Oy! For starters number of cylinders has exactly nothing to do with power production or torque. I don't drive in the city, I drive in traffic. My 10mile commute takes me as much as 45minutes to make, I seldom break 30MPH for much of it. So no this isn't combined anything, it's sit in traffic hell and I get around 38MPG doing it.
Yes, I can justify spending more money for a car that gets less performance because this isn't a car I drive FOR performance and it performs well enough for the job at hand - it's a tool. This is a car I drive for MPG and for commuting, it is comfortable and I have to fuel it just once a month or so. The other cars I own most certainly DO require premium fuel and they make the 0-60 figures you quote for the gas VW laughable. Here's one of them from the past -> http://www.streetfire.net/video/blkmgks-t78-supra-6spd-before-being-trashed-by-a_84169.htm That's a 1/4 mile BTW, think of it as merging onto the highway for some frame of reference - note the speed at the end.
Please do not try to tell me anything about the octane of gas and what works best or I'll be forced to school you on cylinder pressures, knock, timing, air/fuel mixtures, and appropriate fuels for the job. If I'm buying something that's not for MPG it will be for performance, it will require premium - which is what the car in that video ran - pump premium and a little methanol on top:-) Certainly little cars that go A-B like your's do fine on regular, nothing I buy that runs on gasoline is likely to however which is why I mentioned performance and compression. Diesel works for my commute, a hybrid would work better, if i had more highway mileage my MPG would go up - WAY up. 600 miles on a tank would be easily achievable, I get about 525 now.
I wonder - what's the resale on that gasser VW compared to the TDI. I know when I bought mine I bought new because no one would sell their TDI for a price that was reasonable and buying new made sense. It was one of THE only cars I've ever bought new and it's maintenance has been pretty much zippo....
Yup, that's exactly the car i mean. Turns out those little beer can cars fit a V8 under the hood VERY nicely! Since the engines they put under there from the factory toasted their engines pretty easily they were often snapped up for a song and converted to V8 power by racers. I had one of these and the entire drivetrain had been replaced in order to support the power. The engine was a bit worn and it had some rust under the hood but it went like stink and was quite fun to drive! The automatic could be shifted manually and the shifts were very hard, it would spin the tires each time at full throttle. Sticky tires, very low gearing, halfway devent motor, no weight. That poor chassis flexed like crazy too as it also lacked any sort of frame or cage to reinforce it. Friends would have to be careful putting their arms out the windows and grabbing the roof as when i let off the gas the chassis would flex enough to pinch their hands! Keep Googling and you'll find some pretty crazy examples of what can be done with these little cars that had big engine bays:-) The V8 fit in there liek it was meant to be. Also, take a look at what can be done with a Datsun 240Z and a V8 while you're at it;-)
Yes, the advent of the locking torque converter means that on th ehighway you get no fluid loss through the torque converter and that bumps MPG as well as lowers RPM. that's a fairly recent innovation. Also recent is cars with CVT and gear based transmissions with clutches just like a manual. that said - don't believe the EPA ratings. I drive one of those gear based manuals and while it might do better steady-state a stick will certainly do better in traffic. The damned automatic chooses it's shift points poorly and I get better MPG if I shift it myself - and even then it will often lock me out and not allow me to shift as soon as I could. A stick would have no limitations and i wish I'd bought one for many reasons and not just this one. If it were offered in the Audi A3 TDI diesel I'd be looking to buy one this weekend but no such luck...
Frankly I have no issue with firing her. She has just proven herself to be a hypocritical drama queen (see some of her other posts). She is apparently supposed to be an "evangelist" and yet just screwed over members of the community for which she must interface to do her job. They should have fired her sooner! Sorry miss, you've just become ineffective in your position, there's the door.
Bullshit! Certainly these guys could be taken aside and counseled for conduct that reflected badly, certainly apologizing could be in order. But firing? No way. In fact the conversation didn't even include her - she eavesdropped on them and when she realized they worked for a sponsoring company she figured out she could make a grand splash. Drama drama drama, she got exactly what she wished for - oodles of attention. What she didn't bargain for was the fact that most of us with common sense see right through her for what she is.
