Posted on 12/30/2007 8:51:21 AM PST by saganite
Merging with northbound traffic on Interstate 75 just outside Auburn Hills, Mich., I punch the accelerator, quickly swing left into the passing lane and pull forcefully ahead of the cars around me. In any other ride, on any other gray morning, it’d be just another Interstate moment. But this rush hour, I’m behind the wheel of a preproduction 2009 Volkswagen Jetta, which is powered by a 2.0-liter turbo-charged, direct-injected diesel engine that, even as I leave the speed limit in tatters, is averaging nearly 50 mpg. Equally important, what’s coming out of the tailpipe is no dirtier than the emissions from the 35-mpg econoboxes I can now see in my rearview mirror. Speed, fuel efficiency and minimal emissions? These aren’t characteristics usually associated with diesel-powered vehicles. But they will be.
Most Americans have a bad impression of diesel cars. We think of them as loud, hard to start and foul-smelling. We sneer at them for lacking the get-up-and-go of their gasoline-powered cousins. And we dislike them for their perceived environmental sins, chiefly the polluting brew of sulfur and nitrogen compounds that they emit into the atmosphere. All those complaints were fair a generation ago, when the twin energy crises of the 1970s propelled diesels into national popularity and kept them there for a decade. Back then, many drivers ignored diesel’s faults, or were unaware of them, because diesel cars ran 30 percent farther on a gallon of fuel than similar gasoline-powered cars. It felt savvy to buy a diesel, even daring. Then fuel prices dropped in the mid-1980s, and drivers abandoned their clattering, odoriferous fuel sippers. They went back to gasoline.
Today, diesel powertrains are on the map again, for both car manufacturers and efficiency-minded drivers. The technology could be here to stay, even if fuel prices (improbably) decline. .
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
But that's only because they're loud, hard to start, and foul-smelling.
My diesel car is loud. It’s not really hard to start or foul-smelling, but that’s a personal preference, I suppose.
But my car is 22 years old.
The new diesel cars are not any of those things.
there’s not much difference in price today between diesel and gasoline
Watch Congress come up with a way to further handicap diesels. You read it here first.
Also it is harder to get a Diesel to burn other fuels than it is to get a gas engine to burn propane, ethanol etc.
An engine that can burn anything is the way we need to go, and as far as I know only a handful of Military Diesel Tanks were Omnivorous.
These folks have the solution: www.flexdi.com
Now if they can only get it run in HCCI mode....
An Omnivorous HCCI engine running at a constant RPM in a Series Hybrid like the Chevy Volt is the solution....
You may be right, but my money is on diesel engines and LED lighting for future stock growth.
So why not a diesel hybrid?
I recently replaced my gas-powered 454 1-ton GMC crew cab dually with the same size Chev dually powered by a Duramax Diesel. Mileage has improved, both towing and not towing, by 70%. The Duramax will pay for itself in 3 years with the savings, and the power hauling up long grades is awesome.
FYI
I’ll have to disagree with you on that one!
Try this:
I saw LED Christmas lights this year.
True, but we can make Bio-diesel and do it without federal subsidies and you do go about 30% further on a gal of fuel if not more. Todays diesels are quiet, don't smoke, live three time longer than a gas engine and run like a bat out of hell. Plus you save a bunch on fuel and bio-diesel in the long run will deduce the cost of all fuel.
Explanation please.
Here in CA, diesel has commonly been $0.30 higher than gas at the pump. My new 1/2 ton crewcab 4x4 Silverado would have cost me several $thou more with the diesel option.
On the bright side, GM is coming out with a smaller, yet still very powerfull diesel for their 1/2 tons and vans. I may take another look at these in a couple years.
You gotta be kidding.
The diesel engine was designed to run on peanut oil.
It's much easier to run alternative fuels in a diesel engine than in a spark ignition engine.
Our Christmas tree and most of our other ornamental lights are LEDs. I’m interested to see the electric bill. The outside C9 bulbs were pulling 300watts. The LEDs are probably 3watts at most, they’re not as bright but still look good as they don’t lose their color, don’t scratch, and are shock and break resistant.
You have to add a plug to get it burn Propane. The military is working on Spark Ignited Heavy Fuel engines to meet the 2010 one fuel requirement, they were gasoline engines 1st. As far as I know running gasoline or any ethanol type fuel is a no go as well in a diesel as well.
IMHO versatility will be the key in the future, it will not be the price of the fuel, but if you can get it and burn it.
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