Prius

jase1

This is not one experience -- in fact Honest John and Parker's have several documented cases of the Mazda engine going bang in spectacular fashion.

I personally know of at least 8 cases, of people I've known, where their turbos have failed on diesel cars.

Of course petrol engines also go badly wrong -- but they are far rarer in my experience, and the most common cause is cambelt/tensioner failure which is avoidable.

DPF issues on some diesel engines are common. Expensive repairs due to misfueling are common. The risks outweigh the benefits in my opinion.

Strange how there was no attempt to counter my similar argument about expensive repairs on the Prius, eh?

Flyboy152

jase1 wrote: »

As for bans of diesel cars, they were stopped in Japan in 2007 due to not meeting emissions regulations (and are banned in some prefectures), some states in the US have followed (led by California), German cities have banned non-DPF diesels, and New Delhi, Athens, Beijing and Lebanon have outlawed them entirely.

California has banned diesel cars?

jase1

In effect -- they do not meet emissions regs.

Flyboy152

jase1 wrote: »

In effect -- they do not meet emissions regs.

All those diesel cars at the state border must cause a bit of a headache. Are there car parks for them all? Has the state government organised shuttle buses?

Kilty_2

Flyboy152 wrote: »

All those diesel cars at the state border must cause a bit of a headache. Are there car parks for them all? Has the state government organised shuttle buses?

Didn't think the USA bothered with diesel cars? You don't need to bend over for the treasury every time you fill up there?

Green.Lander

I have a 2010 version. It is a good car but it does around 49MPG up and down the M6. If you are buying to reduce C02 and do your bit for the environment thats fine, cheap company car tax for me, but if you want more MPG then you may want to look at at something else

reeac

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

I had one on lease for 2 years, they really aren't as economical as they say they are; I'd not have one again.

I don't see why they should be economical except perhaps in intensive stop/start conditions when the regenerative braking would divert some kinetic energy into battery charging. In normal open road conditions you're just diverting engine power through a generator/battery charging/electric motor drive train which will be more "lossy" than the usual mechanical gear train.

Flyboy152

Kilty wrote: »

Didn't think the USA bothered with diesel cars? You don't need to bend over for the treasury every time you fill up there?

Tell that to the Americans. They whine about paying $3.50 a US gallon (sterling equivalent to £2.88 per imperial gallon). Half the cost of here.

Lum

Flyboy152 wrote: »

All those diesel cars at the state border must cause a bit of a headache. Are there car parks for them all? Has the state government organised shuttle buses?

Generally out of state cars are exempted, but you're stuffed if you move to California and your car can't comply with the regs.

The diesel situation is (or at least was, I'm talking about 2009 here) somewhat messed up over there. California introduced ULSD, like we have, often refereed to as "California Diesel" and with it they brought in stringent Europe-like emissions regulations. Meanwhile most of the rest of the US continued using the old crappy diesel.

It was basically impossible to produce an engine that could meet California emissions requirements while running on California diesel, whilst still being able to run at all on the older diesel.

The manufacturers carried on selling their older designs and marking them "not for sale in California". Presumably because they knew well that if they sold, eg. the Bluemotion diesel, in California, they'd likely get sued when someone takes it out of state, fills up with crappy diesel and now their car doesn't work

Flyboy152

Lum wrote: »

Generally out of state cars are exempted, but you're stuffed if you move to California and your car can't comply with the regs.

The diesel situation is (or at least was, I'm talking about 2009 here) somewhat messed up over there. California introduced ULSD, like we have, often refereed to as "California Diesel" and with it they brought in stringent Europe-like emissions regulations. Meanwhile most of the rest of the US continued using the old crappy diesel.

It was basically impossible to produce an engine that could meet California emissions requirements while running on California diesel, whilst still being able to run at all on the older diesel.

The manufacturers carried on selling their older designs and marking them "not for sale in California". Presumably because they knew well that if they sold, eg. the Bluemotion diesel, in California, they'd likely get sued when someone takes it out of state, fills up with crappy diesel and now their car doesn't work

So, in other words, not all diesel cars are banned from California.