[vox] [OT] Alternate Vehicle Advice

[Jonathan Stickel]

Bill Kendrick wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 13, 2005 at 10:37:54PM -0800, Jonathan Stickel wrote:
> 
>>I haven't seen a diesel vehicle mentioned.  Diesels' get nearly as good 
>>mileage as hybrids and are popular in Europe.  I looked and VW sells a 
>>diesel Golf... but not in CA!  I'm curious what people on the list 
>>thinks about diesels.  I had one once (VW Jetta) and really liked it.
> 
> 
> My neighbor either has converted, or was planning to convert, his diesel VW
> into a biodiesel.  I've seen many of them at WEF, as well.
> 
> How do fuel efficiency & emissions compare between regular diesel and
> non-diesel, and regular diesel and bio-diesel?
> (I suppose I could Google or Wikipedia it... ;^) )
> 

I don't know about bio-diesel.  My non-technical impression is that fuel 
efficiency for regular diesel is roughly 50% more than regular gas. 
Diesel does have a stigma of being "dirty".  While it is true that 
diesel farm tractors and semi trucks pollute, the technology in new 
diesel passenger cars make them as clean as regular cars (again, that is 
my non-technical impression).  Maybe someone with more technical 
knowledge would like to comment.

Jonathan