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Comments
If that's right, that's a "diesel premium" my man.
Diesel Premium is OK but Hybrid Premium is idiotic? Say Whut?
Berkeley the long time environmental hot bed sells all types of diesel! They have the bio diesel coop. The cities busses as I understand it run on clean diesel and there are even seminars to "home brew" . Life is good!
http://www.greenstarusa.com/products/biodiesel.html
Just think Gary... if you flip 8 more TDIs by the time your 76 or so you can have a fully paid for Mercedes diesel.
I think I can flip one every 6 months. Problem is they will be flooding the market in CA by the beginning of 2007. This is a short lived business. I think if I find the right deal on a Gecko green 2006 Beetle TDI with DSG, that will be a keeper for running errands. The old 1990 Mazda 626 is starting to cost us money to maintain. It seems to be on lone to family members more than sitting in our driveway. Life is a challenge for sure...
When I dropped my 530i off at E.H. Harms in Munich to be shipped back to the U.S.A., I took a taxi back to my hotel in central Munich. The taxi in question was none other than a Chrysler Caravan minivan, complete with the V.M. Motori diesel engine and some make of a 5-Speed manual transmission. At the time when I got that ride, that Caravan had over 600,000 km on the clock and was still running strong. Six hundred thousand kilometers? Hell that's over 375,000 miles! That's a long damn way, especially as it was being flogged as a taxi. Not too shabby. ;-)
Best Regards,
Shipo
What have I decided on? Nothing yet, I’m in a wait and see mode. The 93 Explorer is running fine with 110796 miles on it and I have a kid in college so it’s like having a car payment. I’m in no hurry to part with all my money.
What I’m looking for is a reliable, comfortable passenger car with a 40 to 50 mpg for taking road trips for $25000 or less. Ya, well, wish me luck.
My extensive list include: VW Jetta TDI, :surprise:
(I like the Jetta, but I would like other companies to get in the game)
And this brings us to the frustrating part of all this. IS ANYONE LISTING?
I understand that a company does not want to show it’s hand and revealing intent. I realize that until ULSD in the norm in the US that most companies will not sell there diesels in the US. But, it would be nice to know that maybe some if not all of the major auto makers around the world are gather information from sites like this and getting a feel for what people want. Or is it just us few who babble amongst our selves?
As stated in other post: Maybe the new model year will bring us more diesel choices, but I hate to wait 10 months to find no one was listening.
Forgive my rant, I just had to get it out.
John K
EVERY friend (I have) who has had the above minivan product in the USA (with gasser/automatic transmission) has had multiple automatic transmission failures. As a matter of fact if they only had 1 (ONE) failure that was counted as HIGHLY reliable!!!! All usually before 100,000 miles, so indeed 375,000 is like total reliability: the rock of Gibraltar!!!!
That is a real challenge. First off it has nothing to do with people wanting the superior diesel technology that the Europeans are able to buy. Every recent diesel offered in the US has been a big sales success. The Jeep CRD & the Mercedes E320 CDI all sold more than projected. VW TDIs have done well all along. ULSD will be here next year and from what the oil companies say 90% of the stations will be switched by 6/1/06. Here is the fly in the ointment. The EPA has a new higher emissions standard for all cars starting in 2007. The diesel cars will have to pass those tests to be sold in any state. BMW, VW, Ford & MB all claim they can meet that standard. Honda says they are working on it. So it is anyone's guess.
Hmmm, I guess I'm not counted as one of your friends. ;-)
We have not one but two Dodge GCs, one with 100,996 on the clock (I happened to notice that this morning when I was getting out of the car) and the other ~54,000 miles. So far at least, there have only been four unscheduled maintenance/repair events combined on the two vans. Said unscheduled events has cost us just under a total of $300 (half of which was a new Sears DieHard for each van), so obviously that means that both vans are running around on their original transmission.
All of that having been said, if they had been offered with a manual transmission both would have been bought that way, and if a decently powerful diesel engine had been an option, it too would have been selected with joy.
Best Regards,
Shipo
I sort of knew that anyway I phrased this, it would spark some humor!
