If you didn’t have to pay for Union political donations and corruption it would cost $3000 less than it does at least
30 years ago I used to drive a 12 ton International 466 diesel truck that get the same mileage as my 327 Chevy, and have wondered for a long time why diesels were not more prevalent. I also think diesel-electric would be feasible for SUVs etc. for superior MPG.
I don’t care if the Cruze gets 3,000 mpg. I will not under any circumstances buy a GM product, new or used, ever again. After the corrupt bailout, that company is dead to me. Even if GM is the only company with something I really want, I’ll wait until VW, Toyota, or Honda has a similar product, and I’ll willingly pay more rather than support GM.
Won’t buy anything from GM as it helps Obama.
One third of the new purchase price goes to buy Viagra for UAW members. (They’re the world’s largest purchaser of the drug as they get it free on their Insurance.)
My VW Jetta TDI Sportwagen will beat the wheels off any GM econobox for drivability and acceleration.
The VW was $28,000 the Chevy Cruse is $24,000 base with $8,000 for the diesel so; $32,000.
http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Chevrolet_Cruze/
The resale on the VW (any VW) will beat the Cruse (or any Chevy.)
The $4000 difference in price buys you 1,000 gallons of the fuel of your choice. That’s 39,000 miles on my average 39 mpg.
Can somebody explain why I’d want to buy a Chevy?
I hope they are better now than they were back in the 80s.
Volkswagen Introduced 261 MPG Diesel/Electric Hybrid
The XSL-1 is not exactly a powerhouse. It reportedly has a top speed of just 99 mph, and in all-electric mode, it can manage just 50 mph. Acceleration is fairly poor: Going 0 to 60 takes 11.5 seconds. But with its batteries fully charged and 2.6-gallon gas tank loaded, it has a range of 700 miles. Not bad for about $10 of gas.
And now for the bad news. Hand-built in Osnabrück, Austria, the Volkswagen XL-1 is expected to have a production run of just 1,000 units and sell for about $50,000 each. (Most customers are expected to lease, not buy, the car.) And it’s not expected to ever be available in the United States. In fact, Volkswagen expects virtually all XL-1 sales to be limited to Germany and Austria. http://news.wyotech.edu/post/2013/03/volkswagen-introduced-261-mpg-diesel-electric-hybrid
110-MPG Jeep Renegade Concept Gets 400 Miles With Diesel-Electric Combo: Detroit Auto Show Preview
The Jeep Renegade Concept is powered by dual 200-kW (268 -hp) electric motors juiced from a lithium-ion battery pack. The Renegade uses one electric motor per axle, a true low range and locking differentials, which, if brought to production, would bring true 4X4 capability to the world alternative fuel vehicles.
Like Chrysler’s ecoVoyager concept, the Renegade’s electric mode has a range of 40 miles. However, utilizing a range extender 1.5-liter 3-cylilnder BLUETEC diesel engine, this Jeep can handle a 400-mile trip. The whole shebang translates into fuel economy as high as 110 mpg. www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/4244409
Bosch is hoping that diesel will reach just a 10 percent North American market share by 2015. Diesel definitely has some advantages, including 30 percent better fuel economy overall, huge driving range (up to 800 miles) and widespread availability (it’s in 52 percent of American gas stations).
Diesels were starting to make a comeback around 2008, but then the economy tanked and fuel prices (of both gasoline and diesel) spiked. Diesel lost a modest price advantage at the pumps, and many clean diesel projects were canceled. The fuel is on an uphill trajectory now: 30 percent of consumers say they’d consider a clean diesel as of August 2011, versus just 13 percent in 2006.
On European cars with a diesel option, such as the VW Jetta and Audi A3, 35 percent of American consumers are now checking the box. Chevrolet is set to offer a diesel option on the Cruze (right) in 2013, and that same year Chrysler will have a common rail diesel in the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
But I don’t expect to see diesels dominate in the American market anytime soon — we’re too set in our ways, and hybrids and EVs have captured more of the public’s attention. Bosch predicts that we might have 3.1 million EVs of all types — hybrids, plug-in-hybrids and battery electrics — being sold annually by 2020. But since the world vehicle market (including trucks) could top 107 million by then, the numbers aren’t huge. In 2020, only 0.9 percent of light vehicles (less than six tons) will be electric cars or plug-in hybrids, and 2.2 percent hybrids, the company says.
