diesel vs petrol(gasoline)

The cheap shit that you get from the supermarket. Actually ever since I blew myself up (remember the magazine article?) I have drunk neat vodka by the bottle at times. All stems from the hospital deciding that I needed lots of methadone to stop the pain when I was burned.

So after realising that I was becoming hooked I got an ambulance driver to take me home without even discharging myself. I shook and shook, and felt shit! Couldnt get "warm" and couldnt get out of bed due to the burns so started drinking vodka to anethatise myself. Kept waking up at 4 in the afternoon with an empty bottle in my hand and a rather bad head.

Now I quite lique the odd one...

i dunno as hardcore as he likes his motors i tell ya! wish i knew the kinda shit burgerman knows sometimes, the amount of people i could bore with that!!!

We're thinking so too.

You don't. You just get upset and start ranting, probably throwing popcorn at the screen.

Don't bother if you can't be a little helpful with it rather than talking down to us mere mortals who haven't spent every breathing moment doing the things you've done.

That would be a pity. A little adjustment and things would be very, very different.

But as it is... see ya.

Diesel _tends_ to be around 25% more efficient for the same power output, given allowances for gearing and such like. They _tend_ to go around 25% further from a given volume of fuel. There are exceptions to every rule of course.

For a given power output, *with optimised gearing,* performance is comparable.

Diesel dislikers criticised turbodiesels for having a narrow power band. You might have a power band of say 2,000 rpm to 4,500 rpm. Petrol engine haters dislike the way you often need to see 4,000 rpm on the tacho to get into the proper power band. 4,000 rpm to maybe 7,000 rpm isn't much wider than the diesel power band... again subject to the vagaries of engine design and gearing (cue a bunch of arguments that some petrol engines have much broader power bands).

The above arguments may be negated by optimised gearing. As it happens, many modern turbodiesels are sitting in their (limited it may be) power band at a motorway cruise in top gear. Relatively few petrol cars are. That might make the turbodiesel quicker in top but not quicker full stop. Here's where the driver (or transmission) but change down...

Drive an automatic diesel with a set up transmission back to back with a same power output automatic petrol with an equally set up transmission, both with the same power, both will have comparable performance. Except one will sound whiny and drink funky smelling stuff, whereas the other, hmm nice rumble and lovely sticky derv to wipe on your shoes... hmm... diesel...

Sorry. Got a bit off topic there. :-)

Most diesels these days are turbocharged, thus produce on paper more torque than their petrol peers, but the relevance to on road performance is tied in with the above. More torque at the donk, taller gearing, reduced impact at the road.

Diesel engines tend to be heavier than their petrol counterparts, power for power, thanks to more use of cast iron blocks.

As a comparison, there are a few but how about the 2002 Golf, with either a

Petrol: 150 PS, 155 lbsft, 0 - 62 in 8.5 seconds, 134 mph, 35.4 mpg. Diesel: 150 PS, 236 lbsft, 0 - 62 in 8.6 seconds, 134 mph, 52.3 mpg.

The TDI is slightly slower on paper but is bags more economical.

Ah yea, but that's the rather hom version of that particular petrol engine :-)

They don't have the same rev range as a petrol. Therefore they suck. Unless you have a 18 speed gearbox.

Fraser

Diesel turbo.

At lights. Set off put foot down. Nothing, nothing whoosh, nothing, change gear. Nothing, nothing, woosh, nothing, change gear. Nothing, nothing, whoosh, nothing change gear, etc.

Petrol. Set off. Whoosh, change gear more or less where you like (and if you like) and whoosh etc.

But it costs more in petrol. Also petrol sounds nicer, has no tiring "drone", does not hang around at the pumps smelling and getting on your shoes, carpets etc.

Plus petrol engines dont need oil changes so often, and are cheaper as no turbo system needed just to be able to actually move!

If you are going to do a lot of miles and fuel economy is important and driving pleasure isnt then diesels are great! Thats why taxis, trucks, boats, generators, dump trucks, cement mixers, etc mostly use these engines.

If you want performance, smoothness and refinement, quietness and flexibility with rpm range then petrol is better. But you pay more in fuel bills, but less initially and less in servicing to partially ofset the cost.

Best overall solution would be a petrol car with LPG conversion. Best of all worlds... ..

It's a Golf heh.

Nonsense.

If you're unable to change gear properly, try an automatic?

There are not many diesel autos compared to petrol autos precisely BECAUSE its a hard job for an auto to know what gear to be in as well. Most autos have less gears than the equiv manual. This just makes the problem of short usable rpm range even harder to match up.

Diesel autos are an even worse proposition than the manual versions.

You need an exeptionally good autobox, AND an exeptionally good diesel to get mediocre diesel/auto performance like for EG my younger brothers merc. It has to use THREE turbos and very complex management and a very good (read expensive) autobox just to be "ahem" comparable to the petrol version. And its not, its crap! His company made him choose diesel...

And here it is. A typical example of a "modern" (people keep using this word like it means something) turbo diesel auto.

It does about 150 has 265 tyres, and is 3.2v6 tripple turbo in an attempt to make a diesel flexible. Is this your modern diesel car that people keep telling me are good? Because I drive this with linx hand controls and my VR6 VAN is nicer, quieter, smoother, faster and more relaxing in traffic etc.

Its just a typical rev limited heavy diesel. Its auto box is never in the right gear and its tiring and feels slow.

So dont tell me I havent driven a "modern" diesel car!

I have to disagree with the diseasel autos being worse than diseasel manuals.

My brother has an E280CDi Merc with the 7 speed auto box, and it's actually quite nice.

IME, which is rather limited in this field, given that I'm not a fan of either autos or diesels, the torque converter quite capably smoothes the peaky torque curve that has you up and down the box with a manual.

Why do you suppose it needs 7 gears! So it can try to find one that matches the engines limited rpm range to the roadspeed? My bros one spends more time changing from one to another than driving...

?? Did you read the previous post? I think you are easily pleased! The petrol auto is a much nicer car to drive.

I'd *never* argue that a diesel is better than a petrol, cos it ain't true and it ain't gonna happen.

However, I was stating that the E280 CDi is a nice car, even in diesel form, and that the auto box makes it less irritating than having to row a manual diesel one along with the gearlever.

Well I cant argue there...

What he should do is throw the engine away and fit a corvette motor. Then it would be a nice car!

I've got a Corvette motor, unfortunately it's in a tired Cadillac limo at the moment...

Diesel autos are better than diesel manuals. I wouldn't have considered a manual A class, and the Toyota feels like you're always changing gear to punt it along.