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Comments
Congress is never wrong. LOL
Last night I saw a new commercial on TV from GM. Corn kernals were being sprinkled on a road and flex fuel vehicles were miraculously growing out of them. How wrong can you get? Totally stupid direction to go in. Costs more to make a gallon of ethanol from corn than to refine a gallon of oil. It is even worse considering how cheap it is to make biodiesel from waste vegatable oil or animal tallow.
quote-
Experts credit the allure of new, cleaner diesel engines — which are expected to meet even California's strict air quality standards — as well as the prospect of getting better fuel mileage without sacrificing performance.
Also playing a role: disappointment with the real-world fuel economy of hybrids, which often fell well short of government mileage estimates.
Under the government's old rating system, for example, the estimated fuel economy for Toyota's hot-selling Prius was 55 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving. The new mileage estimate, based on tests designed to more closely match actual driving conditions, is 46 mpg.
"The mpg expectations for hybrids were totally out of whack," said Mike Marshall of Westlake Village-based J.D. Power. "While hybrid sales are steadily increasing, they continue to face competition for market share" from other alternative powertrains.
Carmakers, meanwhile, have been working hard to shed the negative image many Americans have of diesel engines dating back to the 1970s and '80s.
The auto companies "learned their lessons from the mistakes they made in the past," said Paul Lacy of consulting firm Global Insight. "They're trying to let people know that the diesels of today are not the noisy, smelly, underperforming engines of the past here in the United States."
-end
Another question: I'm not sure about is what will be used for the engine oil in the new deisels? Will we still use the conventional oils used today for this purpose? If so, will we still be dependent on oil from the far East then? Just thought I'd ask! :confuse:
Just another free lunch idea. There is no "waste" available once the demand stream ramps up and absorbs the items mentioned. All demand affects supply and the costs and availability of resources used to produce that supply. in crease the demand for "waste" from zero to absolute and the price and production responds.
Our auto dependency remains the problem, not whether we starve children to run them by using resources to produce fuel.
No amount of dancing around the issue will change it.
And the band played on!
We will not see any significant move from the automobile until our leaders set the example. None are doing that so why should anyone else?
The truth is we could cut our use of oil significantly by using diesel. When the cooking oil runs out we flood all the wasted desert land, and use algae for diesel.
Filled my Jeep Liberty CRD today. ULSD 2.799, ULR gas was 2.919.
NO, LA #2 diesel 2.74 to 2.85 http://www.neworleansgasprices.com/index.aspx?fuel=D
NO, LA ULR 2.68 to 2.75
SF, CA #2 diesel 3.09 to 3.29
http://www.sanfrangasprices.com/index.aspx?fuel=D
SF, CA ULR 3.11 to 3.19
Both cities have refineries within a 50 mile radius
MANY of the so called "synthetic" and synthetic blends ARE derived from fossil fuels.
Many are hydrocracked and now meet the "synthetic" defintions in an arbitration settlement. This settlement w in effect granded a so called NON synthetic but hydrocracked group III product, the right to be called synthetic and/or synthetic blends.
So the so called old school definition of SYNTHETIC (for my .02 cents) is a PAO IV.
In regard to your question: ..."Can synthetic oils be used on my current gas burner even if I've never used these on my car before?"... The answer is a conditional yes as contained in the specifications.
Is there a place for hybrids? Absolutely. As this so called crisis gets longer in the tooth, my swag is the diesel will far exceed the hybrid, if the European model (50% diesel population and growing) is any predictor.
Indeed almost all parts of the equation agree, the price of gasoline has been and will continue to go up. In Europe the price is 6/7 US per gal of unleaded regular.
Some synthetic oils are dervived from petroleum while others are plant based.
Algae biodiesel is still missing quite a few things for wide scale use. If/when we get it too work. Cool. Until then it is still sadly one of those 'right around the corner' technologies we always hear about.
Incidentally, 'flood the desert' does not work. You need closed systems to have any shot at harvesting high percentage lipid bearing algae... Very few places on earth are suitable for an open system because the faster breeding algae contaminate it, and then out compete with the good stuff you want to grow.
Wondering why FOMOCO is not selling passenger diesels in North America. Why not channel them thru Mazda? Zoom Zoom Zoom with 57mpg
because of its ultra-short gearing and gobs of torque. In European fuel economy testing, it returns 39 mpg city, 57 mpg highway. (The 2.0-liter gas engine that we get in the U.S. returns 22 / 37 on that same test.)
That is a whopping 39% better mileage for the diesel. And he loved driving it.
How about this for an answer: I lost a race in the new 414-hp, V-8 M3 last week to a diesel. I pulled up to a red light next to my photographer's six-cylinder, automatic-transmission 530d station wagon. When the light turned green, I dumped the clutch from 2000 rpm and floored it. And the automatic diesel station wagon dusted my M3 off the line. I didn't catch up until 60 mph.
That is fast enough for me.
