Speeding sucks 4158

If Smart is doing so poorly, why is it selling in Canada now? And VW is debating selling the Polo in the US as well. The Smart car had a rough start in Europe, but now its starting to sell, that's what I read.

VW's TDI technology is state-of-the-art compared to the gasoline engines they sell in the US, and what most American automakers use. Many of the newest TDI's in Germany also have particle trap filters. Hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions are lower than most gasoline cars.

In the US in 2006-2007, diesels are going to have pollution controls such that the air they are taking in will have more particulate than the air they are emitting through their tailpipe. And all this pollution control will cost only about 250 dollars. That's trivial when you consider the fuel economy gains will be real, but will be the fraction the price of a gasoline hybrid.

And if you think gasoline exhaust is not also carcinogenic, you are wrong. Acrolein and other hydrocarbons are present in gasoline but to a lesser extent in diesel exhaust. Over the lifetime of the car, at least in the US where the average car is over 8 years old, a diesel engine produces less pollution. At the end of its short lifecycle, a gasoline car's catalytic converter will degrade and the engine will start burning oil and you'll have more particulate pollution than my diesel could ever produce- and in the US these cars aren't uncommon, I see them all the time on the roads. Many states don't smog the cars.

There are slower cars on the road, and I don't always accelerate slowly, but still the RPM's don't usually go about 3000 even with more "spirited" acceleration, only when I hit the kickdown switch do they get close to redline. I saw some old guy in a VW diesel Rabbit the other day. If you want to talk about painful acceleration, there you have it.

I usually drive the fastest that the speed limit allows on regular roads- it's more fuel efficient that way. On highways I do 60 miles per hour, as that seems to give the best fuel economy.

That's why they make different car models and engine options, of course. You can't please everybody. I'm not out to convert you or anybody else, I simply am stating my car is not a slug.

It has more torque than the 2 liter engined Jetta-Golf they sell in the US- alot more, and more than most economy cars, too. If you want more torque in a comparable car clbutt, you have to go hybrid- the Toyota Prius has more torque, but the Honda Civic Hybrid doesn't.

It depends on the year of the car, the PD engines are suppossed to be quietter at idle because they have higher pressure injection, they also rev a little higher and I believe have a wider power band. The higher pressure injection allows more injections per cycle, so it can program in different injection sequences-more injections depending on what the engine is doing. The rotary pump engines (what I have) have fewer pilot injections so they are a bit noisier.

At highway speeds my Jetta is quietter than my mom's 6 cylinder gasoline truck. Not until it gets to 75 mph does it start getting noisy again, and then the wind-road noise is more prominent.

But it's a gas engine.. you were the one trying to idioticly squeeze more power out of a diesel engine, despite the fact it had no more to give.