well written! maybe you should add, the car is a european (german) invention
Otto, Diesel and Wankel were germans, what a coincidence it is really interesting how many importing things the Americans rely on which were invented by Europeans! :-D ----- Original Message ----- From: "Louis JOURDAN" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, July 08, 2002 7:41 AM Subject: [USMA:20881] RE: President Carter > 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 >