As for firing her? Oh that had to happen. No way should she be considered for a position that requires her to interface with a group of people she just alienated.No way would I send her to talk to programmers as a manager. If I were a developer and she were brought into my workspaces I'd leave. I wouldn't want to be in the same room as this woman. Why would I risk my job around someone who has a proven track record of blowing things out of proportion and casting aspersions?! Forget it, she can stay far far away so far as I'm concerned. When she figures out how to act like an adult and grows a thicker skin then maybe she should be allowed out with the big kids. She can't possibly function in the position she was cast for and shouldn't be employed as such. For that matter I sure hope any future employer figures out Google well enough to see what's in store for them if they hire her...
I just went through a freaking training course for sexual harassment. More than one scenario wasn't much different than the one she was in. Two employees say something that offends a third. In each case the action was to speak to the employees directly vs trying to make an instant federal case out of it and if uncomfortable doing that speak to a supervisor. In no scenario was a single action bad enough to warrant a firing or going nutz over it. This surprised me since in some of those scenarios I was escalating earlier than the test said i should be.
Honestly this woman shot herself in the foot. Supposedly she's supposed to be an evangelist and interact with developers right? As a developer, having seen her get two other developers into deep shit, would you want this woman anywhere near you? Would you even want to speak to her? She's supposed to fit in and get other's interested in her product?! Firing her was a smart move and IMO they should probably have done it sooner, hell look at some of the crap she's tweeted in the past! these two guys were talking among themselves and while it might not have been a completely private conversation it certainly wasn't one pointed at her. She could have simply asked them to keep the jokes to themselves but instead thought Oh Noes I must save the children! Give me a freakin' break, she is an idiot and she wanted her moment of fame. Good, now she has it and i hope that any future employer who considers her for ANY sort of opportunity that includes interfacing with people thinks twice. I not only wouldn't want to speak to this woman I wouldn't want her on the premises for fear she might become traumatized over something and cry to the world. People who have nerves this exposed shouldn't be allowed in public. Should these guys have been a little smarter, sure. But what she did was over the top and the company involved is obviously not too bright either. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if their HR policy was violated over this if it's anything like the policies in companies I've worked.
What a mess. Sorry lady but you didn't advance anything and in fact you made things worse if anything. If there were anyone around me like you I'd steer very clear of them and make sure never to find myself alone with you lest you make an accusation I couldn't disprove. Sheesh!
Actually my VW could be optioned with a block heater but when I asked for it they told me it would add another month to my lead time. My car isn't happy starting in cold weather but two turns of the glow plug preheater circuit and a decent battery and it cranks right up!
Depends on what it replaced. I had a girlfriend swap a Pathfinder for a VW and her fuel bills dropped enough to pay the car note on the VW! Literally. I fillup once a month in my VW and go 500 miles+ on a tank - in the Winter. The ratings for diesel aren't accurate from the EPA and many diesel owners tend to pay attention more to their driving I think. Check Fuelly.com for more accurate MPG figures...
My understanding is that it's possible to replace individual cells in a Prius so having to replace the entire pack isn't likely. I'd drive a Prius but currently own a diesel that runs fine. For my commute a Prius might be even more economical but it certainly wouldn't be as comfortable...
At 60K I've done two fuel filters and a set of tires along with oil changes. I have a torn CV boot I'm ignoring. What is this high cost of maintenance you speak of? In 6 years my car has never failed to get me where I wanted to go. Oh yeah, I replaced the starter battery a year ago too.
Well, I do happen to have a DSG. Every single other vehicle I've ever owned save for a V8 Vega has had a stick. I relented and bought the DSG because it had the manual gears inside and I thought it might be easier to drive in traffic.... I've had it 6 years now and regret not buying a manual! The manual diesel TDI get better MPG, partly because owners can shift them sooner than that damned DSG will shift on it's own. I believe the gearing may be slightly better too and I know for sure that swapping in a taller top gear is most easily done by many in the stick shifted versions. At 65-70MPH I'm turning well over 2K RPM and my TDI gets much better mileage closer to 1500. I get noticeably better MPG if I shift the silly thing manually, I also find that creeping in traffic is better accomplished if I leave it in a lower gear.
