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50 MPG Chevy Cruze Diesel!
Topic Started: Jul 12 2011, 05:08 PM (3,318 Views)
andyahunt
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LINK HERE

It's about damn time! A small car with a diesel here in OUR country *besides those from VW*. Why does this country hate diesels so much that their market share in cars is like non-existent? Just think about if they had an engine like this in our metro's!
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CityConnection
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Sir, yes sir!

Americans are scared of diesel engines because of GM and VW. In the late 70's both companies released them here and the public got instantly confused by them. Loud, smelly, noisy, and slow were the order of the day. GM did a terrible disservice to the diesel engine by releasing the 350 diesel. Not only did the early engines have some serious design flaws, the repair procedures were incorrect. If time had been taken to educate consumers about diesel engines and their maintenance schedules we would be seeing the same number of diesel engines here like they have in Europe.

I love diesel engines and hope to see more for sale here.
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dayle1960
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Fastest Hampster EVER

2.0 litre diesel already being sold in Australia. It will be here in two years. Hmmmm. The price of a gas powered cruz is about 15K-18K , I bet the diesel will be more than that AND the price of the diesel will increase in price just as the cruz plants it's cute little rubber on American soil. Insurance costs? I bet they will go up also because it is a "diesel". :banghead

Oh, well, maybe I'll just wait for a VW polo to cross the pond an then have a truely great diesel that will get 70mpg. Then I bet you would have to take the front clip off just to replace the water pump. :shake

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andyahunt
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dayle1960
Jul 12 2011, 05:25 PM
2.0 litre diesel already being sold in Australia. It will be here in two years. Hmmmm. The price of a gas powered cruz is about 15K-18K , I bet the diesel will be more than that AND the price of the diesel will increase in price just as the cruz plants it's cute little rubber on American soil. Insurance costs? I bet they will go up also because it is a "diesel". :banghead

Oh, well, maybe I'll just wait for a VW polo to cross the pond an then have a truely great diesel that will get 70mpg. Then I bet you would have to take the front clip off just to replace the water pump. :shake

I've noticed that the price of diesel fluctuates a good bit more than gas, but at times I've seen it $.50 cheaper than gasoline! I don't really understand why insurance would increase due to the diesel engine.

I really wish our country would use a hell of a lot more diesel's. I mean, I would LOVE to have a small-medium sized diesel in my Jeep Comanche.. Something like a 3.0 I-6 with 200HP and 400-500 ft. lbs of torque.... God that'd be sweet! And i'd beat the 19city 24hwy that I get in it!
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dimetrodon


andyahunt
Jul 12 2011, 05:08 PM
LINK HERE

It's about damn time! A small car with a diesel here in OUR country *besides those from VW*. Why does this country hate diesels so much that their market share in cars is like non-existent? Just think about if they had an engine like this in our metro's!
The article reports the Aussie version has 147 hp. Good grief. How about a 1 liter version with 75 hp and 75 mpg????
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nerys
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Grr

Speaking strictly in gas prices a diesel is usually only more expensive than gasoline if you already drive a very fuel-efficient car like a Geo Metro

If you drive a more conventional 20 miles per gallon an average car here in the USA your payback be very very fast but only if you do your own maintenance

Overtime diesels can be more expensive in parts and labor the overall maintenance of a diesel is almost always cheaper than a conventional United States gasoline car conventional being 20 miles per gallon

Diesel parts are more expensive than gasoline parts but you have to replace those parts less often so in the end pretty much evens out unless you're paying someone else to do

The only way for the gas price to make a difference with the diesel is if gas was twice as expensive as diesel it's not

Right now diesel is only about 20% more expensive than gasoline in my area on top of this you can use alternative fuel sources for diesel engines to make up for the cost difference such as vegetable oil used motor oil any kind of used oil or waste oil you can find on craigslist for free

While it is not so easy or cheap to switch completely over to alternative diesel fuels you can add these fuels in small quantities to diesel fuel with no modifications whatsoever you just need to make sure they're clean of particulate matter you can easily bring the cost of diesel equal to or lower than the current cost of gasoline equivalent miles per gallon or cost per mile

The reason the United States does not like diesel cars the reason the government and automakers do not like diesel cars is that it will grind home the point that 50 miles per gallon in much higher is very possible with current technology and our citizenship would then wonder why did we not have this 20 years ago

It will also be bad competition for existing gasoline cars so they will dramatically increase the cost of the diesel cars to compensate and keep the gasoline cars competitive

I.e. the issue with diesel is political and financial not technological

The other problem is that there are no modern economy diesels i.e. diesels like a Geo Metro cars that are very easy to work on very simple to repair and maintain

Think modern version of a Volkswagen rabbit sure you can get old VW diesels but they are expensive to repair to get certain parts for cars ancient relative to modern cars they are also seriously lacking in performance capacity

What we need is a modern 100 to 140 hp three or four cylinder 60 mile per gallon diesel car that has the carrying capacity of minimum a Geo Metro equivalent type of car

The old VW diesels are hard to get require lots of maintenance are usually broken down rusted and have lower performance than Geo Metro

All the modern diesels available are unnecessarily complex expensive and high maintenance

They do not wish to make a simple cheap diesel because it will quickly become a very popular car even if just for its power plant

So they kill the concept the same way they kill the electric car concept by intentionally and unnecessarily making the car undesirable to the casual buyer

With cooperation between the companies on a standardized framework it would not be difficult to make a sub $10,000 basic economy diesel powered car that was also very DIY friendly but the profit margin would be a lot lower than an equivalent gas car

So the refuse to make them
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z34-5speed
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Formerly "Tech Certified"

I am a BIG fan of the Chevy Cruze. Why wait for the Diesel one though? The Cruze ECO (6mt), gets 42mpg HW out of the box. That is an AMAZING car.

