At 9:22 -0400 7/07/2002, kilopascal wrote: >2.) All i know about Diesel fuel is it is dirty and in the winter time it >gels and the cars won't go. Trucks (lorrys) and other similar vehicles do >use Diesel fuel. But, most cars don't. Also, the use of manual shifted >transmissions is not as common as automatic. > >3.) Do you mean that Diesel fueled cars consume no more fuel then 8 L/100 km?
Diesel engines are effectively more and more popular in Europe for private cars: in most European countries sales of diesel-powered cars represent about 50 % of total sales, with even higher figures in Germany, France and Belgium. Initially diesel cars were attractive only because of the lower cost (because of lower taxes) of the diesel fuel. This was sufficient to overcome the disadvantages of diesel: dirtiness, odor, noise, lower performance, higher price. This has dramatically changed over the past ten years. Most automotive makers now offer diesel versions of a certain model comparing very favorably to the gasoline version : excellent performance (especially because of higher torque), reduced noise and vibrations, compatibility with automatic gear boxes, catalytic burner and filters significantly reducing pollution (even NOx emissions), price gap much lower. In the mean time the petroleum industry has developed additives making diesel fuel insensitive to low temperatures. In parallel governments increased taxes on diesel fuel, making final cost much closer to gasoline, even equal or higher in countries like Germany or Switzerland (which is quite justified if you consider the energy value per liter). In spite of that, many people are still attracted by diesel-powered cars, because of performance and lower consumption: it is quite common for diesel cars to have a consumption of 5 to 6 l/100 km, i.e 20 to 30% less (in terms of 1/100 km) than thesimilar gasoline-powered model. Louis