So yeah, the new gear based automatics should be using less power and certainly do better than even a lockup torque converter equipped automatic but unless they are geared and mapped correctly it's still pretty tough to beat a stick. The funny thing is though that auto shifted gear boxes are getting quick enough that they beat sticks in acceleration testing! The new Porsches coming out are a good example of this. I wish I had the ability to reprogram my DSG but sadly I can only get canned programs for it. Oh, and the DSG clutches cannot handle the sorts of power a stick can nor can the clutches be upgraded nearly as cheaply or as easily as a stick could be so I cannot reprogram my engine for as great a power level. Oddly, everyone I speak to about engine reprogramming tells me the higher powered engines make better mileage figures too:-O
Daily drivers are actually pushing compression upwards, the direct injected ones may even begin to use autoignition with gasoline! I tend to bend towards turbos so I cannot speak to 14:1 kinds of ratios but 9:1 and a 2 BAR of boost makes for a fun ride! I'm not a huge fan of alcohol unless it's being used to limit detonation, the fumes are obnoxious and the volumes of fuel required are insane. I do badly wish that E85 were available in my area as the power output with that is just disgusting!
In any case, I stand that gas in a diesel is asking for nasty noises and a dead engine. I happen to have read about such a thing occurring on the VW diesel forums actually. A TDI owner witnessed a young tween about to fill her TDI with gas but when he tried to stop her she blew him off in favor of her friend on the phone. So... he waited to see what would happen when she attempted to leave. She got about 5 feet before noises occurred and the vehicle stopped. The last thing he heard before driving away was her calling her Daddy to complain that her new gift was "broken".....
Pssst! They don't get just 30MPG in the city unless your foot is flat to the floor full time. I drive a larger older Jetta and get 38MPG average over the 60K+ miles I've been driving it. Newer Jetta apparently do better. Also, most any vehicle I buy is likely going to need premium fuel unless it's a complete junker. I tend to like power and that usually requires premium to go with the turbo or higher compression. YMMV At 100K a diesel is only just getting warmed up usually. The only costs for mine thus far have been oil changes, tires, and two fuel filters...
Oh yeah, head over to Fuelly.com if you want real world MPG numbers for your math. You may find that the gas vehicles have different MPG numbers too but not having owned one in a VW I dunno'.
I wouldn't say the blocks were bad, just not good for a diesel engine. They had higher nickel content and for a time were sought out for racing purposes:-) I've got Hot Rod or Car Craft articles from the era detailing the small changes needed to bring them up to spec for track usage.
I would point out that those engines were close enough to standard V8 that many were converted to gasoline use and were sought after by some due to the heavier nickel content in their engine blocks. These were essentially gas engines and the modifications to take them back to gas usage were minimal enough that some dealers were doing it - I likely still have some car magazines that talk about this and how to identify them for racing usage from back in the day. The designs started out as gas engines and became diesels - hence my usage of the term converted.;-)
So what? I fill up once a month, I go 500 miles on a tank. I laugh when people tell me it's "more expensive". When I tell them how far I go on a tank and how much it costs to fill their jaws drop. I hardly track the cost of it I see the pumps so seldom, I'm told that hybrid drivers also have this issue. I look for cost per mile and frequency of fueling as measurements now cost per gallon. I have a sports car that gets far fewer miles to the gallow and while I love driving it that thing costs me a fortune and thus isn't driven nearly as much...
Supposedly the A3 is going to get a manual again - when it does I'm upgrading. For now the Jetta does just fine but I really want the sport suspension, decent seats, HID headlights and other things the damned Audi gets that I couldn't:-(
Volkswagen offers more than just those two and Audi offers slightly upscale versions of the Jetta as well as others. The Audio A3 is really just a nicer Jetta and doesn't cost much more. I believe Jeep will be offering a diesel again soon - the last one apparently sold poorly. There are more on the way...
60-70% is crap. My fun sports car gets 19MPG maybe a hair less, my diesel gets 38MPG on the same commute. Most cars do much better than 19MPG.
That said the fun car gets maybe 200 miles on a $50 fill and the diesel gets 500. An ex of mine parked her crappy SUV, bought a TDI, and saved neough on fuel bills to pay her car payment - literally. It certainly is a decent payback if you're driving some big ass SUV but much less so if you're used to driving a more normal pedestrian car. For folks who want the real deal on MPG head over to Fuelly.com and lookup vehicles you're interested in. Friends with TDI newer than mine are beating my MPG handily but until Audi brings back a stick in the A3 I'm not upgrading...
