You’re right. Once again I got caught bloviating without knowledge - not new territory for me.
"And it appears building diesels can be done at much the same price point as gas engines, which is not true of hybrid power. "
Though Tex. rightfully points out that there is a cost differential in the other direction to the buyer, I’m skeptically going to point out two things. Wentwest said the “building” cost of the diesel engine is the same which is different. The added price of the supporting hardware accounts for much of the increase for the diesel. Aa long time user of diesels, I find the rebuild cost has to be compared on a performance level basis for the engine. Sure, a diesel of superior output may cost more to make than a lesser gas engine. But I would argue that w/o the cost of supporting mechanics, the difference of equal power versions of each, may not be as great as one would think. And he did say “engine”. Tooling cost is the biggest consideration, and if diesels were more common place, the difference would be even less.
Just “bloviating” with only a little more working knowledge; just enough to be dangerous.
We have two. 84 300D with 235,000 miles and a 91 jetta 1.6 turbo with 207,000 miles. They are both really dependable, and I love the simplicity in design. I want to crush our 98 beetle gasser. It is always breaking due to the complex sensor systems installed on it. I also run both cars on 5:1 WVO diesel with 8oz acetone per 5 gallons of veg. To summerize, they don’t break often and they are very cheap to run…don’t forget 5-7000 mile oil change intervals as well…
wasn’t just Detroit. My father in law had a VW diesel back in that era. It wasn’t as awful as the GM diesels of the time,
I had a diesel Rabbit at that time and it was a great car. I have a 2002 diesel VW NB now. No problems with the Rabbit until it was totaled at about 180,000 miles (no serious injuries I am happy to say) and my current VW with about 100,000 miles has had no problems other than road hazard damage.
A friend decided (against my recommendation) to buy a GM diesel car. Nothing but problems. He finally finished it off by filling it with gasoline.
That said, I don’t recommend diesels for everyone.
I certainly will not disagree with that, daqosa
"1. We do not have low sulfur diesel"
Refineries produce 4 ppm diesel.
LSD is 500 ppm of sulfur.
Have you tried to purchase a diesel in the US lately? All the diesels are usually sold even before the dealers get them on the lots (except for the large pickups). They are great for towing and hauling heavy loads (think pickups towing campers etc.). They are great for cruising on the highway with exceptional efficiency (think VW Jetta TDI). And they are now no more noisey that a gasoline engine (except for Ford diesels which seem to be designed to be as loud as possible).