Before buying my Golf TDI, I did check the fact regarding such far-fetched claims. They are based on old study of health impact of industrial diesels such as train engines and construction equipment.
Modern car diesel engines, such as VW's one, are very clean compared to those in that study, and their emission is comparable to gas cars. The make-up of the emission is different, and the impact of particular components is still a subject of much debate.
If you consider that you burn much less diesel fuel than gas for the same amount of travel, the environment claims of anti-diesel lobby get even more debatable.
Mandatory conspirological comment: would the oil companies be really interested in everyone switching to the cars that are ~2 times more fuel-efficient ? Sure thing !
Yeah, and I love getting 48 mpg.
I just want to share my recent experience with Linksys, so people wouldn't make a purchase desicion based on the fact of bundling Linux alone. I have spend three evenings trying to make a Linksys PCMCIA 10/100 Ethernet card to work with my Dell Inspiron and NT WS (dual booting to Linux, but that's beyond the point). I have sent emails, I've spend a few hours on hold, etc. In general, my impression is that Linksys doesn't have a functioning support department at all. I couldn't get to a support specialist or operator on the phone, they don't answer emails in a meaningful manner, etc.
Netgear's PCMCIA card also doesn't work out of the box, but at least I managed to talk to a support person who sounded like he had some idea what's going on.
Today, I'm going back to CompUSA to return Linksys card and give a shot to a really expensive one, made by a company with a '3' in it's name.
I bought a car via CarOrder.com, and reasonably happy with the buying process. Prices were good, and I liked that I could do most of the stuff via email. There was some initial delay with returning my emails, but no problems other than that. I picked the car from one of dealers in my area about 10 days after starting to deal with CarOrder (I was very specific about the specs I wanted to get).
CarsDirect quoted substantially higher price, and autobytel people have never contacted me back. So, if the price is good, I would certainly recommend CarOrder (unless you really enjoy haggling with dealers on your free time).
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Before buying my Golf TDI, I did check the fact regarding such far-fetched claims. They are based on old study of health impact of industrial diesels such as train engines and construction equipment. Modern car diesel engines, such as VW's one, are very clean compared to those in that study, and their emission is comparable to gas cars. The make-up of the emission is different, and the impact of particular components is still a subject of much debate. If you consider that you burn much less diesel fuel than gas for the same amount of travel, the environment claims of anti-diesel lobby get even more debatable. Mandatory conspirological comment: would the oil companies be really interested in everyone switching to the cars that are ~2 times more fuel-efficient ? Sure thing ! Yeah, and I love getting 48 mpg.
Netgear's PCMCIA card also doesn't work out of the box, but at least I managed to talk to a support person who sounded like he had some idea what's going on.
Today, I'm going back to CompUSA to return Linksys card and give a shot to a really expensive one, made by a company with a '3' in it's name.
I bought a car via CarOrder.com, and reasonably happy with the buying process. Prices were good, and I liked that I could do most of the stuff via email. There was some initial delay with returning my emails, but no problems other than that. I picked the car from one of dealers in my area about 10 days after starting to deal with CarOrder (I was very specific about the specs I wanted to get).
CarsDirect quoted substantially higher price, and autobytel people have never contacted me back. So, if the price is good, I would certainly recommend CarOrder (unless you really enjoy haggling with dealers on your free time).