I get a bit over 500 miles on a tank driving mostly city traffic, finding a pump in that range is certainly a possibility. Box trucks, pickups, 18 wheelers - they use diesel too and you had better believe they find fuel and stations have it available. In my area not every station has it but I can think of 4 off the top of my head and on trips outside of my normal comfort zone finding them isn't hard either. Your's is an excuse used by many that is simply not valid - you need to look a little harder I suspect.
You do realize that until recently automatic transmissions ate up significant amount of power\MPG right? How is that significantly better exactly? Anyone who has driven a stick for any length of time isn't flailing around - I'm guessing you're one of the fools who can't do so. It's got nothing to do with image and quite a bit more to do with control. The best "DSG" type automatics are actually stick shifts run by a computer - complete with one or more clutches. Stick shift transmissions are often capable of withstanding far more torque than automatics and they are most certainly a simpler piece of hardware. Not burning out the clutch in a heavy vehicle with a stick is simply a matter of knowing WTF you're doing and having proper gear range available. You should maybe take a gander in a few 18 wheeler cabs or dump trucks to figure out just how wrong you are, perhaps you think pickups are pulling more weight? The automatic is starting to make inroads there too but manuals are most certainly capable of moving those vehicles without issue...
Biodiesel takes a significant amount of water to produce, also uses alcohol in the production process (much of which can be gotten back if done correctly), and produces noticeably less MPG than petro diesel. It also damages some fuel systems due to the alcohol content\particulates - no manufacturer wants it in their vehicles. It's not exactly the panacea that many would like but hopefully the programs to create oil bearing algae and other bio products will advance things.
Diesel is less explosive than gasoline and provides range that neither solar\electric nor gasoline could provide. Not to mention the added weight of said batteries required for an electric vehicle. We are talking about a VERY heavy vehicle here, not a Prius. But sure, go ahead and advocate spending a zillion dollars of our tax money on research to try and make an electric Beast - then whine about the mispent dollars...
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Oy! For starters number of cylinders has exactly nothing to do with power production or torque. I don't drive in the city, I drive in traffic. My 10mile commute takes me as much as 45minutes to make, I seldom break 30MPH for much of it. So no this isn't combined anything, it's sit in traffic hell and I get around 38MPG doing it.
Yes, I can justify spending more money for a car that gets less performance because this isn't a car I drive FOR performance and it performs well enough for the job at hand - it's a tool. This is a car I drive for MPG and for commuting, it is comfortable and I have to fuel it just once a month or so. The other cars I own most certainly DO require premium fuel and they make the 0-60 figures you quote for the gas VW laughable. Here's one of them from the past -> http://www.streetfire.net/video/blkmgks-t78-supra-6spd-before-being-trashed-by-a_84169.htm That's a 1/4 mile BTW, think of it as merging onto the highway for some frame of reference - note the speed at the end.
Please do not try to tell me anything about the octane of gas and what works best or I'll be forced to school you on cylinder pressures, knock, timing, air/fuel mixtures, and appropriate fuels for the job. If I'm buying something that's not for MPG it will be for performance, it will require premium - which is what the car in that video ran - pump premium and a little methanol on top :-) Certainly little cars that go A-B like your's do fine on regular, nothing I buy that runs on gasoline is likely to however which is why I mentioned performance and compression. Diesel works for my commute, a hybrid would work better, if i had more highway mileage my MPG would go up - WAY up. 600 miles on a tank would be easily achievable, I get about 525 now.
I wonder - what's the resale on that gasser VW compared to the TDI. I know when I bought mine I bought new because no one would sell their TDI for a price that was reasonable and buying new made sense. It was one of THE only cars I've ever bought new and it's maintenance has been pretty much zippo....
