My girlfriend and I are looking at getting her a new car. We want something good on gas. Very good in fact. So we have looked at a bunch of different vehicles. But when we were shopping around a question arose in my head. Where have all the diesels gone? We looked at smart cars for one. Starting this year in Canada they are straight gasoline. But before that they were all diesels. Then we went to Volkswagon. This is what shocked me the most. I asked what we could look at with a diesel. The salesman replied "nothing." I can't believe it. To me that is why you buy a Volkswagon. You buy it for the awesome diesel mileage and get a standard. So my question is, why can't you get diesels in small cars anymore? I know the price of diesel is higher, but it is worth it. Its a cleaner engine also. It boggles my mind.

Also, anybody know of any small diesels that I can look at?

 

Not sure of your location, if it is in Canada, but in the U.S. 5 states won't allow their sale including California, Masachusettes, Vermont, New York, and Maine. I guess this probably limits the overall sales of diesels in the U.S. Its hard enough building cars when you can't sell them in 3 of the most populous states.

Mercedes has Bluetec diesels in some SUV's and in the E series I think. But you're looking at $50k. I think the europeans will be forthcoming with more diesel cars since Mercedes is making the technology more readily available to them say Volkswagen, Audi but time will tell.

I'm pretty sure Jeep sells a Wrangler and possibly some other cars with diesel powerplants in Canada, and they sell the Grand Cherokee with an optional diesel in the US.

 

For the same price of diesel cars you can get a hybrid.

I love diesel's torque, but I would still rather have 48 mpg Prius than 45 mpg Jetta TDI since diesel is still more expensive. In Europe it's opposite, diesel is cheaper fuel there.

What's really popular in Serbia right now is natural gas. It cost few hundred euros to install it, but fuel economy is a lot better and natural gas is pretty cheap there.

 

I would love natural gas personally. I could just drive over to the nearest gas well, oh about 500 feet and fill 'er up. lol I do live in Texas ya'll. Oh and I am serious about the well, 3 of them on the next parcel of land. And more every month. Some small ranchers and rednecks are getting nice royalty checks for NG and Oil that have managed to hold onto the land for generations. Locally its good for building business though.

 

There are few problems with cars with natural gas.

Engine becomes so weak. My uncle in Serbia has a Volkswagen Passat from 1980's and he installed a natural gas system few years ago. I drove some pretty slow cars in my life (mostly Yugos), but that Passat was so weak. I had a feeling that it won't make it up hill.

Other problem is that gas really stinks during driving. I don't know if it was a poor installation or some other reason, but I pretty much needed a air freshener next to my nose all the time while driving that Passat.

 

lol xD the slowest car i ever drove was my friends sunburn that thing how no power and i bet my dads bronco 2 would of beat it lol

 

So what is the future. Hydrogen. Thats all I can see. I know its volatile. But good gosh we need something. Something as close as 5 years not 10 or 20 because this is getting ridiculous.

I just think that the disposal of all these hybrid batteries is worse than any CO2 emmissions. And ethanol is idiotic. Hey lets burn our food! At least corn based ethanol is. Perhaps the newer waste based ethanol made from stuff we don't need as promise provided it doesn't take more energy to produce than it yields.

 

We need something ASAP. We can't wait until 2015 or whenever for 35 mpg.


That Scion xB which I used to laugh at because it was so ugly looks so good now with 32/38 mpg.

 

What the hell am I gonna use to transport my family of 7? Two Toyota Priuses? I guess a tree hugger would say thats my problem for being irresponsible to the earth and having more than 1 child.

 

F-150 should be able to fit 7 people.

 

Actually I can only legally get 5. I've got the console front seat even though I wanted front bench none were available in crew cab and I didn't want to wait. No my wife drives the Expedition EL and hauls the kids or we all go in that. I call it the land yacht.

 

I can't believe how cheap full size cars are these days.

My buddy is looking to buy a car and one dealer had few used Mercurys on the lot. 2006 Montego Premier w/ 28,000 miles for $12,000. Or 2006 Grand Marquis w/ 18,000 miles for $11,000.

 

I managed to fit 8 people in my F-150 once.

It was only once for few miles; I was afraid to drive on a highway with nobody in the back being able to put seat-belts on.

 

Yeah I imagine a Crown Vic or Grand Marquis can be had for a very good price right now. The little grandmas around here must be in heaven because thats all they drive and they put so few miles on them the gas doesn't hit them that hard. Although I 'm sure they still complain about it.

The Ford, Dodge, Chevy Super duty and HD diesels are taking a beating right now. Only 1 lot in town will take them on trade. My dad has one, he paid $4500 to upgrade to the power stroke diesel in a truck over $40k, now he'd be lucky to get in the teens here for a 2 year old truck.

 

Yeah, I'm surprised anyone buys trucks these days.

There was a article at AutoBlog recently, they said it's not really smart to trade in a truck or a SUV these days since majority of dealers don't pay their real value.

 

I know you're gonna get beat up on the trade and then get hosed on the depreciation of the new car tires going off the car lot curb. I think for most situations without an extra long commute you're better staying where you are than losing thousands to save a few gallons of $4.00 gas. But people are irrational about gas. My brother would trade a paid for Tahoe that is only used to go to work and back (5 miles) for a new Altima that he'll now make payments on. Come on people wake up. Don't trade your paid for vehicles in to save gas. Do the math. Is it worth depreciation, interest, and increased insurance!

 

with diesel in my area getting close to $5.00/gal. no surprise here! plus finding stations that carry it is not that easy.

hopefully the 2nd gen. biofuels will be developed at a quicker rate - never bought into the corn-based ethanol idea from the get go. or maybe synthetic fuels made from waste like P2F or recycling? with the ever-increasing price for oil, one never knows.

 

Exactly, I hope this next generation of biofuels yields something. It certainly has promise because it isn't made from something we need to survive but rather left over clippings and recycled waste.

Unitl we all get the Mr. Fusion retrofitted into our cars something will have to do.

 

I would love to get my hands on some kind of used diesel car and run it on cooking oil. I've looked into it quite a bit and its easy to do if you have some basic mechanical skills. Biggest drawback is that you need a second fuel tank which will prob take space up in the trunk. Most resturants that are not chains will give away the stuff for free, all you have to do is filter out the chunks with a screen or something. Apparently the performance is the same. you might see a bit of a decrease in performance, but big deal. Your getting free gas.

There is one video I saw on youtube where a guy had rigged this whole thing up to his truck. It was an F-150 with 2 tanks. so he changed one tank to veggy oil and left the other diesel. Then he rigged up a pump and a filter underneath his truck so you couldn't see it. In the end all he had to do what pull out his hose, put it into a container of used oil and turn the pump on (which ran off the engine). So to me, this guy spends maybe 5 minutes more than the average consumer does at the pump and his gas is free. I have to say, I'm jealous.

Top Gear and Mythbusters have both proven that it can be very practical to run on this stuff.

 

Actually, the newest Jetta TDI gets upwards of 50mpg. And it meets even the strictest emissions criteria. And, with 236 lb-ft of torque, I'm sure it would be much more fun to drive than a Prius.

My mother has a 2003 Jetta TDI and it gets a little more than 50mpg (53-54mpg). I'm not sure what the reasoning is behind it, but the EPA's fuel economy ratings for the Jetta TDI are a bit lower than what the car actually gets.

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