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To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (169531)12/6/2008 6:00:11 PM
From: neolibRead Replies (1) | Respond to of 306849
 
As I pointed out, gasoline fueled cars can be very fuel economical as well. Its just if you want the last 10% that you need diesel. The low hanging fruit is easily picked by going from a gasoline powered 6000lb GVW SUV to a gasoline powered 2000lb small car. No complex drive trains needed.



To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (169531)12/6/2008 6:38:47 PM
From: Peter VRead Replies (3) | Respond to of 306849
 
Maybe if US consumers were able to obtain more cars like this one we'd have a more competitive supply of diesel, exporting less than we do now.

roadandtrack.com

BMW 335d

Like the story with most of today's clean diesels, this one exhibits excellent performance (gobs of low-end torque) and exceptional fuel economy. The aluminum-block powerplant, equipped with high-pressure direct fuel injection with piezoelectric injectors (also a feature of BMW's twin-turbo gasoline engines), produces 265 bhp at 3200 rpm and 425 lb.-ft. of torque at a low 1750. This translates to a 0–60-mph time of 6.0 seconds and a top speed of 131 mph, according to BMW. More important, it achieves an astounding 23/36 mpg city/highway, which puts it in the same fuel-economy league as many of today's subcompacts.

But it is hard to turn around the American consumer's distaste for diesel cars.

I had a diesel Rabbit and it was by far the worst car I ever owned, the engine was so loud at highway speeds you could not hear the radio, or carry on a conversation without almost shouting. At any engine speed, even idle, the thing vibrated like it was ready to fall apart. Numerous shops told me that it ran fine, they were all that way.

Hard to get that image out of most people's minds, even though modern diesels are nothing like that.

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