Diesel News: POST HERE

[charlieaarons]

Plans to introduce a passenger car diesel have been abandoned by most car companies.

At this point, 2.0L to 3.0L diesel engines are offered by German manufacturers VW, BMW and Mercedes. BMW, Mercedes and Jeep offer diesel engines in SUVs. Audi has announced that they will offer a diesel option in several of their models later in 2009.

We just purchased a BMW X5 35d. It's fantastic. 0-60 in 6.8 sec. 21mpg in cold weather city driving. It has as much power as the 4.8L gas V8 which is rated at 14mpg city. No problem in -15 F. cold starts. 3.0L 6cyl, twin sequential turbos. $4K cheaper than the V8 X5.
My only wish is that I'd rather have my wife in a 530xd, which gets ~6mpg more. Not sold in the US.

Charlie

 

[Pskhaat]

...or maybe (just dreaming that) Cummins could take a real out-of-the-box approach and start making full kits for existing target vehicles with their name attached. I would be much more apt to buy a fully qualified and designed engine swap kit all Cummins supported for numerous Jeep & Toyota applications. Is it high-volume, high-proft? no but could at least help the net margin and some minor revenue numbers.

I say this because I live in a place where we didn't think twice about Ferarris everywhere, Escalades with blades, and Mercedes is a Chevrolet. Yet we we are in 2009 and slowly, ever so slowly, these vehicles in front of the same houses with the same owners are now older Sequoias, Maximae (how do you make that plural) and Minivans. Looking more like middle-America everyday.

I guess I see a lot of effort back in the used car markets at least here. And why not when a good-to-do neighbor couldn't get Lexus to move off of list last week on a GX470.

 

[haven]

A few notes about diesel powered vehicles from the recent press:

MINI is still thinking about bringing a diesel powered model to USA. MINI is a subsidiary of BMW, one of the few companies that offer diesel engines here today. The engine would be different from the diesel offered in the MINI in Europe today. MINI has a crossover and a mini-SUV under development, both of which would be good platforms for diesel power. Since the MINI gasoline engine is tuned for premium gas, the cost to fill up the diesel MINI would not be much more than people pay today for gas. The diesel used by MINI in Europe today posts results in high 50 mpg range.

VW is planning to introduce a Rabbit with the 2.0L turbodiesel found in the Jetta. Audi has similar plans for the A3 five-door hatchback. Autoblog has a balanced article about the VW Jetta TDI as a good alternative to the Prius, here:
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/09/in-the-autobloggreen-garage-2009-volkswagen-jetta-tdi/

And Edmunds has a similar comparison here
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/Comparos/articleId=141626

No word about when we might see a diesel in the Tiguan small SUV.

 

[ChuckB]

I drove an A3 5-door manual TDI in Germany last November. It has a hoot! Easily did 100+ mph :smiley_drive: on the Autobahn and I calculated 39mpg on one tank of diesel. Bring it!!

 

[4Rescue]

The Cummins V6 and V8 designs are ready, they just don't have an application. Dodge was the company talking about using them in RAM pickups, but the company announced it was putting diesel plans on the shelf for now.

Nissan is planning to release a line of commercial vehicles, including a couple of cab/chassis built by Dodge. I was hoping we might see a smaller Cummins engine in one of these, but today, who knows?

Chip Haven

You know Chip... Sometimes your cool calm accurate assessment of things is just plain depressing

I'm really sad to hear that the economy is going to completely prevent us once again from being offered smaller diesel motors.

NO cheers

Dave

 

[mauricio_28]

Why would Nissan employ a Cummings engine when they have their own and those developed jointly with Renault?

 

[haven]

Nissan might use a Cummins if it comes already installed in the chassis that Dodge is selling to them. However, with Dodge backing away from their pledge to use the V8 and V6 Cummins, it's unlikely they will appear in a Nissan vehicle.

Remember that the USA government imposes a 25% tariff on trucks made outside North America. It's possible that Renault small diesel technology will be incorporated into future Nissans built in USA.

 

[haven]

There's an article about the new diesel engined Porsche Cayenne SUV in Edmunds Inside Line. Unfortunately, there are no plans to distribute the diesel-powered Cayenne in North America.
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=141807

The Cayenne is based on the VW Touareg 2, with some suspension work by Porsche. The diesel engine is the stock VW 3.0L turbodiesel (236 hp, 405 lb-ft). The diesel Cayenne gets about 30 mpg on the highway, so its 26 gallon fuel tank gives the SUV a 700+ mile range.

 

[pygmyowl]

Looks like the VW Toureg 2 with the V6 TDI is a sure thing - at least the US web site says it is coming soon (http://www.vw.com/touareg/en/us/).

I noted they are listing its highway mpg as only 24, but on the Club Tourag blog, many are saying that due to the new way of calculating mpg for diesels, 30 mpg would not be hard to achieve.

 

[haven]

Gas prices seem to be going up a nickel a week in Las Vegas. While I was filling up with regular unleaded the other day, I noticed that the price of ULSD diesel is now less than the cost of premium gas.

I checked the local "find me cheap gas" web page, and confirmed that diesel now costs less. Premium gas costs about $2.40 (cheapest $2.35), diesel about $2.25 (cheapest $2.13) and regular gas about $2.19 (cheapest $2.07).

Checking the US government statistics, it appears that diesel prices have declined in the last month, while gasoline prices have climbed.

How long this condition will exist is anybody's guess. Perhaps the economic slowdown means fewer big rigs on the highway. Or maybe the demand for heating oil is less than anticipated, and refineries are producing diesel instead.

Chip Haven

 

[haven]

In the Las Vegas area, diesel fuel is now about 15 cents cheaper than premium gas. At some stations, diesel is cheaper than unleaded regular (huzzah!)

In California, the source of fuel for southern Nevada, diesel is 4.5 cents cheaper than regular unleaded, according to the federal government web page that tracks fuel prices
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/gdu/gasdiesel.asp

It remains to be seen if this trend will spread to other parts of USA. Across the country, diesel is still more expensive than gas. The worst situation is in New England, where regular gas costs $1.92 on average (a lot cheaper than the west coast), and diesel costs $2.47!

 

[lowenbrau]

It's nice to see diesel below gas here again as well. I fueled up this morning at $2US/gal. ($.68cdn/l) Gas was abut 5% more.

 

[Kilroy]

It's nice to see diesel below gas here again as well. I fueled up this morning at $2US/gal. ($.68cdn/l) Gas was abut 5% more.

I appreciated the lower cost of diesel compared to gas. But why is it happening now?

I've noticed a wide variety of pricing in my area in WI. From $2.07 to $2.49

 

[haven]

It's next to impossible to make any sense out of fuel price
fluctuations. The decline in diesel price may be related to
the drop in freight carried by over-the-road big rig trucks.
The price on the West Coast may be low because the California
refineries are running out of space to store unsold diesel.
Anyone have other theories?

Chip Haven

 

[chrismc]

Here is St Louis gas is up to $1.99 while #2 diesel is hanging out at $1.79. :sombrero: