car Talk guys get it wrong

betr'ntractors · February 25th, 2006, 21:29

so anyone hear car talk on NPR today (sat, feb 25)??
one of the last callers was a guy from portland OR calling to say that his wife was driving a subaru wagon and he was looking for a AWD wagon diesel because he wanted to try using biodiesel.
Sounds kinda familiar to what i've been wishing and hearing about on fred's for years and years. I waited to get my 96 to see if they'd offer 4motion/quattro, but to no avail.
so click and clack recommend the jetta wagon tdi, which is surprising since they hate VWs for some reason, but then they go off about how with biodiesel there are extra tanks and you have to stop and start on reg diesel, basically they got it wrong and think bio is WVO. I couldn't believe it... on national radio too!
the guy listening didn't really say much (which makes me think he didn't know much about diesel/bio./wvo), but my impression is that he suddenly started erroneously thinking it was too much trouble. i'm gonna call car talk (doug the old gray mare lives on the other side of the notch from me) and try an knock some sense into em.
oi.

bioTDInBENZ · February 26th, 2006, 21:13

Defenetly knock some sense into them! start up and shut down on diesel with biodiesel

what a couple of idiots. I guess we wont have another non-polluter since he is probably just going to stick with the subaru.

whitedog · February 26th, 2006, 21:23

Last time I checked there were a dozen posts on thier Bulletin Board about this, but that was yesterday, so there are probably at least that many more now.

whitedog · February 26th, 2006, 21:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by whitedog

Last time I checked there were a dozen posts on thier Bulletin Board about this, but that was yesterday, so there are probably at least that many more now.

Correction: There are nineteen posts about it if you count the one about John Deere using B2 when they ship tractors which of course, "has anything whatsoever to do with used cooking grease."

naturist · February 27th, 2006, 06:13

by 9 o'clock Monday morning, I counted 54 posts about it. Perhaps they'll get the word?

AutoUnionTypeC · February 27th, 2006, 07:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by betr'ntractors

so anyone hear car talk on NPR today (sat, feb 25)??
one of the last callers was a guy from portland OR calling to say that his wife was driving a subaru wagon and he was looking for a AWD wagon diesel because he wanted to try using biodiesel.
Sounds kinda familiar to what i've been wishing and hearing about on fred's for years and years. I waited to get my 96 to see if they'd offer 4motion/quattro, but to no avail.
so click and clack recommend the jetta wagon tdi, which is surprising since they hate VWs for some reason, but then they go off about how with biodiesel there are extra tanks and you have to stop and start on reg diesel, basically they got it wrong and think bio is WVO. I couldn't believe it... on national radio too!
the guy listening didn't really say much (which makes me think he didn't know much about diesel/bio./wvo), but my impression is that he suddenly started erroneously thinking it was too much trouble. i'm gonna call car talk (doug the old gray mare lives on the other side of the notch from me) and try an knock some sense into em.
oi.

Indeed, I heard it.

Seems like they were confusing grease with BioDiesel.

~edit~ Pardon, I see now I just repeated what you had said. I didn't recognize the initials WVO, my bad.

brewer13210 · February 27th, 2006, 07:37

I heard the show as well, and sent them an e-mail correcting their confusion of biodiesel and grease-cars. From the looks of their forum, it appears that every other NPR listener who knows anything about bioD has contacted them as well. I'll be interested to see if they make any corrections during the show this week.

Todd

GaGolfSup · February 27th, 2006, 09:23

Not only are they wrong about the biodiesel, but is the Jetta even available in AWD in the US?

compu_85 · February 27th, 2006, 09:50

Only 4Motion A4 cars available here were the Audi TT and the GTI 337

-Jason

bhtooefr · February 27th, 2006, 17:45

You can make a 4Motion Passat TDI, though.

There's one of those on these shores.

Yes, different platform.

Oh, and the R32 counts as a seperate model, and it's got 4Motion, right?

RareAir_Biofuel · March 2nd, 2006, 14:11

I fired off a message too-
way to go all that blasted Click 'n Clack, biodiesel's been around long enough for them to know how to use it. They're supposed to know everything under the sun, for Pete's sake.

eurowrx · March 8th, 2006, 17:12

Interesting since I am from Oregon and did a car talk show in Hood River
2 fridays ago about WVO and Biodiesel and complained that there is no
4wheel drive Diesels with manual transmission other than trucks here unless you import one from Canada or Europe but they have to be at least 20 years old. There are litterly 100's of diesel cars around the world but we can't have them. I was very close to getting a 1985 "third world " land Cruiser Diesel with a 4 sp but the wife (yes she drove a Subaru WRX
wagon) wanted "airbags" so we Sunday got a 2001 GMC Duramax. I was
going to convert it to grease (WVO) like my TDI and work truck (94
Cummins) but have found out about some Common Rail Problems
that make it risky to use grease. I have decided to by a processor
and make Biodiesel for it and the main tanks of the other 2 rigs. Of
course when cold weather hits I will have to blend but still it will
pay off in about 2 years with our usage and since my WVO supply
is secure and I filter more than I need, this will get me closer to
being "Fossil Fuel Free" which is my goal personally.Hopefully in a
short time, the bugs with Duramax will be worked out and I can kit
it too. Right now the kit is over 3,000 to do it right and a good
processor is 2,500. Greasel seems to be getting close.It was their
"tankless Kit " I used on my '94 Cummins which worked great and
with the tank I built, the whole thing was about 1,200.

bhtooefr · March 9th, 2006, 02:17

It would have been cheaper in the long run to take a Jetta, Golf, or New Beetle and have a 4Motion floor transplant done...

It would have been cheaper to buy a used 4Motion gasser Passat Wagon, and convert it to a Euro-spec TDI...

Turbosprezarka · March 9th, 2006, 03:19

HAHA! I heard the same episode while driving back from skiing that day (a tradition for me)....I couldn't believe it either, they had it so backwards...Still a good show though, I wonder if they ever received input to correct them?