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Comments
Emissions regulations have probably been the savior of the auto industry, don't you think? Every car lover now enjoying today's high performance cars owes a debt of gratitude to California for forcing the car makers to do something about their sloppy engineering...something the D3 absolutely refused to do without legislation.
I mean, just compare the time frame for European adaptation of modern diesels and modern fuel injection with the US companies. The US was about 20 years behind!
The proper term is "eco-weenies", "greenies", "for me not for thees", etc
I really do not make this stuff up!
They are mostly referring to the explosion last February but there was a big hazardous leak a week ago. Maybe y'all will get some relief at the end of 2016 when Exxon's sale of Torrance finalizes. I'm sure the new owners won't gouge any as they start making the loan payments.
Reminds me of the bumper sticker I saw on a car a while back.
Oh California! I'm so used to high gas prices I never presume lower prices are anything more than a glitch. But you just reminded me to fill the tank on the 4x4.
Whenever gas prices rise, refineries double their production .
Capitalism working at its best
Prices are often in the same ballpark in WA, especially relative to the rest of the country. We pay high taxes for these awesome, ample, and well-managed roads. Nothing weenie about the Greenpeace people.
Oh California! I'm so used to high gas prices I never presume lower prices are anything more than a glitch. But you just reminded me to fill the tank on the 4x4.
But in fact VW has had EV & gasoline hybrid products! In fact they have a very wide range of drive train options gassers, gas hybrid, diesel, EV. 6/8 speed A/T's, 6 speed DSG, 5/6 speed M/T's.
Some of the greenies probably drive or have driven V-Dublu's and have a soft spot for them, eh?
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Diesel has been and will remain part of the solution ! It's almost that simple ! Again, it's a ratio thing. To use less gasoline in US markets, you HAVE to use more diesel! Specifically, if you use 19 gal of gasoline, you have to use 10 gal of diesel. (1 barrel of oil)
For those that are new to the site or haven't been paying attention, or ignoring reality, ( Truncated for illustration) Suppose you need 29 gallons of fuel ( from a 42 gal) barrel of oil. (EIA.gov will tell you) 19 gal of gasoline & 10 gal of diesel are two major products. YOU do not want to use 10 gal of diesel (because of your religious beliefs, etc). But now, you still need 10 gal of gasoline (for the 29 gal that you still need) . Do you now need more oil to refine or less? If you refine more oil to get the 10 gal of gasoline you need, do you now have even MORE diesel (you can't use for religious reasons!) than the 10 gals you started with? More or less?
So for those who got the answers wrong, my 2003 Jetta TDI with five speed MANUAL transmission will get 50 miles a gallon. The A/T version gets 44 mpg or 12% less!
So for those who got the answer wrong, my 2003 Jetta TDI with five speed MANUAL transmission will get 50 miles a gallon. The A/T version gets 44 mpg or 12% less!
Bingo-bango-boingo ruking1! Even though I'm not a dieseler, at this time anyway, I share your love for the manual transmission. I would not want another automatic trannied vehicle ever again. And, yes, I know, ever is a really long time!
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Lots of studies say that automatics are more fuel efficient than manual transmissions. Be curious to see what the future take rate of manuals will be in the EU in another decade.
When I "settled" for an automatic CVT tranny in my '08 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS, carmakers were already matching if not bettering manual tranny's for mpg with their automatic tranny's. And the "city" number for mpg is decidedly higher with the automatics of late.
Yeah, the Mrs. doesn't drive and our son was with us in 2007, too, and he only drives automatics, so the choice ended up being sound as a pound.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
So would it be hard for anyone to guess what the London Nissan's taxi cab fleet consists of? Would it be hard to guess what the NYCs Nissan's taxicab fleet consists?
To address the MT vs AT . Now you get an inkiling why things are soooo FUBAR ( WW2 technical term.) !? You have other wise sane and logical people saying stuff like 50 mpg is worst, to no better than 44 mpg!? Or 12% worse is nothing at all! ?
Another fact of the matter is: I can hyper mile WAY better with an MT than I can with an AT. Do I do it? ONLY occasionally. So from AM logic we would look at the Brits and say why on earth would you want an MT for a taxicab in London ? From the Brits logic, they would say: why on earth would you want an AT for a taxicab in NYC !