Yup, that's exactly the car i mean. Turns out those little beer can cars fit a V8 under the hood VERY nicely! Since the engines they put under there from the factory toasted their engines pretty easily they were often snapped up for a song and converted to V8 power by racers. I had one of these and the entire drivetrain had been replaced in order to support the power. The engine was a bit worn and it had some rust under the hood but it went like stink and was quite fun to drive! The automatic could be shifted manually and the shifts were very hard, it would spin the tires each time at full throttle. Sticky tires, very low gearing, halfway devent motor, no weight. That poor chassis flexed like crazy too as it also lacked any sort of frame or cage to reinforce it. Friends would have to be careful putting their arms out the windows and grabbing the roof as when i let off the gas the chassis would flex enough to pinch their hands! Keep Googling and you'll find some pretty crazy examples of what can be done with these little cars that had big engine bays :-) The V8 fit in there liek it was meant to be. Also, take a look at what can be done with a Datsun 240Z and a V8 while you're at it ;-)
Yes, the advent of the locking torque converter means that on th ehighway you get no fluid loss through the torque converter and that bumps MPG as well as lowers RPM. that's a fairly recent innovation. Also recent is cars with CVT and gear based transmissions with clutches just like a manual. that said - don't believe the EPA ratings. I drive one of those gear based manuals and while it might do better steady-state a stick will certainly do better in traffic. The damned automatic chooses it's shift points poorly and I get better MPG if I shift it myself - and even then it will often lock me out and not allow me to shift as soon as I could. A stick would have no limitations and i wish I'd bought one for many reasons and not just this one. If it were offered in the Audi A3 TDI diesel I'd be looking to buy one this weekend but no such luck...
Frankly I have no issue with firing her. She has just proven herself to be a hypocritical drama queen (see some of her other posts). She is apparently supposed to be an "evangelist" and yet just screwed over members of the community for which she must interface to do her job. They should have fired her sooner! Sorry miss, you've just become ineffective in your position, there's the door.
Bullshit! Certainly these guys could be taken aside and counseled for conduct that reflected badly, certainly apologizing could be in order. But firing? No way. In fact the conversation didn't even include her - she eavesdropped on them and when she realized they worked for a sponsoring company she figured out she could make a grand splash. Drama drama drama, she got exactly what she wished for - oodles of attention. What she didn't bargain for was the fact that most of us with common sense see right through her for what she is.
As for firing her? Oh that had to happen. No way should she be considered for a position that requires her to interface with a group of people she just alienated.No way would I send her to talk to programmers as a manager. If I were a developer and she were brought into my workspaces I'd leave. I wouldn't want to be in the same room as this woman. Why would I risk my job around someone who has a proven track record of blowing things out of proportion and casting aspersions?! Forget it, she can stay far far away so far as I'm concerned. When she figures out how to act like an adult and grows a thicker skin then maybe she should be allowed out with the big kids. She can't possibly function in the position she was cast for and shouldn't be employed as such. For that matter I sure hope any future employer figures out Google well enough to see what's in store for them if they hire her...
I just went through a freaking training course for sexual harassment. More than one scenario wasn't much different than the one she was in. Two employees say something that offends a third. In each case the action was to speak to the employees directly vs trying to make an instant federal case out of it and if uncomfortable doing that speak to a supervisor. In no scenario was a single action bad enough to warrant a firing or going nutz over it. This surprised me since in some of those scenarios I was escalating earlier than the test said i should be.
Honestly this woman shot herself in the foot. Supposedly she's supposed to be an evangelist and interact with developers right? As a developer, having seen her get two other developers into deep shit, would you want this woman anywhere near you? Would you even want to speak to her? She's supposed to fit in and get other's interested in her product?! Firing her was a smart move and IMO they should probably have done it sooner, hell look at some of the crap she's tweeted in the past! these two guys were talking among themselves and while it might not have been a completely private conversation it certainly wasn't one pointed at her. She could have simply asked them to keep the jokes to themselves but instead thought Oh Noes I must save the children! Give me a freakin' break, she is an idiot and she wanted her moment of fame. Good, now she has it and i hope that any future employer who considers her for ANY sort of opportunity that includes interfacing with people thinks twice. I not only wouldn't want to speak to this woman I wouldn't want her on the premises for fear she might become traumatized over something and cry to the world. People who have nerves this exposed shouldn't be allowed in public. Should these guys have been a little smarter, sure. But what she did was over the top and the company involved is obviously not too bright either. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if their HR policy was violated over this if it's anything like the policies in companies I've worked.
What a mess. Sorry lady but you didn't advance anything and in fact you made things worse if anything. If there were anyone around me like you I'd steer very clear of them and make sure never to find myself alone with you lest you make an accusation I couldn't disprove. Sheesh!
