Buh bye TDI
 

Howdy all. 2012 Jetta TDI owner here. After the settlement agreement details were released, decided to park my beloved TDI until I sell it back to VW. Purchased in 2012 for $24k, VW is buying back for $20k. With 80K miles on it, decided to pull the trigger and sell it back.

Did a bit of research on electric vs hybrids and decided to go with a 2016 Malibu Hybrid. Bought it last week with 5 miles on it, right off the truck. Have yet to hit a half tank, so I am deciding to use fuelly for the duration of ownership on this one.

Hat to see the TDI go, but after two blown fuel pumps, and a couple other warranty repairs, gotta bite at the offer.

Hello welcome. Wow great price on the VW, shame about the reliability, they have been dropping down the tables recently. Here in the UK, they are now in the bottom 10 for reliability. Good luck with the new car.

The average economy for the Malibu Hybrids here is about 28 US MPG, no doubt you'll miss the economy of your TDI.

Actually, the 2016 is a new model, a true hybrid this time. Rated 48 highway 46 freeway. I think I am averaging 42 at the moment. Have not figured out how to maximize yet. Performing better than the TDI at this point.

Good to hear, takes time to learn to drive a new car I find, once you know what works and what doesn't you can start to take advantage of the economy.

Along with learning a new car, there is a lot of newness to wear off. Most of which is in the tires; there will be noticably better fuel consumption after the tires have a few thousand miles behind them.

For those not in the know, the old Malibu hybrids were a basic mild system, the original BAS one, and maybe a light assist one with the eAssist. The 2016 Malibu hybrid is a full hybrid using a modified system of the one in the Volt. The main difference in the transaxle is that there is one less clutch in it. That clutch was for allowing the Volt to have better efficiency and performance in EV mode. Since the Malibu doesn't have a plug, the system could be designed for better ICE fuel efficiency.

Speaking of dirty old diesels, we were at a war weekend with 15 running tanks, and a half dozen half tracks and armoured cars.
The T-34 tank we've seen a few times, the chap reckoned he might get a mile to the gallon!

Tank efficiency is measured in the gallons to mile :) Spent a few years volunteering at a military vehicle museum with 250 or so vehicles. Would love to visit Bovington someday!

I was going to say, 1 MPG is good in a Rolls Royce V12 TDI, I've known people with 2.0 litre engines get 4 MPG on track and they weigh about 72 times less than your average tank ;)

Raf Duxford has a fantastic tank museum along with the huge collection of aircraft. Lincoln has a ww1 female tank. Not been to Bovington, must have a look. A petrol tank would be gallons to the mile, the Russian one was a diesel, ha ha ha!
The missus got me a tank driving go in an APC once, they said that was 2 gallons to the mile (petrol).

One of the advantages besides the obvious, of diesel fuel is that it's not flammable, so any spilt fuel or live ammo that might find its way into the fuel tank, would not ignite the fuel. That's also why diesel engined sub marines were so popular in the war, an on-board fire underwater is not good.

I was suprised to read in a Russian report after Kursk that most hit T -34s burnt.
Turns out that as long as the fuel tanks had some air in, then when hit they exploded and burned badly. As the fuel tank was in the front of the crew compartment, this was pretty bad news for the crews.

The forces needed to penetrate the armor is enough to ignite diesel.

Which fuel a military force uses most likely came down to supply and logistics.

American petroleum is sweet, light crude, making gasoline from it cheap. So during WWII, our tanks ran on petrol. The Shermans supplied to Britain needed to be outfitted with a diesel.

American forces now use diesel, actually jet fuel, because supply one fuel is easier than multiple ones to the battlefield.

Ships use bunker fuel at sea. Which is harder to simply ignite than diesel, but also might require heating to flow.