Diesel vehicles coming to Canada in a big way

n1das

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tditom

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Great article! :cool: Hopefully this will trickle down to the USA.
...
The same vehicles are available in the US.

I doubt any automaker would send a diesel to Canada and not the US due to the relatively small market north of the border. That's why they keep referring to N America in the article, I suppose.
 

kjclow

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Great article! :cool: Hopefully this will trickle down to the USA.

I was bothered by this one comment:


Diesel fuel is very readily available in the USA, yet the myth of hard to find fuel continues. :(
Only the uninformed or blind drivers don't know that diesel is offered at most stations through out the US. In my 11 years of driving VW deisels, I've only run into a small area of northern Orlando where it was a challange to find diesel. Had to go to five different stations.

What surprised me the most about the article was to see that Canadians are still using a lot of horses! From the article: 92.7% gas, 2.9% diesel, and 0.3% hybrid passaenger vehicles. That leaves 4.1% of other, which must be horses, although I've only see the mounted Police in Vancouver and Toronto. I guess is you get far enough north, they could be using dogsleds.
 

kjclow

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If hybrinds are only 0.3%, I can't imagine LP even being that high. The article stated passenger vehicles, so busses don't count.
 

Tow-rig

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Cincinnati, OH
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Finding diesel has been a huge hassle for me: the station has none, or wrong kind, wrong sized nozzle, pump is broken, or out of fuel. Diesel is the step child of every gas station (pumps in back, hard to see, old tech, dont take credit cards, hard get to, etc).

On the road towing a large trailer, I get 10 mpg, so stops are frequent. And finding a station is always an adventure. I start looking for fuel when tank hits 1/3 full, so I have plenty of fuel to look in an unfamiliar areas (remember 10 mpg).

Complicating all this is fact that VW's GPS, wh/ID's diesel stations, is wrong 10-20% of time. When you are towing a large trailer wh/is not very maneuverable, these wild goose chases off the interstate into the wilds can be time consuming and extremely frustrating, and as you burn thru limited fuel, a bit scary.
 

Or Turbo Diesel

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Bicycles and motorcycles could be part of the "other" as well.

When traveling I have 2 ways to find diesel fuel. First I watch for truck stops as they usually have signs visible from the freeway and do through a lot of fuel. Next I get out the smart phone and look for diesel nearby. With the phone you can usually find a site to compare quality and price. I used to carry a small can of fuel, but with 600 - 800 mile range haven't seen the need anymore.
 

frugality

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Finding diesel has been a huge hassle for me: the station has none, or wrong kind, wrong sized nozzle, pump is broken, or out of fuel.
It may be an Ohio thing. I remember having a heck of a time finding diesel going through Toledo. Most stations didn't have diesel, and the ones that did.....as you mentioned.....were the old pumps along the side of the building. And being in less-than-desirable neighborhoods, they wouldn't turn on these pumps without pre-paying or leaving your credit card inside. I refuse to do that. I'm not leaving cash or my credit card with the attendant, and I don't buy a pre-paid amount -- I always fill to the top, wherever that is.

Most other places, including here in Michigan, the diesel nozzles are right alongside the other pumps, and they're almost always modern pay-at-the-pumps. Probably 1/3 or 1/2 of stations carry diesel.
 

NateTDI

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This is yet another reason for us to make Canada the 51st state. It's high time this happened.
 

993cc

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I'm still waiting for the Fiat Panda multijet 1.3 litre. Are you listening, Sergio?
 

Tow-rig

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The worst place so far has been New Jersey. I stopped at many stations w/diesel, all had wrong sized nozzle. I finally found fuel in PA, one state over, hardly convenient.

And you cant tell nozzle size from your vehicle. You have to pull up to the pump, check it out, then leave if it doesnt fit. All in all a royal PITA. Especially when you are driving out of your way to find the diesel station in the 1st place.

VW sells a nozzle "adapter" wh/I have now ordered. The fuel is often OK, the station was just too cheap to buy the updated nozzle after switching to low sulfur fuel.
 

Mike_04GolfTDI

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The worst place so far has been New Jersey. I stopped at many stations w/diesel, all had wrong sized nozzle. I finally found fuel in PA, one state over, hardly convenient.

And you cant tell nozzle size from your vehicle. You have to pull up to the pump, check it out, then leave if it doesnt fit. All in all a royal PITA. Especially when you are driving out of your way to find the diesel station in the 1st place.

VW sells a nozzle "adapter" wh/I have now ordered. The fuel is often OK, the station was just too cheap to buy the updated nozzle after switching to low sulfur fuel.
My TDI handles the giant nozzles meant for rigs... What nozzles are you talking about? Something bigger than that? Or does yours not have the large filler hole? Weird...
 