Actually my VW could be optioned with a block heater but when I asked for it they told me it would add another month to my lead time. My car isn't happy starting in cold weather but two turns of the glow plug preheater circuit and a decent battery and it cranks right up!
Depends on what it replaced. I had a girlfriend swap a Pathfinder for a VW and her fuel bills dropped enough to pay the car note on the VW! Literally. I fillup once a month in my VW and go 500 miles+ on a tank - in the Winter. The ratings for diesel aren't accurate from the EPA and many diesel owners tend to pay attention more to their driving I think. Check Fuelly.com for more accurate MPG figures...
My understanding is that it's possible to replace individual cells in a Prius so having to replace the entire pack isn't likely. I'd drive a Prius but currently own a diesel that runs fine. For my commute a Prius might be even more economical but it certainly wouldn't be as comfortable...
At 60K I've done two fuel filters and a set of tires along with oil changes. I have a torn CV boot I'm ignoring. What is this high cost of maintenance you speak of? In 6 years my car has never failed to get me where I wanted to go. Oh yeah, I replaced the starter battery a year ago too.
Well, I do happen to have a DSG. Every single other vehicle I've ever owned save for a V8 Vega has had a stick. I relented and bought the DSG because it had the manual gears inside and I thought it might be easier to drive in traffic.... I've had it 6 years now and regret not buying a manual! The manual diesel TDI get better MPG, partly because owners can shift them sooner than that damned DSG will shift on it's own. I believe the gearing may be slightly better too and I know for sure that swapping in a taller top gear is most easily done by many in the stick shifted versions. At 65-70MPH I'm turning well over 2K RPM and my TDI gets much better mileage closer to 1500. I get noticeably better MPG if I shift the silly thing manually, I also find that creeping in traffic is better accomplished if I leave it in a lower gear.
So yeah, the new gear based automatics should be using less power and certainly do better than even a lockup torque converter equipped automatic but unless they are geared and mapped correctly it's still pretty tough to beat a stick. The funny thing is though that auto shifted gear boxes are getting quick enough that they beat sticks in acceleration testing! The new Porsches coming out are a good example of this. I wish I had the ability to reprogram my DSG but sadly I can only get canned programs for it. Oh, and the DSG clutches cannot handle the sorts of power a stick can nor can the clutches be upgraded nearly as cheaply or as easily as a stick could be so I cannot reprogram my engine for as great a power level. Oddly, everyone I speak to about engine reprogramming tells me the higher powered engines make better mileage figures too :-O
Daily drivers are actually pushing compression upwards, the direct injected ones may even begin to use autoignition with gasoline! I tend to bend towards turbos so I cannot speak to 14:1 kinds of ratios but 9:1 and a 2 BAR of boost makes for a fun ride! I'm not a huge fan of alcohol unless it's being used to limit detonation, the fumes are obnoxious and the volumes of fuel required are insane. I do badly wish that E85 were available in my area as the power output with that is just disgusting!
In any case, I stand that gas in a diesel is asking for nasty noises and a dead engine. I happen to have read about such a thing occurring on the VW diesel forums actually. A TDI owner witnessed a young tween about to fill her TDI with gas but when he tried to stop her she blew him off in favor of her friend on the phone. So... he waited to see what would happen when she attempted to leave. She got about 5 feet before noises occurred and the vehicle stopped. The last thing he heard before driving away was her calling her Daddy to complain that her new gift was "broken".....
Pssst! They don't get just 30MPG in the city unless your foot is flat to the floor full time. I drive a larger older Jetta and get 38MPG average over the 60K+ miles I've been driving it. Newer Jetta apparently do better. Also, most any vehicle I buy is likely going to need premium fuel unless it's a complete junker. I tend to like power and that usually requires premium to go with the turbo or higher compression. YMMV At 100K a diesel is only just getting warmed up usually. The only costs for mine thus far have been oil changes, tires, and two fuel filters...
Oh yeah, head over to Fuelly.com if you want real world MPG numbers for your math. You may find that the gas vehicles have different MPG numbers too but not having owned one in a VW I dunno'.
I wouldn't say the blocks were bad, just not good for a diesel engine. They had higher nickel content and for a time were sought out for racing purposes :-) I've got Hot Rod or Car Craft articles from the era detailing the small changes needed to bring them up to spec for track usage.