"London is the European capital most polluted by nitrogen dioxide" so something is likely to give.
Here's a newer story:
"Diesel car owners have been warned they could face charges for driving in city centres after campaigners vowed to bring a legal challenge to make the Government do more to tackle air pollution.
Ministers on Thursday unveiled plans for ‘clean air zones’ in five city centres, where polluting old diesel lorries, vans and taxis will face charges for driving, but said private cars would not have to pay." (link)
True, and that cost for the automatic tranny runs somewhere around $1,000 in most cases.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
But the 750# weight LOSS will work in diesels favor, all things being equal! By itsel it was not even close to being helpful for its economy V6 gasser. So Ram @ some time in the future unknown might have to drop up to 1,000 #'s ! Till that time thy remain ahead.
2015 US auto sales threatens to be a record setting banner year!
Like I have been saying the sillies chugging along here is Range Rover 's TDI! http://mashable.com/2015/12/19/2016-range-rover-td6-review/?utm_campaign=Feed:+Mashable+(Mashable)&utm_cid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed#fj0e93BUC8qlj
Slow news diesel SOS/DD trek!
The youngest daughter is back from Georgia for Christmas. She's used to taking the 94/96 TLC's up to South Tahoe, CA and back! She took the 2012 VW Touareg TDI in the snow, chain control station up, late @ night! She & a passenger got up there in normal summer time times! She was so totally blown, away that she called me early this morning to tell me that. She also told me I had been holding out on her!
Next up - some consolidation? FCA and VW anyone?
Volkswagen on Dec. 15 had sought an extension to its plan for the vehicles. California regulators will respond to that extension request by Jan 14, according to a letter from a state official to Volkswagen. For Volkswagen’s more than 650 U.S. dealers, a solution can’t come soon enough.
The emissions crisis adds to Volkswagen’s already challenged efforts to make inroads in the U.S. Volkswagen for years sought to ramp up U.S. sales, with diesel vehicles as a linchpin. But the cars proved too expensive and out of step with consumer tastes. Diesel vehicles still make up a sliver of U.S. car sales."
VW Dealers Suffer as Diesel-Car Sales Stall (WSJ - may be a registration link).
Chinese Diesel Floods Onto Global Markets (Another WSJ link)
(I don't think they meant negative news for consumers.
"Ford CEO Mark Fields says the company will launch a hybrid pickup truck before the end of the decade, but that may not be the only efficiency-focused powertrain Ford is planning. Rumor has it that there’s a diesel F-150 prototype puttering around the carmaker’s Dearborn, Michigan, hometown."
Ford’s F-150 Is Going Hybrid, But Could It Go Diesel Too? (digitaltrends.com)
I talked at length to the VW salesman while getting my 30K mile service. They are not very concerned about Dieselgate. No one has traded in their TDI on a gas vehicle. And the only people bitching are not TDI owners. Looking at the states with the most VW TDI vehicles, CA was not on the list. With only 30 TDIs on hold they just push their gassers.
I got my letter saying the EPA thinks my car may not be in compliance. VW has not admitted or agreed with the EPA. They mostly wanted to let the owners know there is no problem with driving our TDI. Which I would do anyway until they pry my cold dead fingers from the Steering wheel.
Kind of surprising. I would have guessed that California would have been in the top three in diesel adoption.
The cars, some 482,000 Passats, Golfs and Jettas sold in model years 2009 to 2015 in the United States, are peppy and fun to drive, owners say. Because fixing the cars is likely to result in lower performance and fuel economy, some drivers will decline, even though their cars would continue to spew 40 times the smog-producing emissions permitted by some states. If they do, there are few enforcement levers in place.
In the three states with the most VW diesel cars caught up in the emissions scandal, only California withholds registration renewals from cars that fail to comply with recalls. In Texas and Florida, which have the second- and third-highest number of VW diesels after California, there are no emission standards in place for diesel vehicles.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-consumers-insigh-idUSKCN0S20CK20151008
There's no more Easy St. I don't think, if there ever was. In the case of recalling my VW, (if I had one), I'd rather just conform. I don't think the MPG or performance "hit" is going to be all that great anyway. It's not the hill I want to die on at any rate.