740GLE

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2009 and newer can only accept smaller sized filling nozels. There are "fingers" in the filler neck that prevent the large flow nozels of the big rigs. You can fill with a large nozzel (it's a game called just the tip) it's just it won't fit in all the way and you'll have a very high chance of over flowing.

Upside is we didn't have to worry about performing a ventectomy, removing the emissions recoverty stuff.
 

Mike_04GolfTDI

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2009 and newer can only accept smaller sized filling nozels. There are "fingers" in the filler neck that prevent the large flow nozels of the big rigs. You can fill with a large nozzel (it's a game called just the tip) it's just it won't fit in all the way and you'll have a very high chance of over flowing.

Upside is we didn't have to worry about performing a ventectomy, removing the emissions recoverty stuff.
What's the point of that? It's the same fuel coming out of the pump, right? ULSD is mandatory now, no?
 

bhtooefr

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The problem is that the high-flow nozzles send fuel out at a dangerously high rate.

And, all of those vehicles (although the trim levels are sometimes named differently, and we call the A6V the Jetta SportWagen still) are available here, too, as has been mentioned.
 

TheLongshot

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Burke, VA
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Jetta Wagon '03 Reflex Silver
The problem is that the high-flow nozzles send fuel out at a dangerously high rate.
Yeah, I hate filling my Jetta with a high rate nozzle, since I always have to baby it to make sure it doesn't massively overflow.

While I do like having the option, I can understand for the vast majority why you probably wouldn't want to encourage people to do that. Personally, I rarely come across pumps where I have to fill up from the firehose.
 

Mike_04GolfTDI

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Yeah, I hate filling my Jetta with a high rate nozzle, since I always have to baby it to make sure it doesn't massively overflow.

While I do like having the option, I can understand for the vast majority why you probably wouldn't want to encourage people to do that. Personally, I rarely come across pumps where I have to fill up from the firehose.
So on the pre-2009 models, you can use the high-flow nozzle if you want to, in case it is your only option. Of course you aren't going to use that one if you don't have to.

After 2009, they assumed everyone was too stupid to figure out which pump to use.

I'd rather have the option of the bigger nozzle, just in case I'm at a truck stop 500 miles from nowhere and that is the only way I'm going to get fuel. I guess a funnel could work.
 

Cogen Man

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Only the uninformed or blind drivers don't know that diesel is offered at most stations through out the US. In my 11 years of driving VW deisels, I've only run into a small area of northern Orlando where it was a challange to find diesel. Had to go to five different stations.

What surprised me the most about the article was to see that Canadians are still using a lot of horses! From the article: 92.7% gas, 2.9% diesel, and 0.3% hybrid passaenger vehicles. That leaves 4.1% of other, which must be horses, although I've only see the mounted Police in Vancouver and Toronto. I guess is you get far enough north, they could be using dogsleds.
Sorry but I gave up my dogsled for a snowmobile. But it's not a diesel. :eek::D
 

Hurricane Drew

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At a truck stop, the pump on the right side (for filling the smaller tank on the passenger side of the semi) is a smaller "car sized" nozzle. So, what I do is authorize the transaction, set the left pump on the ground, and fill the car with the right pump. Problem solved.
 

rme

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Georgia
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Why doesn't everyone just do a ventectomy on the filler openings. I did one on my 2004 and it's not a problem. Do you have Wal-Mart up in the northern part of the U.S.? Do a search on the Murphy USA website and it will tell you who has diesel and you can call ahead. I'm sure the other oil companies have diesel stations you can locate on them as well. Am I missing something here? Please speak up as I'm in the South and have never had problems finding diesel....
 

DnA Diesel

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no more...
Why doesn't everyone just do a ventectomy on the filler openings. I did one on my 2004 and it's not a problem. Do you have Wal-Mart up in the northern part of the U.S.? Do a search on the Murphy USA website and it will tell you who has diesel and you can call ahead. I'm sure the other oil companies have diesel stations you can locate on them as well. Am I missing something here? Please speak up as I'm in the South and have never had problems finding diesel....
The ventectomy only resolves the ease of topping off the tank without having to push in the tab on MkIV's and V's. The MY09+ have the same ULSD mis-fuelling restrictor plate as the 335d's....not my favourite piece of gear on the car, but at least Canadian fuel stations are pretty consistent with the proper diesel nozzles, and I have only had an issue with the large (truck) nozzle at...well, a truck stop.

