There's been much fuss made about the high efficiency of the Asian hybrid cars currently on the market ... such as the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight and Civic Hybrid. They're excellent cars, but if you look just behind them on the EPA's mileage sheet, which cars do you find?
Why, it's the very 20th-century Volkswagen Golf, Jetta and New Beetle ... powered by a 1.9L, 100hp turbocharged diesel engine which produces decent torque, excellent fuel economy and a lot of misconceptions. More on those shortly.
VW's been in the diesel business in this country for a long time, ever since the Rabbit of 1978 ... and for a few years, was the only carmaker offering diesel-engined cars here. Now, the news that Mercedes-Benz will once again offer a turbodiesel engine as an option on the E-Class has me hoping that the second wave of diesels is about to start.
You might remember the first wave, which occurred in the mid-70s, when OPEC started to exert more control over oil production ... and prices shot up accordingly. Diesel engines, which can go farther on a gallon of fuel than an equivalent gas engine, suddenly became the hurry-up solution for carmakers trying to sell their big sedans during the crisis. As a result, we saw a number of importers (who already offered diesel engines in their home markets as a way to stretch a fuel dollar ravaged by high taxes) start selling them here, notably VW, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. GM, which didn't have a diesel in its European fleet strong enough to move its full-sized cars, embarked on an ill-fated plan: converting its venerable 5.7L V8 engine into a diesel powerplant. Of course, as with most products that came out of GM in the late 70s and early 80s, the customer wound up doing the beta testing on the engine ... which resulted in massive warranty claims, numerous cars changed BACK to gas engines at GM's expense, and ultimately giving ALL diesel engines a black eye.
But even with the GOOD ones, diesel cars took some getting used to. They were smoky, they didn't start right up (one had to wait as long as 15 seconds for the "glow plugs" to warm things up), and they were noisy as heck. The reward was great fuel economy, of course ... but after a few years, diesel sales waned, and only VW hung on. Well, here, anyway.
Over in Europe, diesels never went away ... and are bigger than ever, thanks to a couple of innovations that made them easier to live with. One is direct injection, which allows engines to burn cleaner and more efficiently. The other is turbocharging, which helps improve response and boost horsepower. As a result, most automakers in Europe now offer a diesel engine somewhere... why, even BMW has one.(See yesterday's blog for the mention of the BMW 330d) In fact, Jeeps sold in Europe offer the Mercedes 2.7L turbodiesel as an option (easy, because many of them are built in Austria).
But with gas prices still rising in a lot of the country, why not bring diesels back? Well, because despite the experience in Europe, diesels still have a reputation here for being tough to live with ... dirty, smelly, noisy, and unreliable. Much of which is untrue. For support, let me bring in the 'blog's Detroit correspondent, Swimmerpup ... who logs his road time behind the wheel of a chipped Golf TDi. (Noozdawg and Swimmerpup ... not quite Starsky and Hutch, but who is?) Being the only person I know who owns a diesel car, I asked him about living with one:
ND: Old-school diesels were distinguished for being noisy, stinky, and slow to start. How has that experience changed?
SP:Noise - The diesel lets you know it's a diesel when it's idling and when it's below about 32 degrees before it warms up. At idle you can hear the motor and you know it's a diesel. It's not loud ... it just sounds different. Something most people don't know is that diesels are more thermally efficient when compared to gasoline engines. What this means is if you start it in the cold and let it idle it's never going to warm up. Drive 3 miles and it's fine.
Stinky - Burn petroleum diesel and the exhaust will smell like diesel exhaust. Burn B100 biodiesel and your exhaust smells like french fries. ULSD (ultra low sulfur diesel) is coming to the US very soon (by law ... 2006, I believe) and that will be good for the engines and the environment.
Slow to start - When it's below about 30, you may have to wait 3-7 seconds for the glow plug light to go out, and then it starts right up. I've never had any problem even in below zero weather.
ND: Why diesel over the gas-engine Golf?
SP: The 2.0 engine is archaic. It gets decent gas mileage and has decent torque but it's uninspiring. The diesel is very efficient, has nice low end torque, and is a turbo so I knew it had tuning potential.(By the way, the Pup's chipped TDi pumps out 125 hp and 200 lbs-ft of torque. Not quite an SVT Focus, but pretty healthy numbers for a 45-50mpg machine)
He continues: The car takes on a whole new personality. It goes from economical to a torque monster. I often roll down the window even in freezing temps just to hear the turbo spooling which is more pronounced once being "chipped". (I should mention that the Pup's previous ride was a TT, so he knows from slick cars)
So there ... driving a diesel is not the hair-shirt experience it used to be ... and for buyers thinking about saving money on fuel costs, diesels deserve a look. And maybe if DCX sells some E-Class Diesels, and biodiesel and low-sulfur fuel make their way to the mainstream, the next wave will arrive.
Oh, say, can you C? Of course, I hope the E-Class Diesel does well ... but it seems to me that if DCX wants to demonstrate the potential of the powerplant to "early adopters," it should drop it into the C-Class. Surely 177 hp could do more to motivate the smaller C than the larger E. It could be sold as an alternative to the C240, which is more apt to be shopped by new buyers who might be more interested in saving a few bucks on fuel than the person buying a $50,000 E-Class.
Beep ... beep ... beep ... Of course, Swimmerpup isn't just a font of information about diesels ... he's a general car idea man. Regardez-vous: "(W)hen reversing, it is wise to hit the recirculate button on the HVAC panel. Why inhale exhaust (which you will smell in a diesel) when you don't need to. This should be an automatic feature in all cars: reverse lights activate recirculation and cancels recirculation when reverse is disengaged." Now, I've been driving for years, and that NEVER occurred to me.
Before I go ... BIG snaps to Swimmerpup for inspiring today's episode, and for his invaluable insights. And to J, without whom that would not have been possible: Turbosnaps, chief.
Next time: Land Of The Rising Scion.
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