Not all diesel cars are or were built the same. At a time when I was doing
LOTS of commuting in England, petrol prices forced me to buy a diesel car- I
bought a Peugeot 205 diesel in late 1987. The car was fitted with a 1.9
liter engine, normally aspirated. While it was slow to accelerate (0-60 mph
in 14 seconds), it had no problems with hills (lots of torque from 2000 rpm
up) and I could cruise all day at 80+ mph. Top speed was just over 90 mph. I
never got less than 50 mpg on a trip. It was not smelly or smoke (this could
be that diesel fuel in Europe is differently formulated than in the US), and
you could only tell the difference in noise from the same car with a petrol
engine at idle. I sold the car in 1989 with nearly 80,000 miles on the
clock. It was a practical car, and reliable- only repair had been a new set
of front wheel bearings. It definitely was not a "driver's car", though!
In countries like France or Italy, where there is a huge difference in price
between petrol and diesel, you will find many owners with diesel car. Some
are turbocharged and quite "peppy"... There is also the belief that diesel
engines last much longer than petrol engined- when engines were originally
designed as diesel (not the case for some American cars where converted
petrol engines were used), I believe this is usually true.
I know diesel cars are under scrutiny now in Europe because of concerns
about emissions.
Jacques Le Clainche
VARA 1960 Austin-Healey Sprite #4, F Production
-----Original Message-----
From owner-spridgets at autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-spridgets@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of type79@ix.netcom.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 10:55 AM
Cc: spridgets@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: My old car (No LBC, and way off topic)
I hope they have made improvements since the diesel Rabbit. I drove a new
diesel
Rabbit everyday for several months back in the early 80's.
Best description for it would be "PAINFUL"!
No power going up hills, not always a diesel station when you need one, and
lest I
forget it was noisy and it smelled. On the highway, I needed to have the
thing up to
80mph before starting up long hills in order to be going 50mph at the top.
Oh, I
almost forgot about the need to warm the glow plugs.
I can understand the need for diesels in trucks but never could understand
one's
desire for one in a passenger vehicle.
Just my 2 cents.
jay f
Jim Juhas wrote:
> A friend of mine recently purchased a Beetle diesel for long distance
commuting.
> He reports 50mpg and says nothing except good things about it.
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