I hope everyone realizes this is a 2 year old thread. There are new 09 TDI Jettas and Mercedes CDIs gathering dust on dealer lots right now in California.

Can we instead then, go into a rant about why the heck diesel costs so much more than gasoline in the US right now? When did it become more expensive, seems like 3-4 years ago but not sure I'm remember correctly. It always used to be significantly cheaper.

I was just in Germany for 3 months and it's still significantly cheaper than gas over there and they have some awesome diesel cars. I really want an A3 2.0 TDI, but then again the BWM 320di I used got over 40MPG at 100MPH and it was a station wagon.

What retarded marketting exec decided that America should think wagons look stupid but SUVs look good.

Blame CAFE. It's easier to comply with CAFE with a medium SUV than a big wagon. That's what triggered the whole thing, and then the general public decided they like it...

Blame the Europeans for replacing all their gasone powered cars with diesels. If you go back to Germany today you'll see that they are paying the same 20% premium for diesel fuel over gasoline. World wide damend for diesel fuel has increased much faster than gasoline in the last few years. The perceived cost saving of diesel has been it's undoing. As a result demand for diesel vehicles has declined dramatically in europe this summer. When running costs are equal, even Europens prefer gasoline over diesel. The let's blame the EPA/ULSD/CAFE myth has already been debunked in a prior thread. The small diesel engine is headed the way of the dodo bird.

Except that biodiesel has a better energy return of investment than ethanol and maybe even butanol.

I loved my big, old Pontiac wagon. Someday I will have another big wagon in my stable of vehicles. I would love to have a late 60's/early 70's Pontiac Grand Safari or Olds Vista Crusier I love those old GM "clamshell" tailgates.

-Jay

Where is butanol lately? I read some stuff, but I haven't heard anything lately at all. More BTU's than ethanol at least. For a gasoline engine, seems like a good fit.

What lies have you been being told? You should reread my post, I was there from May 08 to August 08. I was JUST there. Diesel is 15-20% cheaper every place I went in Europe (Germany, all over, Czech, Austria, Swiss (swiss is actually cheapest suprisingly) and France). And they're making new diesel cars left and right.

I only rented 3 cars that was gasoline and at least 2 that were diesel. All were 0-1 year old, one was a Ford Wagon and the other was a BWM 320 wagon. Both had 6 speeds with tall gearing and plenty of torque still in top gear and at low RPM to pull from 100MPH-120MPH to pass. Both got just over 6L/100km or about 30-35MPG at 100+MPH the entire time. They were awesome and I'm sure they'd get 45MPG at the 65MPH here, but it'd still be a tough call with the retard gas pricing on diesel that is ONLY happening in America and ONLY in the past 2-3 years.

Please show me one country where diesel is 15-20% cheaper.
https://www.aaroadwatch.ie/eupetrolprices/
Just like the US, the price of diesel fuel in Europe has skyrocketed faster than gasoline. Most countries in Europe have a tax system in place that favors diesel fuel over gasoline in order to encourage people into lower CO2 emitting vehicles.
https://www.independent.co.uk/money/i...te-906793.html

cheers
Justin

Actual personal experience is just different than a survey. I'll just say that.