<VV> re:48 mpg VW diesel...no Corvair

[Bill Elliott]

Not quite... though that may be true recently. Historically higher 
taxation has been the reason that diesel was often higher than gasoline 
(and the reason that gasoline is so expensive in Europe). A large part 
of this is political (since the average person doesn't use diesel, they 
don't object to it being artificially expensive like they would gas).

Besides the expense of the fuel and the GM engines of the 70's, the 
other reason that diesels have not done well here is that while 
environmentalists in Europe have supported diesel as an environmentally 
superior solution to burning gasoline and supported laws and taxes 
(against business which would just as soon use gasoline) which 
encouraged their use. On the other hand, those leading the 
"environmental" movement in the US have always fought diesel as being 
worse than gasoline and have fought legislation encouraging it, putting 
them on the same side as business and guaranteeing that favorable laws 
would never pass.

Hopefully, the low-sulphur rules (put in place to improve emissions 
and/or punish business, not to encourage diesel use) will have the 
"unintended consequence" of getting more small diesels in use in the us. 
I'm renting a FIAT diesel this summer while touring Italy... it just 
makes sense. A lot more sense than hybrids (which are NOT 
environmentally responsible when their entire lifecycle costs are 
considered.)

I owned a "old technology" '79 Rabbit diesel which could manage 55mpg at 
55mph... and the new TDI's are similarly impressive (while being much 
more powerful and cleaner)... I could see a Corvair with a 200hp 
Mercedes diesel conversion.... ;-)

Bill





efki at verizon.net wrote:

>The reason that diesel is costs more than the regular is the sulfur removal.
>In California the ppm of sulfur has been going down and down. It somewhere
>around 7/8 ppm. Before low sulfur was in the 1500 ppm range. By the way
>taking all of the sulfur out is on par with taking the lead out of gasoline.
>
>It's smog thing. I don't know how it is in other states, but here in Cal. a
>trucker can be cited if they let their semi idle more than 5 min. Hum... I
>wonder how the CHP writes all those tickets in rush hour traffic???lol
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