I actually almost bought one a few months back (and was going to surprise the HELL out of y'all). LOL!!!

The interior fit&finish is VERY un-Chevrolet like, and after sitting in the new Scion TC, Honda Civic, and Hyundai Elantra, I'm very confident in saying that the Cruze has the BEST QUALITY interior out of the 4 that i've been in.

The turbo 1.4l also has PLENTY of power and is VERY tunable. Some people on Cruzetalk.com are gaining 40+ wheel HP and tq with JUST A TUNE!!!

They are still able to retain the fuel mileage of the car also, while making close to 200hp at the crank with just a tune.

So NOT ONLY are these cars VERY fuel efficient, they are also highly tunable.

Not to mention they are only 19k and some change (20k depending on the color).

Kyle
Edited by z34-5speed, Jul 12 2011, 09:20 PM.
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Old Man


I'm waiting to see the Ford Fiesta 3 cylinder turgbo.....(gas).......
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metromizer


Let's face it, us Metro owners aren't the general public. It will be interesting to see if the Cruze Eco and Cruze Diesel sales take off in large numbers. Certainly GM has the capacity to increase production if the demand (and profit for the shareholders) warrant it.

I had been looking at the feasibility (for me personally) of owning a small Diesel that I would buy used, but I haven't made the numbers add up. Used VW's really been holding their value over the last 5 years, which is surprising to me. Diesel fuel (in California) runs sometimes 20% higher than gasoline, 3 years ago, I saw $5/gal Diesel when gas was about $3.75, I figured people would be dumping their TDI's asap, but not so.

Having owned a '76 Mercedes 300D over 20yrs ago, I became painfully aware of the high repair costs. Maybe because it was a MB parts were expensive, but when I bought it used, I rationalized that the popular 5cyl engine is used in all sorts of applications all over the world, so I should be able to get parts at a reasonable cost. After replacing the mechanical injector pump (myself) $700 in just parts, then having a garage do a ring and valve job, $1800, only to have my wife run the thing out of oil and lock it up 4 weeks later, I became disgusted with the thing and sold it as a parts car.

But if the market become saturated with ANY particular engine type, I fully expect the costs to come down.
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lafter
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Old Man
Jul 12 2011, 09:52 PM
I'm waiting to see the Ford Fiesta 3 cylinder turgbo.....(gas).......
I would like that in Diesel
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Scoobs
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:D

I have a friend here in Arkansas who put a Kabota Diesel in an S10 and it is getting him the same mpg, what a waste of good american money. Just give up Gm lol Go back to the old ways, when shit lasted forever and was cheap to repair,
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c140flyer


I now have a VW Golf TDI. I'm thrilled with the car but I'm also intimidated by it. It's much more complex than the Geo, but a kick to drive - especially when that turbo kicks in. :D The mileage is comparable to the geo, but as mentioned before, diesel costs a little more (here it's $3.68 vs 3.85) I'm just hoping that something major doesn't break on it (Like that turbo) and leave me with a $400 parts bill.As far as turbos go, I think they'll be around for a long time. The general public seems to crave their performance.To get that performance and still get good fuel economy,(even on the Smartcar), a turbo (and it's complexity) is required. This might change in the future, but for now, that's the cure to good acceleration with a small engine. I'll miss the simplicity of the Geo but I'm getting older and enjoy the pseudo luxury of the VW. So far I think I made a good decision. If it wasn't for the ball and chain, I'd keep the Geo as a third car. She doesn't want the driveway turning into a "used car lot/junkyard" :(
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metromizer


c140flyer
Jul 13 2011, 02:42 PM
If it wasn't for the ball and chain, I'd keep the Geo as a third car. She doesn't want the driveway turning into a "used car lot/junkyard" :(
Try using that same logic with her the next time she comes home with a new pair of shoes... :P


No mystery as to why I have an ex-wife, huh? :D
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lafter
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c140flyer
Jul 13 2011, 02:42 PM
I now have a VW Golf TDI .... The mileage is comparable to the geo
What mileage are you getting with that car?

How much do they typically sell for?
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c140flyer


Quote:
 
What mileage are you getting with that car?

How much do they typically sell for?


I've only used 1 tank, so it's a little early for concrete #s, but so far it looks like 51 mpg.
I paid $6000 for mine with 120K miles. It's a 2000. That's a lot of money compared to a Geo, but it has no rust (garaged) and it seems to be built really well. I looked for 8-9 months before I found anything half decent that wasn't $8000. There were a few Jettas and Golfs with over 300K miles. Even those cars were going for 4-5K! :smackface
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