Re: Petrol cars vs Diesel cars

There's a few Golf SDIs about, for some reason that escapes me.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Deepika saying something like:

Spam from the exhaust.

Muppetry? Or their boss knows they've written off the last four Golf TDIs and have given them something slower.

I miss the point all the VAG offerings. It's just a confusing mess of what seems to be the same car served up time and time again with differences so minor that only a bean counting tax man could discern any difference. VAG fit the same engine to many cars but seem to have

5 or 6 different power outputs depending on which part of the VAG group supply it. One thing you can be sure of is that VW always get the lowest output.

OK the French have some sort of tax break at 1.4L for Peasants that makes anything bigger a car for the Bourgeoisie.

If you are making a performance car MAKE A PERFORMANCE car and give it the most powerful engine you can make in that size. If you are making an economy car make an economy car but you don't put a 160bhp engine in an economy car.

As for your points elsewhere about engine size and car buyers demands/expectations. Yes the car buying public are morons. Sell them a supercar off a spec sheet with a 6.2L V12 and then say sorry we have to fit a 3.5L V6 that makes 50bhp MORE and they behave like you offered to cut their balls off. This goes on all the way down to 4 cyl

1L - couldn't buy a 0.6L 3 cyl turbo that makes 10% more power, OH NO way to small and it's missing a cylinder!

How many really need a 160bhp car? They won't ever use WOT in the power band at 5-7k (3-4.5K diesel), preferring instead to use the safe and tame 60-80bhp "performance" at 3-4k (2-2.5K diesel) instead. If it only made 120bhp they would never find out or even know that it had been sold short. 170bhp in 2nd at 55mph is scary stuff, it makes cars shimmy on crossing damp give way white paint lines of DC slip roads, as each wheel hits paint it loses traction and then it's one wheel drive (with a LSD).

As someone from the council has been videoing this junction I expect some "improvements" real soon. Going to be interesting to see how they slow me down and ensure that people don't drive down the slip road at

40mph and then park at the thin end having failed to get on the road by failing to match speed with the traffic. Last time they filmed me the "improvement" was to put a raised kerbed island in place of a white paint one.

This has even gone on to things like GM using a 1.4L on the Volt. They initially thought a 1L turbo was just the job but they realised that it just wasn't enough engine for the idiot car buying public. Either way it would still have 160bhp at the wheels from electric motors and

93bhp genset ICE. The 1L turbo would have been more efficient and lighter but who wants their balls cut off? The choice of a flex fuel N/A 1.4L makes no sense for Europe (or at least UK with high E85 price), it should be a 1.4 turbo diesel as would have lower fuel cost. Electric drive eliminates the diesel power characteristic, the user has no control over ICE speed.

Peter Hill gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Skoda's usually a step behind VW.

The French don't really work on strict capacity - they work on the fiscal horsepower - a complicated formula that includes a stack of things (CO2 included in the current formula, IIRC), including power, gear ratios etc etc.

Nah, the Nissan (read: Renault) engineers are too busy burning sheep to piss on anyone.

No, it hasn't.

It's actually 140PS, or 138bhp anyway. Always has been - and the 2.0TDI wasn't around in 2001.

Well, the Golf, Octavia, A3 and Leon families of cars are all very different. In fact, so different, if you didn't know they were the same car, you'd never suspect it.

Yes, they have the same capacity and often share the same block, but there are big differences between, say, the 1.8T at 150bhp and the 1.8T at 225bhp.

VW rarely 'only' get the lower power - they often have all the range and more often than not share the top power with Audi.

But what about those people who want an 'economy' car (by which, I assume you mean Supermini), but want performance? - not everyone wants, needs, or can afford a Scirocco, for example - but a 'hot' Polo suits them fine.

Absolute crap. You must be a really shit driver.

There are techincal difficulties in producing a Prius-type hybrid drive from low capacity turbo diesels, which is why they've been restricted to mid-sized capacity non-turbo petrols so far. I believe it's to do with ensuring maximum efficiency - which you wouldn't get from a TDI spinning around on boost most of the time.

As someone who drives a 170 bhp, LSD equipped, RWD car with a reputation for tailhappiness and has never suffered from any of the above whilst driving it, I have to suggest you buy something with better handling.

snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Not really. After all, diesel-electric trains use turbo diesels, as do the diesel-hybrid buses in London. PSA are working towards HDi/Hybrid

308s & C4s, probably in the showrooms next year.

So far, they've all been petrols because they've been targetted primarily at the US & Japan, neither of which "do" diesel.

Maybe it has worked on a bigger scale, but I read somewhere that Toyota couldn't make a TDI work as efficiently in a hybrid as a N/A petrol.

snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Mmm. Because Toyota are renowned for the quality of their diesels...

On Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:12:38 +0000, I waved a wand and this message magically appears in front of Peter Hill:

They could, but overstressed engines don't last long.

Large detuned engines _will_ last practically forever with appropriate maintenance.

I doubt it's the car. You can make a NA transit van oversteer & shimmy.

Technical difficult = USA CAFE emmisons calc for diesel.

I think also that because they are targeted (in part) towards the tree hugger brigade then they use petrol power. Diesel has had much bad press over the last few years (99% being bollocks) and is ''out of fashion'' with the PC mob.

Chatting to a (horse) riding instructor yesterday and quizzed here about her Prius. I pushed her hard for the MPG figure and eventually she conceded that it was poor on the motorway and about 50mpg average. I pointed to my Diesel Astra and said that it got more MPG, didn't need all the space age technology and require a second mortgage to replace the batteries when they got goosed! Progress? I ask you....

I wonder who would be brave enough to buy a used Prius, about the same level of bravery as required to tackle a 5 year old Range Rover Sport! Probably see them on the FC's for about £500.

Julian.

I'm ordering one as a company car next month.

£40 / month tax, vs. £100 / month for the diesel Focus I have as an interim measure.

That's why you see so many of them around in the UK.

That's what I forgot to say, she did mention the cheap tax.(es) I think her hubby has a business, prior to the prius (prius to the prior?) they had a Range Rover @ £1000/month talk about extremes.

Julian.

Pririous has amazing technology. Never mind the real mpg, you skip on Taxes and congestion charge. My main concern over these cars is the life time of battery and cost of replacement?

Untill such time as a muppet or two in the gubbinsment wakes up to the fact that regarding the CO2 thingy these cars are worse than a good Diesel. What's that 3 cylinder Diesel do in the latest Vauxhalls - 63mpg average? Still, I'm amazed that LPG has enjoyed its duty advantage for so long - you never know what their thinking is...

My main concern over these cars is the life

Mine too, I wonder just what happens when they start going duff, probably some sort of service exchange from Toyota, or the scrapyard. Or more likely some company will offer an engine and box from (say) an Avensis conversion kit.

Julian.