I ran some errands today with my wife, and noted that the average price of regular gas was $4.77. The average price for diesel was $5.58, with one station charging $6.62. Can anyone explain to me why someone would buy a diesel automobile?
and that is only the diesel fuel. Many diesels have to have DEF/Adblue added every so often for emissions devices. tack on more $$ to keep that tank filled up.
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They buy diesels for 2 reasons… the high mpgs they get or the torque for towing in SUVs. Diesel has 30% more energy per gallon. That would seem to justfy the extra cost
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A search on fueleconomy.gov shows there are no diesel cars for sale in the U.S. market, only trucks and large SUVs.
2019 shows a few passenger vehicles were offered but I believe sales volumes were very small.
In 2007 the U.S. required the change to ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel, the increase in the cost of fuel made diesel cars less attractive.
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My boss has a newer Silverado 1/2 ton with a 3.0 (I think) diesel. More powerful than my truck and gets way better mileage, so it was actually probably cheaper to operate when fuel prices were lower. It might still be a wash, considering the highway mileage is so much higher. Of course my gas powered truck isn’t new, so not a straight apples to apples comparison. Still, when fuel prices (gas and diesel) are closer together, the diesels probably can be cheaper to operate. Unfortunately, they tend to cost quite a bit more upfront and get really expensive really quickly when something breaks. I don’t see a need for one unless you’re towing heavy and often.
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Diesel is for towing, i.e. for trucks or large SUVs. There is no compelling reason to buy a passenger car with a diesel engine, and I don’t think very many have been sold since the days when Obama was in office.
Personally, I wouldn’t buy diesel even in a truck. I don’t tow a trailer, and a gasoline engine will handle fine whatever payload can fit in the bed.
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I remember the first time the fuel bill for my 2001 Dodge Ram 2500, Diesel, came to over $100… This weekend, I filled up that 42-gallon fuel tank and it was not empty and it came to over $200 for diesel costing $5.55 and as the attendant laughingly says, it’s only a “Triple Nickel…”
I read that some of the older pumps that were installed when gas went over a $1.00 a gallon (maxed out at $9.99 a gallon) are now getting replaced early as a precaution in anticipation of gas going over $10.00 a gallon.
Actually, it has only 13% more energy, but diesel engines are more efficient on top of that.
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I sure hope all these young men who have “tuned” their diesel pickups to “Roll Coal” are happy with themselves about now…
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Back to rail deliveries causing higher cost transports to be used. It looks like back in 2017 the rails adopted a new scheduling strategy from the rail and spoke to precision point to point scheduling. Seems like it has caused some mass issues with product deliveries. I’m assumming but don’t know, that the reason the rail roads are ordering customers to reduce their demand is maybe in response to that.
So with all the other supply chain issues, now we have the rail system all screwed up. The short comment from the transportation secretary was not encouraging that they know what to do or are concerned.
Elementary, dear Watson. Practical reasons are
- need to pull heavy loads
- commercial usage with high mileage - diesels (unless ford!) can consistently run 1,000,000mi.
- When (not if but when!) sht hits the fan, you can potentially run a diesel of vegetable oil.
I have a diesel truck because I live in the middle of nowhere and need to get firewood, etc. I don’t drive it much and - since my truck even though is branded gmc but has very little to do with gm (Duramax/Isuzu engine, Allison trans, Dana drivetrain) - expect it to last a long time.
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A gasoline engine can do that too, and even put out more power given the same weight of engine compared to diesel.
Yes, this is a big advantage! But Toyota and Volvo have made gasoline engines that have no trouble making it to 500,000mi, so it’s not just being diesel that makes this possible.
That’s a good point! I hope you have enough lubricating oil stored away. If that happened, you would probably be wishing you had gasoline stored away and a small motorcycle for some of your trips. Or get one of those motor bikes that use a go kart engine and replace the engine with a single cylinder diesel.
The big reason is that diesels use significantly less fuel than gasoline engines, and diesel fuel is not a dangerous fire hazard like gasoline is. Diesels have better partial load efficiency too. Imagine a fuel consumption of 5 gallons per hour after 5,000 hours. That’s over $75,000 in fuel! Much more than the cost of the engine.
- Wrong! As much as I love both of my 4Runners, they can’t pull a huge dump trailer loaded with 8 tons of gravel, and as much as I hate gm, have to admit that Duramax gmc could do it no questions asked.
- You are correct. Well, almost. Yes, Toyota still runs almost indefinitely but when you mention Volvo, make sure you specify that you are talking about 1980’s Volvo - today it’s nothing to write home about.
- I do have 300 gal’s of diesel fuel and I do have some gas for my Rav4 Hybrid - granted, it’s not as economical as a motor bike but it’s not bad.
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Couldn’t this engine, the Chevrolet ZZ527 with 621 HP, also do it? ZZ572/620 Deluxe Crate Engine | Chevy Performance Parts
A gas engine, no matter if it’s stock to the vehicle or a high performance swap, isn’t going to pull a heavy load like a turbo diesel. It will pull it if the gas engine is big enough, but it will have to operate at a higher rpm. Gasoline engines have to rev higher and consume more fuel vs a diesel when pulling a load. Hence the reason you never see a semi truck with a blown dragster engine. 
I have wondered how a turbo gas engine would pull a heavy load. Ecoboost in the f150 is pretty great at towing and has great torque at low rpm…but they have yet to put an ecoboost in anything larger than a 1/2 ton. I assume for lack of long term reliability…but I don’t know.
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Don’t hate GM too much. I had a guy stop me the other day and ask if I’d sell my 2005 Sierra. He was driving a 2009 or 2010 f150 Lariat. He stated his engine was going bad (cam phasers were clacking pretty good as it idled). I’m a fan of GM pre 2007 ish. Majority of all the new half tons are not as reliable as some of the early 2000’s stuff, in my opinion.
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It probably could. For a couple of minutes. Before the engine, trans, diff(s), or all of the above blow up. Because it’s all chevy. AND because it’s gas.
Food for thought: semi tractor has about 650 HP, same as some porcshe. Could porcshe pull 60 ton of oil? To clarify, it’s not a matter of power but 1. torque and 2. drivetrain. Duramax gmc has Allison (NOT gm!) trans, Dana (NOT gm!) differentials and transfer case.
At what 2500 RPM versus 7000 RPM? The Chevrolet ZZ527 has 621 HP at 5400 RPM. So it should have something like 300 HP at 3000 RPM? I’d imagine that would vary a lot depending on how it is tuned. With the right valve tuning it should put out 200 HP at 2000 RPM, and it will do that for days and days, whereas the diesel will be damaged with continuous throttle above 80%.
Compared to ford, almost anything is a marvel of engineering. I only compare quality with Toyota. My gmc has 129,000 mi, and it’s in an excellent - by gm standards - shape. But all the panels, switches, etc. (still work!) but look/feel like they spent an eternity in the middle of a junkyard. My 2004 4runner with almost 260,000 mi drives, feels like new. That’s my standard, not ford. And I am not even talking about my experience with gm stuff in the field. I worked for virtually every single extended warranty company in the country covering three states, and out of 1000+ vehicles a year I dealt with, maybe - MAYBE - one was Toyota with some little thing. I have seen one (ONE!) Toyota engine problem in all my years because of a broken drive belt that resulted in overheat. It had 80,000 miles with the original belt. I have NEVER seen a single trans problem…
Like I said, it’s not about power - it’s about torque, and gas engine cannot be compared to diesel in that regard.
There’s no reason to run a diesel @80% throttle for extended period of time. Not to mention that power graph is not linear meaning chevy may not output half HP at half RPM.