Thread: Car Talk
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Xaqtly
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2009-12-03, 18:48

Quote:
Originally Posted by joveblue View Post
It just occurred to me that the BMW 1 getting good environmental ratings is a diesel model, the 118d, at 4.5L/100km or 52mpg, which isn't bad at all. Whoops! So there you go, small light diesel for me!
Ah yeah, I was only looking in the US market. Just about every other nation in the world has more choice in diesel cars than we do in the US. I was happy to find that my Legacy is sold in the UK as a turbo diesel too, only 150 HP but 260 lb-ft of torque. Great MPG though, 44 combined and 51 "extra urban mpg" whatever that means. Top Gear did a segment where they had to drive 750 miles on a single tank of gas while racing each other to try to get there first. James May chose the Legacy turbo diesel, and a number of times he was averaging over 50 MPG. They didn't show if he ran out of gas or not but I think he was within 30 miles or so of finishing, so he at least made it well over 700 miles on a single tank.

I'm not sure why diesel isn't embraced like hybrids are in the US... probably the misconception that they all run dirty or something.
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