Auto industry about to go diesel crazy

scdevon

Veteran Member
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Jan 19, 2011
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USA
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This is good to see. Now we need to stop the a$$ rape price differential between a gallon of gasoline and a gallon of diesel fuel.

My only concern is that the engineering differences between gas and diesel engines is becoming increasingly blurred. Some gas engines are up in the 14:1 compression ratio range with no detonation problems thanks to advanced engine management software. Gas engines are also direct injected now as well. You could almost call the new generation of gas engines "semi-diesels" due to high compression ratios and direct injection.
 

mdp

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They make it sound as though the Beetle TDI will be something new. I thought there was a diesel Beetle around the time I bought my '06 Jetta.
 

coalminer16

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Central Wisconsin
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Yes the beetle was sold in diesel but then stopped offering it once they stopped with the BEW engines. No common rail engine in there yet. As much as I would like to see the other makers with diesels I have to see it to believe it. It seems that there is always this sort of talk and then rules are changed with air quality and they they have to retool or they can't get there engines to make the air quality in the first place. I am hoping though.
 

RNDDUDE

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A lot of internet squawk about the Chevy Cruize diesel that is coming out soon....IF they do it right, it could do wonders for the general public's perception/acceptance of oilers. The Gas Cruize is currently the best selling car in the US...
 

eb2143

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Still waiting for a light duty diesel pickup with a MT...
Friend just got rid of his Nissan Frontier because the V6 sucks gas apparently, said he couldn't get better than 18 mpg on mostly highway trips and averaged 15 overall.
 

mdp

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A lot of internet squawk about the Chevy Cruize diesel that is coming out soon....IF they do it right, it could do wonders for the general public's perception/acceptance of oilers. The Gas Cruize is currently the best selling car in the US...
Wonder who's gonna make the deisel in the Cruze.
 

scrubber

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"An avalanche of clean diesels coming into the market," should boost diesel vehicle sales, said Lars Ullrich,

what's the drummer for Metallica know about cars?
 
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VeeDubTDI

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Still waiting for a light duty diesel pickup with a MT...
Friend just got rid of his Nissan Frontier because the V6 sucks gas apparently, said he couldn't get better than 18 mpg on mostly highway trips and averaged 15 overall.
That's worse than my big V8 turbodiesel-powered 1-ton American lump of iron with an automatic transmission. :eek:

How did Nissan accomplish such catastrophically bad fuel economy? :confused:
 

eb2143

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That's worse than my big V8 turbodiesel-powered 1-ton American lump of iron with an automatic transmission. :eek:

How did Nissan accomplish such catastrophically bad fuel economy? :confused:
I don't know, I was wondering that myself! I was sort of doubting it, so I looked online and found that Edmunds.com averaged 15 mpg overall on their long term Frontier.

He replaced it with a 2000 second gen Range Rover with a Rover V8 and says he gets 2 mpg better....LOL.
 

TDIMeister

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Any gasoline engine that is called upon a duty-cycle often near full-load (e.g. towing) will get very bad fuel economy because of the fuel enrichment beyond stoichiometric that is required. Direct injection reduces this requirement but I have not seen implementations of vehicles that eliminate it.

Bad fuel economy on just normal highway cruising - minus the effects of speed and driving habits - would point to any one or more of poor choice of gear ratios, heavy weight, high engine- and driveline friction, crappy aerodynamics or lousy base engine development.
 

tikal

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Southeast Texas
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Do you folks think CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards has anything to do with the potential of seeing a few more light duty diesel cars in North America?

At this point I am not pro/against CAFE more stringent standards but wanted to get a poll of what forum members think.

I think ultimately the gradual increase of average fuel prices will push for more efficient transportation technology in the North American continent.
 

coalminer16

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I do thank you TDImeister for these articles. I don't mean to come off wrong in my posts as I would LOVE more diesels here. I wouldn't touch a gasser ever again if I could help it but they don't make many push mowers and motorcycles with diesels yet even though my rider mower is diesel.
 

vdubdezl

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FL
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Still waiting for a light duty diesel pickup with a MT...
Friend just got rid of his Nissan Frontier because the V6 sucks gas apparently, said he couldn't get better than 18 mpg on mostly highway trips and averaged 15 overall.
Sold mine about 4.5 years ago to get my first TDI. The fuel milage on my 02 4dr longbed(6 ft) went down from 20 MPG to 16 when the timing belt was a little past due(didn't know.) changed it and it went back up to the 20. Loved every thing about the truck except the fuel milage. I was tempted to swap it for a 3.9 cummins before I got rid of it. BUT back to the original thread!;) Competition breeds lower prices! I'm still hoping one day we can have a 4dr pickup that can get 30-35mpg!!
 

wolfskin

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Timisoara/Romania
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Skoda Fabia Combi TDI
Funny that, just when Europe is slowly turning back towards gassers, albeit turboed and direct-injected etc...

Gotta say, if the new crop of gassers mature as well as they promise, and the diesel guys continue to rely on a ton of emmisions cleaning equipment, the scales will tip in a few years...
 

kjclow

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The tacoma V6 is not far off from the nissan mileage. That was the single biggest reason why I did not replace my avalanche with a toyota or nissan crewcab in 2005. I didn't like putting in over $50 of gas a week. Today it would be over $100.

I like all the comments from Cadilac, Mazda, and Dodge. Parapharsing: "Yes, we want to talk about diesels but will give no firm commitment on availibility so we can still back out."
 

VeeDubTDI

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Don't worry, the DI gassers will have exhaust scrubbers just like the diesels very soon.
 

Thunderstruck

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Chicago
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It kind of depends which way they go though-are they making engines solely for fuel economy, or trying for max horsepower? While the Ford Ecoboost engine produces good hp and torque numbers for a V6, you have to wonder about how much can fail on a direct injection twin turbo motor. Unless the costs of hybrid can be significantly reduced to match diesel, diesel is the only logical choice to hit CAFE numbers.
 

VeeDubTDI

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Ford has shown the incredible durability and longevity of the V6 EcoBoost. They torture tested one and did a live tear-down at the NAIAS last year... very impressive.
 

01greenjetta

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Thunderstruck,

Ever tried E85 in that thing? I bet with the turbo it would kick ass on E85, you may even get better mileage than straight gas.
 
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TDIMeister

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Highly doubtful as E85 has only about 75% of the BTU of gasoline. An engine has to be 33% more efficient (BSFC) on the aggregate to get better road MPG on E85 than on gasoline.
 

VeeDubTDI

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No way anything gets better mileage on E85 than on regular gas. No way, no how.
 

01greenjetta

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Highly doubtful as E85 has only about 75% of the BTU of gasoline. An engine has to be 33% more efficient (BSFC) on the aggregate to get better road MPG on E85 than on gasoline.
With high compression and/or boost you can get better fuel mileage on E85 because it is a lighter fuel and you can get a more powerful combustion if the motor is optimized for it. That said, I'm talking about RUG, a motor with high compression/boost will not run on RUG.

I know this is OT, but I've been on www.e85forum.net and www.jeepforum.com and have talked to people getting better mileage on E85 than RUG. Of coarse they have to carry around a can of octane boost or race gas on long trips to avoid getting caught with no place to fuel up.
 

tdipoet

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hooksett, nh
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'11 Jetta TDI
i submit to you that a rav4 with a diesel engine that can get 35-40mpg would sell faster than they can be made.
 
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