But yeah knock on wood! I really do not wish the hassles my buds have told me about on the DC mini vans!!!
Actually one of my business associates (recently) bought a USED DC mini van with 90 k something on the clock. I kind of looked at her sideways before she bought the thing and she asked; so I did tell and she did buy and less than 5k later....GEEZ!!! you guessed it: TRANNY went DOWN......... my lower lip is blood red from not mouthing the words ITYS!!!!
FWIW, I've been keeping an eye on the DC transmission issue, and it seems that the vast majority of failures that I've been able to review have been on vehicles that had the transmission serviced by someone other than the dealer, and filled with something other than the proper synthetic Mopar transmission fluid. These other servicing institutions always claim that they have an additive that makes Dextron fluid "compatible", however, given the number of failures that always seem to happen say 5,000 miles after they've been serviced, I don't believe it for a minute.
Hmmm, 5,000 miles, where have I seen that number just recently...
"...so I did tell and she did buy and less than 5k later....GEEZ!!! you guessed it: TRANNY went DOWN......... my lower lip is blood red from not mouthing the words ITYS!!!!"
Yup, that was it. The odds on bet is that the van your business associate bought had just had the transmission serviced with the wrong fluid. :-/
Best Regards,
Shipo
Got me there! I didn't do a CSI.
Of the transmission failures that I've had a chance to review, very few were due to lack of maintenance (just wrong maintenance). That having been said, with a pan drop, a filter swap and top off of fluid (about a gallon) being recommended every 30K miles, if this 90K van hadn't ever had it done, then a failure wouldn't be too surprising.
Best Regards,
Shipo
The other thing is some of it is truly the luck of the draw, or as some would say reliability of the product line. I have an across the street neighbor who is a FORD product kind of guy. USES even Motorcraft oil! Factory automatic tranny fluid. He just recently had HIS auto tranny go out. WHAT A NIGHTMARE!!
When he looks across the street and sees me doing 15,000 mile OCI's up to 25,000 oci's with Mobil One oil I am sure he shakes his head. However he and I both help each other when it comes to these things so....hes seen mine up close and very personal. He has had a litnany of problems with his FORD products over the years and he is one of the most fastidious car maintenance types I have ever met.
After the merger, Daimler helped Chrysler solve the minivan trans issues and those built 2002 and after are doing quite well, so I have been told.
My wife has a 1998 Concorde. Trans has been perfect. Service every 15K. Had the dealer modify the trans controller to firm up the shifts a little bit. Real slick shifting.
Way too much maintainance for me! And I understand cars probably better than 95% of folks.
I consider 30k fluid changes on my Toyota Landcruiser's far too much.
Considering that drive trains are not as stout as they use to be, I am talking 60's stout, the increased frequency in servicing is mandatory in my view. Transmissions are smaller now and do the work of what was once a larger unit. There is more heat stuffed into a smaller package. Trans cooling is only marginal at best in any vehicle made these days. The fluids are barely keeping up with the new designs they are suppose to protect. Once, trans fluids are fully synthetic, then I will extend the drain interval to the full 30K. As far as I know ATF+4 is semi-synthetic.
However when it comes to (my) vehicles, the emphasis really has not changed much. GET THE MOST BANG FOR THE BUCK. To me, currently that is (given this thread)getting 500,000 to 1M miles from my VW TDI JETTA. SO imagine my delight when I can run my TDI with Mobil One Truck & Suv 5w40 at 25,000 mile OCI's!!!???.
Can we do that in a hybrid?
Not for me to say HELL NO!?
Why is this good for THE "system"? UPSHOT! Much less use of resources!!! So as an example, if I did 3k OCI's that is 8.3333x's .... ok 9 x's more product. So if I use 1 gal: the use is really 9 gals. So which is more/less over say 1M miles 334 gals or 40 gals???????
Again if I get 37% better(diesel) fuel mileage than a gasser, even if the gasser gets say 60 mpg, a similar purpose built diesel will get 82.2 mpg!! Diesel also takes less upstream resources to refine. It can also USE downstream WASTE resources (yes oxymoronic language) to burn!!!: unlike a gasser which CAN NOT!! So not only is it cheaper but the over all nexus is it really uses a whole lot less resources. So again if I get 44 mpg with a hybrid and 37% more with a diesel which is more/less 22,727 gals or 16,667 gals?
