Diesels kicking A@$

[tekebird]

as of 11:40 EST

top 6 pos. in the 24 hours of Lemans are all Diesels

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

I'm with ya Doug..

I have following Lamans on Speed Channel just about all night.

Nick-

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

AUDI TDI Diesel Power wins..

Nick-

[compedgemarine]

and I am willing to bet that all the diesels running were based on the european version that are not allowed here. the stuff they get to play with over there is so far ahead of ours thanks to beaurocratic BS. back when I worked on a Trans Am series car we got stuck racing against the audi quatros. the good ol small block chevy in our corvette would kick there butts on the straights but with all wheel drive the audi's barely slowed for the turns. made for quite a battle.
steve

[TomC]

Talking about Diesels in cars, last night I went on line to Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Mini UK (England) so I could read it.  All of the listed car manufacturers made Diesels for their cars on every model they offered, except for the really high performance ones.  Chevrolet only offered Diesels on their two largest cars.  Even the Chrysler 300 had a V-6 Diesel offered.  I am getting really sick and tired of our American car manufacturers not bringing in these Diesel cars that will get 40-60 mpg.  Europe actually has more stringent smog laws, but their requirements are different than ours making just sending the cars over a difficult story.  Also-Toyota and Nissan also had Diesels.  I read recently that 65% of all BMW's sold in Europe were Diesels.  With the fact that the new Diesels are quiet, perform like gasoline cars, and with Blue Tec (urea injection in the exhaust) are about the cleanest engines on the planet, we could reduce our petroleum consumption with cars that get 30-40mpg rather than our gas guzzling 15-25mpg.  Good Luck,  TomC

[compedgemarine]

a few months ago popular mechanics did a comparison of the VW diesel that is sold in europe and the prius. the prius got close to around 45 mpg and the VW hit almost 55 mpg and produced fewer emissions than the prius. unfourtunatly VW is not allowed to import that model here. go figure. I guess the tree huggers dont like to read comparison reports.
steve

[tekebird]

Due out ion 2010, 2009 in Europe

VW jetta Diesel Hybrid................70mpg

[Jeremy]

What exactly are the American standards that Euro diesels cannot meet? It's hard to think of anything that fundamental that a state-of-the-art German or French-made engine couldn't be adjusted / modified to acheive. Or is it more of a covert import quota thing to protect domestic manufacturers?

Jeremy

[belfert]

Diesels got a bad rap in America back in the early 80s when GM introduced a very, very bad diesel engine in passenger cars.  That along with dirty diesel semis has created a bad image for diesel autos in America.

Just as big an issue for diesel vehicles is the price premium for diesel fuel.  Today, diesel is 70 cents more than expensive than gasoline.  A diesel car has to be 20% more efficient just to voer the diesel fuel price premium.

The final straw is the extra $1,000 to $2,000 upfront cost for a diesel engine in a passenger car.

I have a VW TDI Golf that is diesel and I love it.  Not sure the price premium I paid is worth it though.  I paid close to $18,000 new in 2003.  A gasoline car like a Honda Fit that gets almost the same mileage is maybe $16,000 new.