Regards
D.
 

jvdm

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San Francisco
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Guess I'm glad to be in the San Francisco Bay area, there's diesel available everywhere and I noticed that when gas station get an overhaul they almost always add diesel now.
I filled up once using the truck nozzle (by accident) and although it does fit in the MK3 opening it wasn't fun! Trying to top off with such a thing is nearly impossible...
 

jbright

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Location
Indianapolis
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Why doesn't everyone just do a ventectomy on the filler openings. I did one on my 2004 and it's not a problem. Do you have Wal-Mart up in the northern part of the U.S.? Do a search on the Murphy USA website and it will tell you who has diesel and you can call ahead. I'm sure the other oil companies have diesel stations you can locate on them as well. Am I missing something here? Please speak up as I'm in the South and have never had problems finding diesel....
Diesel is everywhere here in Indiana. I've never had a problem finding it, even in the most remote parts of the Midwest.
 

bhtooefr

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The ventectomy only resolves the ease of topping off the tank without having to push in the tab on MkIV's and V's.
Mk4s and older. All Mk5s and 6s have the smaller filler neck that only accepts a car diesel nozzle or smaller, regardless of whether they're PD or CR. And, no vent to ectomize on those cars. ;)

The MY09+ have the same ULSD mis-fuelling restrictor plate as the 335d's....not my favourite piece of gear on the car, but at least Canadian fuel stations are pretty consistent with the proper diesel nozzles, and I have only had an issue with the large (truck) nozzle at...well, a truck stop.
Regards
D.
And, it's not a misfueling restrictor plate like BMW's - you can put a gas-sized nozzle in a Mk5+, whereas you can't in a 335d. However, both VW and BMW offer adapters that will go in the filler neck and allow any size nozzle, even a high-flow truck one (or, on the BMW, a gasoline-sized one), to work.
 

dubStrom

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Great article! :cool: Hopefully this will trickle down to the USA.

I was bothered by this one comment:


Diesel fuel is very readily available in the USA, yet the myth of hard to find fuel continues. :(
Sooooo true. One of my colleagues, has a Ph.D. grew up in Los Alamos NM where her Dad was a nuclear ('nukular") scientist, and yet, when I suggested to her that she replace her ailing Escort wagon with a JSW, she asked me "Where do you get diesel?".

Gee.
 

LuckyBob

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Ontario
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No Thanks

This is yet another reason for us to make Canada the 51st state. It's high time this happened.
There's 34 Million people who would disagree with you on that. I think it would make more sense to make the US our 11th province since it's as small as one. If you're still into world domination you can have Mexico.

:rolleyes:
 

jbright

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I think it would make more sense to make the US our 11th province since it's as small as one.
Canada -- 3,855,100 square miles
US -- 3,717,813 square miles

Not sure what you meant by "small". Just doing the math, that's all. Geography was my favorite subject.
 

agdtec

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Aug 30, 2005
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Beverly area of Chicago SW side
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VW Golf 2000 blk
Finding diesel has been a huge hassle for me: the station has none, or wrong kind, wrong sized nozzle, pump is broken, or out of fuel. Diesel is the step child of every gas station (pumps in back, hard to see, old tech, dont take credit cards, hard get to, etc).

Complicating all this is fact that VW's GPS, wh/ID's diesel stations, is wrong 10-20% of time. When you are towing a large trailer wh/is not very maneuverable, these wild goose chases off the interstate into the wilds can be time consuming and extremely frustrating, and as you burn thru limited fuel, a bit scary.
When I am in unfamiliar area and looking for fuel I use my Gass Buddy app and Yellow Pages app to look for deisel prices and lokations near my present location have had very few incidents of wild goose chases. if there is a price for deisel its going to be there. As far as the deisel being located far away from the other pumps or not taking cards at the pump, it just goes with owning a deisel, we don't get any respect.
 

DnA Diesel

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Location
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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no more...
Mk4s and older. All Mk5s and 6s have the smaller filler neck that only accepts a car diesel nozzle or smaller, regardless of whether they're PD or CR. And, no vent to ectomize on those cars. ;)
And, it's not a misfueling restrictor plate like BMW's - you can put a gas-sized nozzle in a Mk5+, whereas you can't in a 335d. However, both VW and BMW offer adapters that will go in the filler neck and allow any size nozzle, even a high-flow truck one (or, on the BMW, a gasoline-sized one), to work.
bhtooefr, didn't know that...you mean you can stick a smaller unleaded nozzle in Mk5/6 TDI's? Then why put the restrictor plate in? The guy at the local dealer I dropped by to pick up parts for Old Faithful (my 2K1) said it was to stop gasoline mis-fuelling. If it can't do that, why have it? :confused:
 
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