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Sep 19, 2009 - Ask Dub Schwartz!

Dear Dub,
I'm certain that hybrids are the way to go rather than diesel for cutting down on oil use. The 2010 Prius already embarrassed the Jetta TDI in the run from LA to LV and back. Is it common in the diesel diehard community to be such a masochist that they want to see another beating? When will those Neanderthals ever get with the program??
Mr. Flexible

Ah yes. Welcome to the Cathedral of the  Never-Ending Debate. As I recall, it's located right down the street from the Imports vs Domestics Friendship Society.

Drive your car. Be happy with it. And if you feel the urge to tell me that my car is wrong for me... well Mama Schwartz always told me to not say anything if I didn't have anything nice to say.

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Sep 10, 2009 - Vrooom

How about some news about a company that didn't take a bailout for a change?

Ford has unveiled a new diesel engine for its Super Duty pickups that it has been quietly developing for the past two years.

The new 6.7-liter Power Stroke V8 engine, code-named Scorpion, weighs about 160 pounds less than the outgoing model. The Super Duty's diesels had been supplied by Navistar since 1979.

Read more at freep.com

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Jun 24, 2009 - Oh, That Guy

No, it's not John Wilkes Booth, it's Rudolph Diesel and Audi is planning to offer two diesel models in the U.S. by the end of the year as a better way to cut oil use than hybrids and electric cars.

“We’re not saying these technologies are nonsense,” Johan de Nysschen, president of Audi of America Inc., said yesterday in a telephone interview. “For us the appeal of the clean diesel technology is that it is here right now.”

It's still a bit of an uphill battle for diesel in the U.S. as that impression that a lot of folks have of diesels being noisy and smelly is a hard thing to overcome.

Read more at Bloomberg.com

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Jun 10, 2008 - Unfortunate Timing?

Sometimes the fates conspire against you and things don't work out the way you planned. Such might be the case with Nissan's announcement of a new diesel vehicle.

Nissan said it plans to launch its first clean diesel vehicle in Japan later this year and will send a prototype to next month's Group of Eight leaders' summit, where climate change tops the agenda.

Delegates attending the G-8 meeting in Toyako, in northern Japan, will be able to test drive Nissan's X-Trail diesel, a sport utility vehicle based on technology co-developed with French partner Renault SA.

The eco-friendly M9R engine can deliver powerful acceleration along with emissions levels low enough to meet tougher Japanese regulations slated for October 2009, Nissan said.

It's unfortunate that they chose an SUV as the platform just as the giant oil meteor has hit and is threatening the extinction of SUVs.

Read more at UKPress

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Apr 9, 2008 - Greener Cleaner

Admit it, when you think of a hyrbid vehicle you're not thinking of a garbage truck.

But that's exactly what's being tested in Sweden as refuse hauler Renova is testing Volvo Truck's diesel-electric hybrid.

Now the details always bother me, so I'm wondering how much the garbage capacity of the truck is impacted by the added weight of the hybrid system and batteries. Just looking at the photo, that truck doesn't seem as large as the one that rumbles through my neighborhood each week.

If it doesn't haul as much trash, either you make more runs with the truck or send out more trucks, both of which would eat into the fuel efficiency gains and emissions reductions. Still, a lot of diesel fans have always wanted to see a diesel hybrid, although they might be looking for something a bit easier to park.

Read the story at Green Car Advisor

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Aug 26, 2007 - Outside the Box

It's hard to say how many people were affected by the late Don Herbert, more commonly known as Mr. Wizard, but he certainly turned on my scientific curiousity gene. "What if..." thinking leads to many breakthroughs and innovations and helps you avoid being added to this list of notable quotables:

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
--Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil?
 You're crazy."
--Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill
 for oil in 1859.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
--Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

Fortunately there always are those who are willing to push the bounds of knowledge and technology, or ignore them completely, and lead us into the brave new world.

GM has been working on a diesel-like gasoline engine for 30 years and apparently has demonstrated a working concept vehicle using homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI).

With the way we're more focused on the mileage performance of our vehicles now, I've often wondered where the progress in fuel efficiency of the internal combustion engine has gone. My 1981 Sentra would get 54 mpg on the highway, yet my new and improved 1996 Sentra would only get 42 mpg. Safety and comfort improved, but economy seemed to be headed in the other direction.

So I'm always encouraged when I hear about those willing to swim upstream against the conventional wisdom. Perhaps HCCI doesn't turn out to be the next best thing since sliced bread, but you never know!

Thanks Mr. Wizard!
For opening up my eyes
Possibilities

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