Politics, pretty hard to convince Congress that you can't have a 35mpg passenger fleet by 2020 was it? If all the cars get 50+ mpg on the highway.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
Also this is verifiable on the used car section of www.edmunds.com, but there is up to a 4,600 premium over the 2003 VW Jetta 2.0 and/or 1.8T with the TDI. On a $18,000 (new) car that works out to 25.55556%. Based on the resale values comparisons, a MUCH greater percentage!
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
VW Rabbit Pickup diesel 45 MPG made in the USA
Find yours on E-Bay today !!!
Clear as glass, Mazda is ok but I'd go for a Honda, BMW diesel would be nice too as long as it's diesel. Plus here we get biodiesel which is really great to run. I'd get better economy if the truck didn't idle for 4-5 hours per fill up. But you can't sit in 120 degree heat without the A/C on.
Less economy but sweating like a pig, no thanks and of course it's always summer here or pretty much so.
We do need good clean diesels in the US and I really don't want to buy another gas model car. My work contract will be up in about 6 months and I will have no choice but to buy something when i get back to the US. but nothing is coming out until mid 2008. :sick:
Imagine a diesel Miata! How wild would that be!
For me a decent 5 door wagon or hatch diesel would be best. But has to fit 4 adults comfortably and have enough room to haul things on occasion.
These kind of cars are all over europe but I wonder if Lutz was telling the truth about US diesel standards being 6 times more strict than in Europe. I bet this was done to keep foreign competition out.
Imagine if we had Euro diesel standards we'd have plenty of diesels for this year.
Ah but to dream.
So for example, I am a self described "reluctant" TDI VW consumer (diesel) I would have NEVER gotten a VW with the (at the time) 2.0 and 1.8T (gasser) motors. On one hand, the quality is almost head and shoulders above the Honda Civic. So yes IF Honda Civic had a TDI I would have probably selected it. On the other hand, now that I have a VW TDI I would not sell it to buy a Honda cTDI. I would get a diesel to replace a GASSER.
So for example, I am a self described "reluctant" TDI VW consumer (diesel) I would have NEVER gotten a VW with the (at the time) 2.0 and 1.8T (gasser) motors. On the other hand, the quality is almost head and shoulders above the Honda Civic. So yes IF Honda Civic had a TDI I would have probably selected it.
Well my issue has always been VW's lack of reliability and when they are running they are great but when they are broken it's no fun. also you have to rent a car while they are fixing it so that's an even bigger expense for me. if the dealer had to give you a car while they were fixing yours they would probably fix them a lot quicker.
That said. in a few years many brands will have their own diesels. I so want to be able to like VW. But just been burned too many times. Mazda was ok I've owned a few of those in the past and they were decent I had an MX6 and a 323 and a Miata all at various times.
I think Honda is the focus because it's very likely they will be first to market with a diesel in the Accord and prior to that it's Mercedes and VW. Toyota doesn't have a clean diesel that I'm aware of yet and regardless of the brand. I hope to see more and more diesels out there being driven. I like the way a diesel feels when it drives, almost like a 60's muscle car in a way because of the low torque and i don't personally need an 8,000rpm redline.
I think my truck has a max of 4,600 rpms but the most I've ever used is 4,000 rpms.
The Civic is ok but I find the seats to not fit me very well for some reason. i sat in one about 2 weeks ago when my wife was showroom floor testing them and the seats felt very hard to me and were not comfortable. the car itself is nice tho.
Let's see who is first to market with a diesel other than VW. I'm thinking Honda.
My take is Honda might be of focus because of its reputation for reliability on the gasser side. Indeed VW has been in the USA diesel market during the period that is was not so "cool". Of the Accord platform size, the Passat TDI is the longer competitor. Indeed it was able to run LSD, while being designed for USLD.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
yes i agree Honda has really built a reputation for reliability and that means a LOT of sales that many other car makers would love to have. but VW is in big trouble as it lost $1 Billion last year. For a fairly small company that's a lot of money and they are dropping all the prices across the board on their models, but of course now you get steel rims etc...
VW has been making diesels for a very long time and I think if their dealer network was better and gave better customer service and the cars broke less then that would help them a lot.
Kudo's to VW for leading the pack with diesels but now they have competition coming which is usually very god for us consumers.
I'm glad you like your VW. The new GTI looks so nice but I just can't get all those problems out of my mind to the point where i would buy a gasser over a VW.
It was really that bad.
Passat was a nice car, BIG, especially in black, a friend of mine had one and loved it, it had more and more problems as it got older and in 2 years he was pretty unhappy with VW service. He still really loved that car tho. probably still has it. I haven't seen him in 5 years or so.
Oh the new smashed up VW ads on the VW website. It it just me or is that just a bit disturbing to see the car brand new but smashed up? safety, yes but for me disturbing.
I'm not some big VW fan but they are the largest selling manufacturer in Europe and are #4 in the world.
VW group is also Porsche/ Audi/ Skoda/ Seat.
No one wants to lose 1bn (it would certainly cramp my style :P ) but they are only really in trouble in the US.
I've owned several VW Tdi and they have been extremely reliable in regards to drivetrain and electronics. The window regulators, however, were a complete pain in the rear.