Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
> In article >,
> jim beam > wrote:
>
>
>>>A buddy of mine, on a complete lark, went and bought a used Beetle
>>>diesel. 47K miles on it.
>>>
>>>His first full tank, in town, with the AC blowing hard, was 47mpg.
>>>
>>>I have yet to hear what his first highway drive did.
>>
>>you know, this whole economy thing has really gotten me interested.
>
>
> That's the goal: get people thinking and educated.
>
> BTW, my buddy tells me that he gets 52+ mpg with that Beetle on all
> highway miles.
>
> I'd *much* rather have a diesel than a hybrid, if mpg is the same and
> the fuel is roughly the same cost.
>
i used to do a lot of maintenance work on diesels. in many respects,
they're great, especially for towing. and interesting to drive too - a
huge contrast to a honda where it's all about the revs.

but i /hate/ diesel fuel. i hate it on my hands. i hate it on my
clothes. i especially hate it if i get it on my shoes because it stinks
& you can't usually throw them in the washing machine like practically
everything else.

i'd also regularly see cracked cylinder heads. maybe the newer direct
injections are less problematic, but the older indirect injection
engines would always crack around the pre-combustion chamber. there's
massive thermal cycling & very high pressures in that location so it's
/going/ to happen. depending on the vehicle, many would last well over
100k miles, but even so, cracked heads were pretty much inevitable and
/very/ expensive to replace. old diesel indirects with cast iron heads
often last much better, but they're not immune by any means and i can't
imagine they're used much any more because of weight & emissions.