Biodiesel on Car Talk 2/19/2005

midmitvguy · February 19th, 2005, 12:59

Hey anybody checkout the caller from CA about getting a car to run biodiesel in?

dieseldorf · February 19th, 2005, 13:14

Yep, a female listener from Berkley wanting to buy an old Mercedes 2 seater and run it on bioDiesel and be able to use the HOV lanes on the highway. She referred to the car as a "450SEL" (V8, LWB, passenger gasser sedan). She thought is was a 2 seater...Oh, well.

Minor problem: Mercedes Benz didn't produce the 450SL (2 seater conv.) with a diesel engine.

Not quite sure why the boneheads didn't/couldn't set her straight on this oversight.

Thunderstruck · February 19th, 2005, 16:56

You know the creative types..just because MB didn't make a car in that configuration doesn't mean someone didn't roll their own.

Brian24 · February 19th, 2005, 18:30

The caller also seemed to have a common misunderstanding about biodiesel. Many people don't understand there is a difference between biodiesel and straight vegetable oil. She talked about "converting" the vehicle to run on bio. Of course only straight vegetable oil requires a vehicle conversion. Bio doesn't (except for fuel hoses on some older vehicles).
I have run into this before. It could be hurting the aceptance as people don't want to hassle with a conversion to run bio.

McBrew · February 19th, 2005, 22:10

Geez... 450SEL is, as dieseldorf stated, a big sedan -- with a 4.5 liter V8 engine (unless it was the rare 5.0 liter or the very rare 6.9 liter). She probably meant either the 450SL was the two-seater convertable, or the 450SLC coupe. Both of which are also gassers, of course.

I only heard the end of car talk this morning... they didn't pick up on her error?

jkeller · February 20th, 2005, 11:38

No. It was pathetic. They just went right along with her... "oh yeah, great car, you should get one"

And they really screwed up on the Bio vs. SVO/WVO thing. I almost ran off the road yelling at the radio...

whitedog · February 20th, 2005, 17:34

Quote:

I almost ran off the road yelling at the radio...

And Click and Clack are very vocal opponents of Cell phones in cars. It's funny that their show can cause people to have violent reactions when listening to them, thereby causing a hazard. That is the reason I quit listening to them. I would get ticked off at them and become a hazard while driving. And it's not good for my blood pressure.

Bio-Beetle · February 20th, 2005, 21:33

I listened to it and thought it was nothing special.

You can listen to the show on-line at http://www.cartalk.com and notice that they have a link about biodiesel on their home page that takes you to http://www.cartalk.com/content/eco/f...tml#biodiesel. At least they're not anti-biodiesel

tadc · February 24th, 2005, 19:17

Typical Car Talk ignorance. That show ought to run a disclaimer... "Warning, for entertainment purposes only"

ericy · February 24th, 2005, 20:34

Quote:

Typical Car Talk ignorance. That show ought to run a disclaimer... "Warning, for entertainment purposes only"

I suppose we could all write in and complain. If you start out the letter with "Dear Knucklehead" they might even read it on the air

.

wheels · February 25th, 2005, 08:06

I wrote to ***** about their biodiesel section and the tree hugging factor crap. I checked again this week and it seems to have been updated (tree hugging factor is still there but the page looks different and has more info, I think. Can anyone confirm or is my ego writin' checks the facts can't support?

ericy · February 25th, 2005, 13:13

Quote:

I wrote to ***** about their biodiesel section and the tree hugging factor crap. I checked again this week and it seems to have been updated (tree hugging factor is still there but the page looks different and has more info, I think. Can anyone confirm or is my ego writin' checks the facts can't support?

I looked yesterday, and I did notice the biodiesel section. More than I was expecting, I guess.

What I would still love is a short paragraph that explains the difference between BD and SVO. This has to be close to the top of the list of misconceptions about BD that people have. It doesn't need to be complicated - just enough so that people understand that they cannot go out and get 5 gallons of oil from KFC and dump it in the tank (or more precisely that they need to modify their vehicle if they want to do this).