Re: Driving Euro diesels from Audi, BMW, Chrysler, and Mini

On Sep 24, 11:17 pm, TFN wrote:
I have never understood why the car companies refuse to sell high
mileage cars in the USA. In Europe you can by a new E Class that gets
48 mpg highway, and 38 mpg combined. That's better than any car
currently sold in the US except the Pius.

They even make things like Diesel Chrysler minivans and Jeeps in the
US for the European market, that they won't sell in the home market.

Even something as seemingly fuel efficient as the Smart Car is
crippled for the US. The US version gets a combined 36 mpg, while in
Europe you can get a Diesel version that gets a combined 71 mpg.


Diesel fuel is more expensive than gas in the US -- usually even more
expensive than premium, by often up to 70 cents a gallon. Depends on
the time of year. Also, low-sulfur fuel was just required last year;
no diesel could meet the then-current Calif. standard and the now-
current national standard with the old high-sulfur diesel. Plus, the
US has particulate and NOx standards that are much more rigorous than
Europe does, and diesels make more of those two.

But Mercedes has a diesel, VW is introducing one, BMW is introducing
one. Honda promises one very soon.

It wasn't always this way. In 1987 you could buy a Honda Civic that
got an EPA combined rating of 54 mpg.


The EPA has changed its way of computing mpg several times. You can't
compare one 20 years ago with one now.

Why are the car companies screwing around with hybrids and other
complicated solutions, when the obvious answer could be on the road
tomorrow?

TFN

On Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:01:03 -0700, JD <jdblackwe...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

heav wrote:
On Sep 21, 12:31 pm, RF <R...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
 From Consumer Reports:

September 18, 2008
Driving Euro diesels from Audi, BMW, Chrysler, and
Mini
  More than half the cars sold in Europe are
high-mpg diesels. So given the opportunity to
sample four models directly from the Continent, we
hoped to find out if modern European diesels are
good enough to entice American drivers.

Small-displacement engines with big torque and
fuel economy numbers have long been considered
forbidden fruit to the U.S. market. With the
revised, ultra-low-sulfur fuel recently adopted in
the States, we are seeing a slow influx of
European diesel models reach our shores.
Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen have lead this wave
of new diesels, and several other automakers have
announced plans to bring more here.

So, what do we have to look forward to? We got a
taste last week by attending the annual
International Motor Press Association (IMPA) track
days at Pocono Raceway, where we piloted several
imported diesel models provided by Bosch. We
sampled four European-market diesel models: 2009
Audi A4 3.0 TDI Quattro, 2007 BMW 123d hatchback,
2007 Chrysler 300D, and 2008 Mini Cooper D. (Bosch
supplies some of the fuel injection and emissions
control equipment for these cars that allow them
to meet stringent air quality standards in Europe.
They say the cars could also be made 50-state
compliant in the U.S.)

In our review of the Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetec
diesel last year, we raved that its modern diesel
engine was not only clean, but also felt as smooth
and powerful as a gasoline engine. (Watch our
video road test.)

In driving the four European cars at IMPA, it is
clear that modern diesels are much smoother and
quieter than those engines Americans may remember
from the 1980s. But not all are as refined as gas
engines, or as that E320.

I was very impressed with the Audi A4 3.0 TDI.
This A4 has 236 hp and a whopping 369 lb-ft of
torque, giving it impressive acceleration. The car
was also quiet, relaxed, and refined in driving on
the street. It’s rated at a combined 36 mpg on the
European fuel economy test cycle. And several of
us came away from a lap around the road course
wearing wide smiles.

The Mini Cooper D gets impressive fuel economy
(rated at 60 mpg combined on the European fuel
economy test cycle). The Cooper D driven at Pocono
didn’t require as much shifting as our base Mini
Cooper with a manual transmission to stay in the
power band, but it had a notably gruff engine
sound. The same was true for the torquey and
entertaining BMW 123d hatchback, which was rated
at 45 mpg overall. Both the Mini and the BMW
included an auto-stop feature that shut the engine
off when the car was stopped to avoid wasting fuel
when idling.

  Bosch tells us the Chrysler 300D uses the same
3.0-liter V6 diesel engine as the Mercedes we
tested. It was plenty powerful in the Chrysler,
but not as smooth as in the Mercedes. (Also, we
smelled diesel fumes after making a U-turn,
whereas we couldn’t smell a thing in the Mercedes,
even with our nose near the tailpipe while it was
idling.) It’s rated at 35 mpg overall.

In the end, the lesson is that while modern
technology has dramatically reduced diesel
vibration and sluggishness, they aren’t as smooth
as the best gas engines. Powertrain noise and
vibration suppression are a combination of engine
design, noise reduction under hood, and engine
mounting technology. Nevertheless, the sacrifices
to drive a diesel are much smaller than they once
were, making the fuel economy improvements and
abundant torque all the more compelling.

Now if only diesel fuel prices were closer to
regular gasoline…

—Eric Evarts

Diesel engines put more carbon in the air per gallon burned because of
their higher btu content.  Financially, a gallon of diesel is about
the same as a gallon of gasoline, but carbon wise, the diesel has a
greater cost on the environment.

This is a case of twisted numbers. Yes, diesel puts out more carbon *per
gallon* but when you factor in the fuel economy relative to a similar
gasoline car the net carbon output is less *per mile driven*. Analogous
to this is the fact that my '92 Mercedes 300D costs $0.06/mile *less* to
drive on diesel @ $4.05/gal than my '05 Taurus burning $3.56/gal ULR. On
that basis even old tech diesels have a lower carbon footprint than
their gasoline powered brethren.

JD



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