"Matthew Russotto" > wrote in message
...
>
> Of course. Because they're unpleasant to drive and unpleasant to be
> around. They know they are violating their ideals by driving, so they
> deliberately make it painful for themselves.

With the right fuel, no, not at all. In Europe where they have lots of
good quality low-sulfur diesel, diesels make less pollution than you think.
Volkswagens there are also getting fitted with particulate traps to reduce
the soot greatly. If and when the US ditches sulfur in diesel, our
catalytic converters will run alot better and diesels will produce very
little nitrogen oxides and soot. They will never be as "clean" as gas, but
then again the cleanliness of gasoline is a bit deceptive, except for
nitrogen oxides and soot, diesel can be lower in all other forms of
pollution. And diesel will not cause carbon monoxide poisoning.

Here in the US diesel fuel is crappy quality (thank the trucking
industry), but you can add a cetane booster or biodiesel to the fuel and it
will really help a high-performance diesel engine to get better economy and
reduce emisisions. Unlike a gas engine, where fuel additives are mostly a
waste of money because gasoline is already heavily refined. When I first
tried driving my Jetta TDI it did produce more noise, but after I added some
cetane booster/lubricant it really reduced the vibrations and the engine got
a little quietter and smoother.