I am off the soap box now.
So while there is some educational utility to talk about this, the upshot is while the hybrid or anti diesel folks croon on about using less resources, I am very unceremoniously actually USING LESS... a min of 37% to 9 x LESS. As is often the case the folks that are actually walking the walk are the ones being vilified by those that only talk the talk.
That's 4.38 cents per mile.
Have you spent less per mile on fuel in the last 16 months?
Oh, and along the way, I have put far less pollution into the air than anyone driving a Jetta TDI for the last 16 months.
Oh, and also along the way, I have changed the oil 4 times myself, and spent $78 for a 15K maint check at the dealer. Figure $25 for each oil change, and that puts me at
5.2 cents per mile, fuel and maintenance, in 16 months.
No bi annual smog check is due after the initial 4 year old period, nor 10 year smog only smog check.
You also got me beat in the premium dept (7K or so)
At a similar mileage (of 20,767), I am once again afraid you beat me. .0337506 cents. But I should be more competitive after the thing actually breaks in at 60,000 miles, where mpg will be way better!
One of the dumbest things I have ever done was to sell a TLC with app 250,000 miles (at the 14 year mark) that easily had 25 years left of structural intergrity, The nexus here is it does not have the galvanized metal such as the VW HAS!! I got the car for 16k and sold it for 9k. So the cost to own was 7000/14=500 per year/12=41.67 per mo. If they had let in the diesel version, I'd probably still be driving it around. Oh well.
Not so great....but I do love the fact that the low maintenance and low fuel requirements are helping in a big way reduce it as much as possible....
You know I am glad you said this, for really we agree. I also think your quote is what it is all about. But then I have been saying this all along.
Not to hammer home the diesel point, but it is absolutely ROUTINE for diesel trucks to have 1M plus miles !!! A lot of Long DEE trucks do like 500 per day 11,000 per mo or 132,000 miles per year. I am not a LONG D trucker, so I am SWAG ging here.
Now if VW can overcome their reliability issues, they do have the quality in spades. On the Mercedes, I would agree with your characterization of over priced. While I do like the handling etc of the MB E320, 52k for a commute car makes no sense even if it is a diesel. Or a /gasser/diesel hybrid for that matter. Compared to the Honda Civic, that is over 4x's the price.
me: well I guess your frugality is saving gas for the many of us who like to have fun cars, regardless of the mpg. Thank you.
I am sure you also are familar with Edmunds.com's information offering of TCO "total cost of ownership tables "for each vehicle?
http://www.edmunds.com/new/2005/toyota/prius/100454051/cto.html?tid=edmunds.n.researchland- ing.leftsidenav..4.Toyota*
Both the IRS data and the TCO data do really indicate that per mile, driving a car is HORRIDLY expensive. So for planning purposes it is VERY useful.
Arctic weather
So I take it blaming the oil company's isnt working anymore eh?
Lord knows we have plenty of them. One big positive for the Caribou up here. They like to get on the man made gravel pads & roads. It gives them some relief from the zillions of mosquitoes on the tundra.
i told my wife yesterday that we save about 15 cents per mile when she drives our TDI instead of our xc90. but of course, we're spending about 47 cents to save each 15 cents!
5.2 cents per mile for TOTAL FUEL AND MAINTENANCE COSTS ONLY
52 cents per mile with Maint, Insurance, and car payments included.
Sorry for the decimal confusion.... :shades:
http://tinyurl.com/9bc3m
The other tidbit is rather neat. While in the supper market with the wife, I happened across the 2006 CR magazine that talks about 260 models on the front cover. While looking at certain specs about the Prius and my Jeep Liberty CRD, I ended up doing several double takes. In a post either here or elsewhere, there had been a small discussion about braking distances. Looks like the 4300+ pound CRD beats the 2800 pound Prius 140 ft versus 143 feet from 60 - 0 mph. It is in print. CR also complained about the Prius having numb steering and issues with the MFD, but did not go into detail about either.