biodiesel, B100 specification PVF engines. diesel and bio diesel removes the need for RUG/PUG and enlarges many pathways, other than searching for a single motherlode source.
EV take rates are not even measurable against the 265.6 M PVF. The Volt is a $40k + offering that should be more like $15k, IF it were a segments, Corolla, Civic, etc. So customers are not fighting each other for the inventory are they? Take away governmental write offs, tax credits, etc. and EV would drop even LOWER than immeasurable.
We live close to the Tesla factory and like to think it has a local (business) multiplier effect ! Hopefully that was true for the Toyota Tacoma when GM/Toyota owned the factory. But @ $85k +, I'd consider one after hitting a $325 M lottery.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/volkswagen-passat-european-car-210337938.html
Kind of like San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), operated by Southern California Edison. The utility profited from it since 1968, and now it is shut down and the consumers will have to pay the $4 billion to dismantle it. We are doing the same with $billion in Wind and Solar plants that will have an even shorter life span than the Nukes. 20 years and gone. The wind and solar plants built in the late 1970s and 80s are now laying waste and an eyesore across the countryside on Interstate 10 heading into Palm Springs. By contrast the HUGE coal operation out at 4 corners has been producing far more electricity at a far lower price since 1963. The only reason they have shut down parts of it is our current Coal policy. You can bet as soon as the Wind and Solar subsidies dry up the wind and solar facilities will head into disrepair and become an additional blight on the landscape. You can drive out Interstate 8 today and see wind turbines not operating with blades fallen off, towers collapsed, all within less than 10 years of marginal electric production at a very high cost to the tax payers and consumers.
Read the Secret Life of Dust, by Hannah Holmes. There is a lot of stuff in the air that is not good for us. Better to live as far from people as practical.
Probably $20k out of pocket with ~$7k credits. My wife wants to go with fewer panels - I want the gold Cadillac on the roof naturally.
The idea of selling back the excess may not be so good. SDG&E just got a reprieve and is only giving back about 4 cents per KWH. I would look into the plans where you just pay them a flat per KWH and they own the solar equipment as well as maintain it. Unless you want to be out there cleaning off the sand every time they have a wind storm. I don't buy the 25 year warranty. None of the current companies will still be in business in 25 years. Probably not in 5 years. Go with the solar car port. I keep thinking about that.
Here's a measured rebuttal to a recent Automobile News story:
"Both Paris and London are now differentiating between old and new technology rather than full bans on diesel or any other technology."
Last posting I saw of his he had moved to TX from Phoenix. Not sure if he installed Solar PV over there. They have a lot of low cost wind power offered in some areas.
We're thinking "shade house" on the other side of the yard now (i.e, a carport for people).
I keep thinking the US will come up to speed with the Brits on Solar Greenhouses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me1xx2t7EJY
After all building RUG/PUG/BIODIESEL on a 9x12 ft concrete pad with access to natural gas and certain "chemistries" in an INDUSTRIAL space IS off the shelf, and OLD technology.
Now that blows my, 09 Jetta TDI 41 mpg, 123 mpg, 3 person commute out of the water to 498 mpg !!! That's 91 (real) gals of ULSD per year, 7.6 gals per month for a 15,000 miles commute. Peel me a grape, I might have to refuel 3.45 times in a year. @ 2.99 per gal that is $ 22.67 per mo or $ 272. per year.
http://www.autoblog.com/2015/03/02/166-mpge-diesel-electric-audi-q7-e-tron-quattro-gets-real-in-gen/
..."Stepping up to the 3.5 turbo (best) engine isn't terribly expensive; a $2,295 option from the base XL-trim truck"...
Interesting that folks are ok spending to UPGRADE gassers, but have "issues" spending the same amount or less for diesel. Indeed $2,295 isn't terribly expensive on one hand and the same amount, on the OTHER hand is considered outrageous ! ?
..."The 3.5 EcoBoost is either extremely thirsty, or has a tall pedal that's just too damn tempting because my average over 1,045.3 miles (about 65% highway and 95% unladen) was 16.8 MPG... that's just shy of the truck's EPA city rating."...
http://truckyeah.jalopnik.com/1-000-hard-miles-in-the-most-expensive-2015-ford-f-150-1676530984
By the way, the F150 weighs app 400 #'s less than the 12 VW Touareg 3.0 L TDI, which posts 31 to 35 mpg.
Closer in weight, the MB GLK 250 BT, 2.1 L posts 34 to 39 mpg.
The 3.5 EcoBoost is either extremely thirsty, or has a tall pedal that's just too damn tempting because my average over 1,045.3 miles (about 65% highway and 95% unladen) was 16.8 MPG... that's just shy of the truck's EPA city rating.
I found this the most damning statement made in the review. The Ram Eco diesel would be my choice for sure.
If I was dropping sixty grand on a new truck I'd be on my way to a GMC dealer as soon as I could get my hands off the F-150's helm.
Materials in general are all good, but lack the richness and refinement I've noticed in the comparably-priced luxotrucks from GM and Ram. Those trucks have a cohesion of design that makes them feel like they were designed as luxury vehicles from the beginning. And more importantly, have beautifully crafted and girthy steering wheels that are at once welcomingly soft yet weighty enough to warrant respect.
Ford F-150, Cadillac Escalade and Dodge Challenger Rule February Sales Report
In other news, the 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel Long-Term Road Test is on again now that the Ram is out of the shop. It was only in there twelve days while they were talking with Detroit and getting parts together to replace a good portion of the fuel system.
It absolutely makes sense for RAM engineers to take a progressive approach, to " jump on it". Corrections to a "system" wide issue/s can be a TSB away !
I also am looking forward to Edmunds.com testing the Cummins 5.0 L V8 TDI !! 550 # ft !!! If it can post 25 to 30 mpg with a proper 8 to 10 speed A/T !! (early test's @ 24 mpg) WOW ! OEMS are stepping up to bring new diesels to the US markets.
RUG @ $3.29
MG @ $3.39
PUG @ $3.49
"Over the past several decades, California officials set groundbreaking standards that phased out many inefficient car and truck engines and some of the dirtiest fuels for everything from jet skis and lawnmowers to school buses and heavy-duty trucks. Local smog-fighters in the Los Angeles basin forced cleanup of oil refineries, manufacturing plants, and consumer products such as paints and solvents. Other local and state programs offered incentives for replacing old trucks and buses.
The result: Some of the most problematic pollutants-smog-forming nitrogen dioxide and fine particles created by diesel-engine exhaust and other fossil fuels-declined in the worst neighborhoods by up to 50 percent in 20 years. Maritime pollution, particularly in neighborhoods near the massive ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, also has dropped substantially."
As Smog Thins in L.A., Dramatic Evidence of Kids' Healthier Lungs (nationalgeographic.com)
There's a good graphic/photo over at the WSJ too, if you have access to their stories.
Back in the day, I used to think 1,500 miles OCI's were annoying! Did I do them ? YES !! Fast forward to TDI's today. Because of how clean diesels run AND the robustness of TDI specialty oils, I am able to run 30,000 miles OCI's. Are they still an annoyance? YES !!! Do I do them? YES !!
So I really can't say I blame you there ! You also have to use the correct fuel, special oil, etc, etc. So if you can not or will not make the attitudinal adjustment, you are probably more disposed to spend and consume more in RUG/PUG gassers.