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 ...
Huh?!?
At least 80% of diesel produced for on-road use for the past year is Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel. If you look at a diesel pump, you will see a little sticker on it somewhere that looks like this:
I haven't seen the old diesel fuel anywhere on the West Coast since summer of 2006.
It’s a practical, utilitarian vehicle, and looks the part. I don’t think it’s as ugly as its sibling, the current CRV. At least the design is clean and simple, not weird and overstyled, like the late Pontiac Aztek. Personally, I like it, even the rubber (?) fenders. Some of us think stocky powerful things, like big trucks, locomotives, oxen, and A10 Warthogs are beautiful in their way.
I rented a 1.6L diesel VW Golf in Germany. It was as quick, if not quicker, and easy to drive as a gasoline car. Started immediately every time. At first I wasn’t even sure it was a diesel, until I rolled down the window at a stoplight, and yes, there was a little growl, barely perceptable. Otherwise, in no way was it “loud, hard to start, or foul smelling.” Just 50 mpg on the Autobahn.
I’ve talked to some mechanics about them in the mean time, the difference is electronics. The fuel and ignition control is fully electronic now; old style, (loud, hard to start, and foul smelling) diesel engines like in the 70s and 80s were mechanically controlled.
The engineering elegance of a modern diesel car is a far cry from the hokey double motor contraption of a hybrid. I’d put my money on a MODERN diesel any day.
Oh, and a diesel Golf at only 1.6 liters will do 125mph steady on the Autobahn.
FR bookmark
No it isn’t. Locomotives do not turn off when coasting.
Diesel fuel is very similar to kerosene, or, JP4 jet fuel.
THey haven’t figured out a good way to make diesels intant on-off capable. Hybrids turn the engines off when not needed and then turn them back on instantly when you press the accelerator down far.
Yes, but widespread adoption of diesels would threaten the ethanol racket, so I would expect farm-state Congresscritters to vote against pro-diesel measures.
Big deal. So the kerosene lamp is the great grandfather of the Jet engine?
The aelipyle is the great-great grandfather of the jet engine.
Yeah right. If that’s the case then a burning stick is the ancestor of the nuclear warhead.
Whatever.
WHat the heck is that
You should spend some time in Europe. There are diesel 5-series Beemers and Benzes over there. They don't smell, don't pollute, are faster than many gasoline engines over here.
BTW, I'm not a Greenie nor a CAFE advocate. My AC Cobra:
aeolipyle, aeolipile
n. first steam engine, with globe made to revolve by steam jets, described in 1st century AD.
Seriously, I wish someone could make a Cobra (a factory product, not a kit car) with a modern engine. Or something like a Jap XKE. I bet it would sell. But nanny govt. wouldn't allow it because it wouldn't pass bumper and crash tests, I guess.
That one I agree with. Heron was THIS CLOSE to kicking off the industrial revolution in the 1st century AD.......
You got that right brother. Great minds think alike. Look at the retro crap coming out of Auburn Hills, Detroit...
These would sell like hotcakes:
I think Ford just announced a Steve McQueen Bullitt Mustang that sorta looks like his GT350-ish car from the movie.
Close but no cigar.
A lot of companies are working on this, I’m looking at a U.S. company called CREE.
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