Posted on 02/06/2011 1:40:33 PM PST by MulberryDraw
The new Mini Cooper Countryman can get 63 MPGs on the highway – just not on our highways.
Like so many other high-mileage, diesel-powered vehicles, it’s not available in the United States. Instead we get gas-electric turkeys like the Toyota Prius hybrid – which maxes out at 48 MPGs on the highway. If you drive it at around 47 MPH in the left lane with your turn signal blinking… .
(Excerpt) Read more at epautos.com ...
It’s getting to a point where we need to tell the Left to piss off.
The way to beat a terrorist is to terrorize him.
Dang government anyway. Volkswagon makes a turbocharged TDi diesel, I’d love to put in my Jeep once the 3.8l engine gives up the ghost.
3 words:
President Sarah Palin...
I have a Perkins diesel haybine. The thing runs wide open for ten hours on six gallons of diesel fuel. An amazing engine. I tore the alternator out of the thing and don’t even use an electrical system. Once it starts, it never needs any electricity.
I don’t think it is government’s job to tell us what we can or cannot drive but I do support freedom of choice in vehicles. IIRC, the 1970’s era Honda Civic got 50 MPG or close to it using standard technology much like this diesel Mini-Cooper. Heck, the 1960 Ford Falcon got 30 MPG, great for its time.
The primary purpose of the current EPA and Administration is power and control. Actual benefits to the environment and MPG increases are secondary.
That's simply a lie which adds nothing useful to Peters' article. Clearly, Peters isn't interested in fuel economy; he's interested in political disinformation propaganda. Too bad, because that Mini is a great little car as are the new diesels that Audi and VW are making.
The problem is the very low rpm the diesel engines run at. You need a X2 multiplier between the flywheel and gearbox. I looked into dropping my Perkins into my truck and it does not turn fast enough.
I had a diesel Rabbit when they first came out. Great little car, and it handled well. That one got around 45 MPG, without doing anything fancy to improve the mileage.
No, you need a gearbox designed for a diesel and you likely need to change your rear end gearing.
With the torque that diesel produce, if you put a transmission designed for a gasoline engine on a diesel drivetrain, you’ll soon be replacing the transmission.
This was seen in the diesel pickups that the Big Three produce quite easily. GM had to have Allison produce an automatic tranny that would last in a 250 to 300+HP diesel. Ford Powerstrokes used to eat automatic trannies early on.
In my F-350 Powerstroke, it is running a ZF-6 6-speed tranny and a 3.73 rear. I might well put a splitter box ahead of the tranny to get 12 speeds out of that and higher fuel mileage in the future.
Just another example of how the radical environmentalist Marxists are not really concerned about the environment. The environment, like “the children” is just the latest tool.
The US, last I read, has the tightest regulations on diesel emissions in the world, thus the reason we have relatively few options to choose from.
Sloppy reporting is the problem.
The Mini Cooper Countryman gets that high of a rating in UK. Of course there are two serious problems with this:
1) The Imperial gallon is 20% larger than the US gallon. That means in US gallons, this vehicle would get a rating of 53 mpg.
2) The European test standards are notoriously optimistic, while ours are pessimistic. The Prius is given a rating of 61 miles per US gallon according to their tests.
In other words, this guy is out crying that this car we can’t have gets better mileage than a Prius, when in fact it gets worse.
Not sure on the civic but I know my 4 door 86(?) geo metro got 64mpg on the highway. Damned shame it got crushed when a drunk driver in a F-150 ran a stop sign cause the ‘99 two door chevy metro I replaced it with only gets about 30.
For the money that one would spend on the idiotic Chevy Volt, a car buyer could have higher MPG’s with a Audi A4.
And it would be a better handling, better driving car, too.
Audi has announced that the *might* introduce a US version of the A4 by the 2015 model year.
We used to joke about using specific exits on the freeway base on having a down-sloping on ramp.
Yet another bit overlooked on a lot of people’s part... Hybrids get their best efficiency with stop-and-go traffic, when the driver is slow on the gas and brake.
Step on the gas, and the gasoline engine still has to work. Easy on the throttle and it runs nearly completely on the electric (thus the mpg rating).
I have known several people who owned a Prius - they were disappointed that their MPG was not all that better than their previous car (one was a Honda Civic). They didn’t alter their driving habits. Still jackrabbit starts, and their morning/evening commute involved about half as highway miles. The price premium paid for the hybrid just wasn’t worth it to them.
Contrast that with a good diesel - they get their mpg with relatively little variation (at least compared to the hybrid). I know several happy VW Jetta TDi owners who happily drive just like always - and get well over 40mpg on the highway, and around 30mpg in city driving. What is interesting - the EPA numbers on the Jetta have always been way under what most I know have actually seen. Funny- most gas engine autos I have owned - the EPA numbers have been about right, or a little high. Another example of the EPA being biased AGAINST diesels? Hmmm....
I also know that the diesel emissions standards actually cause them to get less mpg. Seems that if you reduce the emissions by - say 10%, but reduce the mpg by 15%, you burn 15% more fuel, which negates the less emissions per gallon burned...
Details details...
He’s crying about not being able to get a Mini? Diesel or otherwise. I don’t want a damned Mini. I’m 5’10” and I like a Jeep. Someone remind me what country we’re in again?
1992 Isuzu pickup. The Perkins engine is a four cylinder normally aspirated 75 BHP model. The Isuzu is a four cylinder, carbuerated, manual five speed, 2WD model with 275,000 miles on it. The Isuzu engine used to run around 100HP until it started losing compression (it’s giving me a lot of blow-by). I planned on RTF on the Isuzu engine.
I worked for a bank at the time and did the daily report runs to the branches in a Honda Civic. Great gas mileage and a blast to drive. That little thing hauled!
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