Posted on 11/09/2008 7:02:49 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
If ever there was a car made for the times, this would seem to be it: a sporty subcompact that seats five, offers a navigation system, and gets a whopping 65 miles to the gallon. Oh yes, and the car is made by Ford Motor (F), known widely for lumbering gas hogs.
Ford's 2009 Fiesta ECOnetic goes on sale in November. But here's the catch: Despite the car's potential to transform Ford's image and help it compete with Toyota Motor (TM) and Honda Motor (HMC) in its home market, the company will sell the little fuel sipper only in Europe. "We know it's an awesome vehicle," says Ford America President Mark Fields. "But there are business reasons why we can't sell it in the U.S." The main one: The Fiesta ECOnetic runs on diesel.
Automakers such as Volkswagen (VLKAY) and Mercedes-Benz (DAI) have predicted for years that a technology called "clean diesel" would overcome many Americans' antipathy to a fuel still often thought of as the smelly stuff that powers tractor trailers. Diesel vehicles now hitting the market with pollution-fighting technology are as clean or cleaner than gasoline and at least 30% more fuel-efficient.
Yet while half of all cars sold in Europe last year ran on diesel, the U.S. market remains relatively unfriendly to the fuel. Taxes aimed at commercial trucks mean diesel costs anywhere from 40 cents to $1 more per gallon than gasoline. Add to this the success of the Toyota Prius, and you can see why only 3% of cars in the U.S. use diesel. "Americans see hybrids as the darling," says Global Insight auto analyst Philip Gott, "and diesel as old-tech."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
Can’t imagine it-too scary LOL.
I hope you recognize my sarcasm. Obama is pledging to make this worse. California is at war with Bush over this already.
There is no tax on red-dyed diesel (meant for off-road/farm use only).
You can modify a gas engine too if you like to take advantage of alcohols better qualities. Alcohol isn't so good in low compression engines though.
Properly built, an alcohol engine gets better mileage and has tons more HP than any production gas engine.
There is absolutely no reason we can have high powered cars like the 60's/70's except running alcohol now that alcohol is much more readily available.
A diesel/ alcohol engine is freakin' awsome. Runs at 28:1 compression and produces gobs of power from a tiny little 4 cyl. Unfortunately NASA only makes them in conjunction with another company from Brazil for use in diesel electric buses they are building and using on an experimental development stage. Not available to us dumb Americans.
Nothing stopping Gm from making them though, except they'd be TOO efficient
PS. They are claiming 100 mpg service miles on these alcohol powered diesel/electric buses.
Flash point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_point
Hey Ford, I'm not bailing you out of stupidity. Stupidity. Hello?
It would require that you step down the compression ratio as stated, but would probably work well. The new ultra low sulfur diesels run very hot, as probably would the ethanol. The reason I prefer the oil is that you can produce it cheaper than ethanol.
Man you’re lucky. I’ve been trying to buy an old mercedes diesel and people just won’t sell them over here. People love them.
I thought that the government and the states regulated diesel with the higher taxes for road repair due to semis damaging the roadways more. Sorry, that and the cost of formulating the diesel to be different from farm diesel and other types of diesel, etc.
Great car!
NOx rules imposed by California and adopted by many other states make it impractical to import small diesels. It could be done, but the exhaust treatment necessary would make the cars too expensive for this market.
The most annoying part of this is that the NOx limits are pointless, because of the balance between NOx and VOCs. Without cutting VOCs by a lot, the NOx reductions accomplish nothing, other than wasting fuel, and reducing vehicle choice.
So blame CARB.
We still own a Rabbit diesel! It gets 48 miles to the gallon in town and we got 54 freeway driving with it.
Well, I’ll chime in that my old Honda CRX (2-seater) got 65 mpg highway (or better) back in the days of 55 mph. It got around 48 mpg overall. No, it’s not a family car, but it was great for me as a single guy back then. It was actually quite a comfortable car for long trips, and I hauled some fairly amazing stuff around in it, for such a small / eficient vehicle. ‘80’s technology, too...
Chop shop?
Your CRX weighed less than half of what the current smallest car (save the Smart) does.
All those mandated safety requirements and gear add weight to the car. Airbags alone add about 500lbs to the structure of a car.
Weight is the enemy of fuel economy.
Your CRX is illegal to manufacture and sell today.
ping
But Europe, who is on a much tighter budget than we are is able to pay?! No wonder Fraud is in the bread lines at Congress. Such progressive thinking they have.
Let me ask, would you buy a 65 MPG car over a 18MPG Ford truck these days?
My bet is you could not ship them over here fast enough to meet demand.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.