You have to contrast that with the bullish projections of the Electrification Coalition, which thinks that 75 percent of all the vehicle miles traveled by 2040 will be “electric miles.” The truth may be somewhere between these two poles. http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/transportation/blogs/forget-electric-vehicles-here-come-the-50-mpg-gas-and-diesel-cars
VW forecasts that a plug-in diesel-electric hybrid system as in the CrossBlue would be rated at 35 mpg in a city/highway mix, and 89 mpg-equivalent in electric mode.
The diesel-electric hybrid concept recalls the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, a joint venture begun in 1993 between the government and U.S. automakers. It was designed to suspend anti-trust concerns and eliminate red tape for a cooperative effort to create 80-mpg family sedans with mainstream prices.
Never happened. Too expensive.
The only way that car companies could come close to the mileage goal was with diesel-electric hybrid powertrains. But diesels, which get superior mileage, are inherently more costly than gasoline engines. Electric motors, big battery packs and high-tech controllers to make it all work together likewise were — still are — pretty dear.
PNGV was canceled in 2001. The project yielded demonstration vehicles rated 72 to 80 mpg, but they couldn’t be priced right. http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/01/14/vw-diesel-electric-hybrid-detroit-show/1828117/
Diesel technology is mature, clean and efficient.
Deploying diesel engines is the easy route to reduce our need for imported oil.....far easier than the investments we have made in electric and hybrids.
Now, we just have to convince many states to reduce the taxes on diesel fuel (implemented to punish those evil trucks that deliver all our products).
$7755 buys a lot of gas even at $3.50 a gallon.
I want a Kia Forte.
I drove from Frederick, Maryland to my driveway in NE Ohio on a half a tank of gas in one of those.
46 mph?
And breaks down every 25 miles.
Fooled me once, but never again.
Nice to see that GM figured out that Diesels do better on mileage. I was wondering when they would complete their research...wondering for most of my lifetime.
Now they just have figure out a way to get the government out of their britches, as well as the unions.
Cruze Eco gets 42mpg highway and costs a whole lot less.
Caught some flak for making my daughter get a stick-shift car for her first car. I needed something on the low end of the price scale.
Got her a Hyundai Elantra for a bit over $15k, brand-spankin’ new. It averages 36mpg in town. On a flat-level highway at 60mph (seems to be the sweet-spot), it did 46 to 48mpg when it was brand new. To this day, it will get 40+mpg all day long at 70mph on the interstate. A little less in the mountains; a little more otherwise.
All on the cheapest regular unleaded my daughter can find. I just wish Ford/Dodge/GM could do the same at a similar price-point.
No shit. Really?
Golly, who has been telling Freepers for years that this could and would be the case when Detroit got their head out of their taxpayer-subsidized plush posteriors?
That would me moi, that’s who.
With a manual transmission, good driving habits and the A/C turned off, maybe. With an automatic, a normal amount of in-traffic driving and hot days, probably not close.
You can purchase a 70+ MPG VW in Europe (engine manufactured in the USA) but cannot purchase it in the USA.
Why, EPA! Our government once again working against us.
Oh, it must be dirty you say!
Well if you believe the Stasi at the EPA you would be right but like Paul Harvey used to say “and now the rest of the story”
Per gallon, this engine does produce marginally more emissions yet once you factor in how many miles can be driven on the same gallon of fuel SHAZZZZZZAM this engine produces much less pollution and therefore for the life of the car it will produce much less pollution.
But the real agenda is not low pollution it is to cripple our economy and get people out of their private cars and on to public transportation regardless of the human debris you will be forced to stand with.
This is why I want, with every fiber in my body to see thousands of government slugs in handcuffs being perp marched to prison. People who can abuse the power of government against us should not live free.
Comparing inefficiencies of different fuels with different amounts of energy content and only measuring gallons is a false comparison. It is like claiming infinite efficiency because the all electric car doesn't use any gallons directly.