I would point out that those engines were close enough to standard V8 that many were converted to gasoline use and were sought after by some due to the heavier nickel content in their engine blocks. These were essentially gas engines and the modifications to take them back to gas usage were minimal enough that some dealers were doing it - I likely still have some car magazines that talk about this and how to identify them for racing usage from back in the day. The designs started out as gas engines and became diesels - hence my usage of the term converted. ;-)
So what? I fill up once a month, I go 500 miles on a tank. I laugh when people tell me it's "more expensive". When I tell them how far I go on a tank and how much it costs to fill their jaws drop. I hardly track the cost of it I see the pumps so seldom, I'm told that hybrid drivers also have this issue. I look for cost per mile and frequency of fueling as measurements now cost per gallon. I have a sports car that gets far fewer miles to the gallow and while I love driving it that thing costs me a fortune and thus isn't driven nearly as much...
Supposedly the A3 is going to get a manual again - when it does I'm upgrading. For now the Jetta does just fine but I really want the sport suspension, decent seats, HID headlights and other things the damned Audi gets that I couldn't :-(
I think maybe you ought to tell the railroad industry of your theories and see what they have to say about the futility of electric for towing....
Volkswagen offers more than just those two and Audi offers slightly upscale versions of the Jetta as well as others. The Audio A3 is really just a nicer Jetta and doesn't cost much more. I believe Jeep will be offering a diesel again soon - the last one apparently sold poorly. There are more on the way...
60-70% is crap. My fun sports car gets 19MPG maybe a hair less, my diesel gets 38MPG on the same commute. Most cars do much better than 19MPG.
That said the fun car gets maybe 200 miles on a $50 fill and the diesel gets 500. An ex of mine parked her crappy SUV, bought a TDI, and saved neough on fuel bills to pay her car payment - literally. It certainly is a decent payback if you're driving some big ass SUV but much less so if you're used to driving a more normal pedestrian car. For folks who want the real deal on MPG head over to Fuelly.com and lookup vehicles you're interested in. Friends with TDI newer than mine are beating my MPG handily but until Audi brings back a stick in the A3 I'm not upgrading...
I get a bit over 500 miles on a tank driving mostly city traffic, finding a pump in that range is certainly a possibility. Box trucks, pickups, 18 wheelers - they use diesel too and you had better believe they find fuel and stations have it available. In my area not every station has it but I can think of 4 off the top of my head and on trips outside of my normal comfort zone finding them isn't hard either. Your's is an excuse used by many that is simply not valid - you need to look a little harder I suspect.
You do realize that until recently automatic transmissions ate up significant amount of power\MPG right? How is that significantly better exactly? Anyone who has driven a stick for any length of time isn't flailing around - I'm guessing you're one of the fools who can't do so. It's got nothing to do with image and quite a bit more to do with control. The best "DSG" type automatics are actually stick shifts run by a computer - complete with one or more clutches. Stick shift transmissions are often capable of withstanding far more torque than automatics and they are most certainly a simpler piece of hardware. Not burning out the clutch in a heavy vehicle with a stick is simply a matter of knowing WTF you're doing and having proper gear range available. You should maybe take a gander in a few 18 wheeler cabs or dump trucks to figure out just how wrong you are, perhaps you think pickups are pulling more weight? The automatic is starting to make inroads there too but manuals are most certainly capable of moving those vehicles without issue...
Biodiesel takes a significant amount of water to produce, also uses alcohol in the production process (much of which can be gotten back if done correctly), and produces noticeably less MPG than petro diesel. It also damages some fuel systems due to the alcohol content\particulates - no manufacturer wants it in their vehicles. It's not exactly the panacea that many would like but hopefully the programs to create oil bearing algae and other bio products will advance things.
Diesel is less explosive than gasoline and provides range that neither solar\electric nor gasoline could provide. Not to mention the added weight of said batteries required for an electric vehicle. We are talking about a VERY heavy vehicle here, not a Prius. But sure, go ahead and advocate spending a zillion dollars of our tax money on research to try and make an electric Beast - then whine about the mispent dollars...
The President is a symbol as well as a man so yes if he were killed it would have an effect on morale if nothing else.