Motors The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can't Have

And you guys wonder why we don't drive vehicles that are diesel and/or get more fuel mileage. <sigh> Very glad I have my MINI though.

 

That is unreal. I can see this cycle of Americans not adopting diesel because there are no good diesel cars, and makers not selling diesels in the US because they haven't adopted diesel going on for a very long time. I assume something will have to happen to break the cycle.

Your mini has 6 gears doesn't it? (I believe even the 1.6 cooper has 6 gears) I bet that gets some awesome MPG when your not driving it like a mad woman.

 

Ford is so full of crap I can barely stand it. If its because of diesel, they are lying like no tomorrow. I would wager that 3 out of 5 stations here in the states have a diesel pump. And with the rise of volks and other cars using highly efficient diesel engines, it wouldnt be long before that statistic changed.

Im so very glad I own a Honda! BOOYEA!

 

We never get the tiny diesels! Peugeot, anybody's. Want a diesel, buy a truck. Just sucks. My Hyundai Elantra with a 2.0L and and a 5 spd. will do 31 mpg in town metro Denver if I remember the 5th gear. 2nd best mileage I ever owned. 1989 Geo Metro(Suzuki swift) 997cc 3 cyl. gave me 40+ in town and 63 mpg on lots of trips to Iowa. Geo is gone now too.
I really don't believe that some parties in the US really want economy. Diesel stations we got, proper diesel urban cars we are missing out.

John

 

almost every station that I see where I live has a diesel pump. In fact I cant think of one off the top of my head that doesn't have one.

 

Hey boys, want to know something depressing?

the new diesel audi r8 v12 is out soon in europe.
http://www.topgear.com/content/news/stories/2536/

 

This bytes. Audi is cool. What we get? Blah?
John

 

Driving like a mad woman? Are you stalking me? er... um... I drive ever so sedately. ;P Yeppers, it has 6 gears. Unfortunately with my knees, I've got an automatic. Would much prefer a manual and the S version of course. The good thing is it's getting about twice the in-town mileage of my BMW, for which I'm glad. Plus it's much cuter. Cute rates more than posh right now.

 

The standard cooper is a 5 speed. my dad has one from 2003. and he loves it

 

The R56 Cooper, which is 2007+ in the hardtop is a six speed, both the manual and automatic.

 

yeah, but that's because every second vehicle on the roads here is a deisel truck. go into BC and it changes a bit.

 

don't diesel still have issues with cold winters needing block heaters and such?? TBH if so i wouldn't want one.

 

fair enough, I haven't been into much of BC. Of course I have been in fort st john, dawson, fort nelson, jasper, well, just up and down the border mostly but the stations all have diesel.
But Nova Scotia, NB, PEI, all have them too.

 

heh. if the maritimes all have them, maybe i'm wrong. but i'm pretty sure out on the coast and in the gulf islands it's a bit harder to find a deisel station. also, my uncle has a big deisel truck on his vegetable farm in the okanogan, and i'm pretty sure i've heard him complaining about gas stations not having deisel.

 

Irving pretty much owns the maritimes, which I think is why there is diesel in there.

 

It seems diesel cars do but, I know that the Chevy Duramax diesel trucks have no problem.

 

They tend to come fitted with them in countrys/climates where they would need one.

 

If the US converted to Diesel we would have a realy big problem sourcing it all. US and European refineries are heavily geared up to produce petrol and its neither cheap nor easy to convert. Which leads to the problem of europe having a massive glut in petrol and a huge deficit in Diesel this is nice and balanced at the moment since Europe sells NA petrol and buys in Diesel from the Middle East and to a lesser degree Asia.
If the US were to Dieselise the cost of said fuel would become so expensive it would make $4 a gallon seem like a fire sale as the supply would become increasingly tight drving the price sky wards. Those of us with petrol cars would be just a bad off however as the (barrel) price of oil would peg to the cost of diesel and you would end up with middle distillates (inc jet fuel) driving the market more and more until we'd have a very expensive dollar price of oil and most of us plebs would be walking to work or every one would convert back to petrol as it would marginally cheaper.
This happened to a small degree this year due to very strong diesel demand in europe and (relatively) weak petrol demand in the US the arbitrage closed so inorder to make money Refineries run extra crude, maximising middle distillates, selling the petrol at a loss and getting the extra on the now very expensive Diesel and Kerosene. Thus driving up the cost of crude as refiners compete on the spot market to get the extra they need.

 

You only get this problem with quite old engines. Any car made in the last 10-15 or so years will be as functional in winter as it is in summer.

Personally, unless I need to be economical, I steer clear of diesel... i.e. If I was buying something to use every day in the city, I'll go for a small diesel, whereas if I wanted a car to actually enjoy, I'd go for a petrol...

 

Only 65mpg? I've managed 50mpg out of my 2 litre petrol engine in a heavy car.