You are right, theres such BAD pr when it comes to diesels in the usa.

To be fair, we are not taking about trucks, were talking about cars.
check out a 2006 tdi from VW (or any recent vintage vw tdi)
you cant even hear it running....or smell it for that matter.

sadly your right they get lumped in with trucks in peoples minds.

GOOD NEWS THOUGH!

trucks will have to adhear to strict emissions standards starting in 2007. Maybe that will give diesels some good pr after the number of smoke belching trucks are brought down. all new trucks must run on ULSD ultra low sulfer diesel plus meet very tight emissions standards starting in 2007. What took the USA so long to do this... who knows.
i guess we hold our nose when passing a truck until then
to be fair some truck companys have done some good stuff with emissions.

clean burning diesel cars have been here for quite a while though. somtimes i see very old vw rabbit or mercedes diesel trailing smoke, but nothing new.

 

Sign me up! id buy one!

 

The problem with hybrid diesels would be costs. In order to get a diesel engine as clean or cleaner than an equivalent gas engine as innkeeper suggests, it takes expensive technology to clean up the emmissions.... even with European diesel, making an equivelent (power wise) diesel engine typically around $1500 more than a gasoline engine. Add the hybrid premium to this and you have a significant increase in cost and complexity. FE would be amazing though.

 

Innkeeper -

Your explanation of the relationship between NOx, VOCs, CO and ozone (smog) is actually manifested in something called the "weekend ozone effect". It has been noted and now studied extensively (by DOE/NREL) that on weekends ambient ozone levels in urban areas not only do not drop on weekends, they often actually increases substantially, in spite of the fact that there are large decreases in NOx (as much as a 40%-50% decrease - mainly from a huge decrease in diesel truck traffic) as well as smaller decreases in ambient VOC and CO levels (10%-15%).

Further information can be found here:


http://www.aei.org/publications/pubI...pub_detail.asp
http://climateark.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=32049
http://www.alabamapolicy.org/PDFs/EnvIndicators.pdf (page 12 of 59)
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18973
http://www.osti.gov/fcvt/deer2002/lawson.pdf
http://www.osti.gov/fcvt/deer2005/lawson.pdf

 

Nice conspiracy theory, lakedude. I'm sure Toyota rigged their test(s) of the Prius and just hoped that it wouldn't be caught in the 10-15% that the EPA confirms.

My opinion, which is worth about as much as anyone else's here: The magazine's "test" was probably not specially designed to favor or disfavor any particular type of vehicle. They decided to fuel up some cars and go for a drive. Quite simple, really.

Like any single repetition of just about any test, the results might (probably would) change if it was done again -- this is especially true because of the numerous variables invovled. Some of these are controllable (for example, rotate drivers during the test or on different repetitions of the test). Some of them are not (the weather on the day the test was done, the traffic conditions, etc.).

 

WXMAN Thanks for the additional info!!!

 

Let's see, Mean Temperature 43 (F), Holland Michigan, March 28, 2006 with a maximum temperature of 50 (F) and "Rain".

http://www.wunderground.com/history/...q_statename=NA

You don't suppose they've ever heard of a "Standard Day?"

Funny how that works out. Once again, 'manual mode' instead of automatic-to-automatic.

So Saturday, June 3, I drove my NHW11, 03 Prius, 700 miles from Coffeyville, KS, to Huntsville, AL, in 14 hours. This included a stretch of the Ozark Mountains in western Arkansaw, I-540. I got 54 MPG at a door-to-door average speed of 50 mph, including potty breaks, breakfast, mid-day supper and a late afternoon hot fudge sunday. My model is EPA rated at 45 mpg highway.

Temperatures on my trip ranged from 50-90 (F) with no appreciable winds. Not quite a 70 (F) day, at least I started low and ended high, +/-20 (F) from 70 (F).

Bob Wilson

 

GM makes the Corvette.

 

Ok, what is your reasoning on why the Prius is EPA rated 60/51 but our database has it pegged at 47.7?

I prefer Honda's honesty. My car is EPA rated 46/51 and the database has it at 48.2. Honest and higher than the Prius in real life.

 

If you drive the EPA profile, you get the EPA results. Driving outside of the EPA profile, all bets are off:

• 42 MPH is a bad speed - I recommend avoiding 39-50 mph speeds. This is unique to the Prius architecture.
• unusual cold weather sensitivity - the Prius transaxle is air-cooled and mechanically and MG1/2 heated, which gives problems in cold weather.
• latent problem with transaxle oil life - although still under investigation, it looks like the transaxle oil change interval should be half or less of the recommended 60k mi. including dropping the pan and cleaning out the gunk.
• vehicle warm-up and cool-down - it is important to keep speeds below 30 mph for at least the first 1-2 miles and use speeds of 30 mph and below at the end to maximize fuel efficiency.

I've included most of these elements in the Prius FAQ in the Prius forum.

The difference is in the engineering and architecture, not a lack of character. It is easier to make character accusations than understanding the engineering. But would you have prefered that they used a Honda Civic Hybrid in the March test?


I don't know enough about the HCH architecture and performance characteristics to recommend it for a cold weather test. The Honda Accord Hybrid might have been a better choice since they apparently were just doing cold-weather, highway miles. I just don't know.


Bob Wilson