I am going to get 900 miles on one tank of fuel

[ShakinJoe]

I replaced my VW Passat with the newish 4 cyl Diesel from Mercedes, the E250. They claim 45 mpg and it has a 20 gallon tank so it should get 900 miles.....right?

I took a trip last week to Savannah, GA from St. Pete, FL and got 850 on one tank, but this included some heavy traffic jams, horrible rain, and some city driving in Jacksonville. If I get a shot at a 900 mile all highway trip I know I'll get 900 miles as claimed. It is a crazy good highway car to boot and it begs me to question why anyone would want a Hybrid or a Electric Vehicle.

Oh, it has awesome torque!

[masraum]

Pretty darn cool. If I was in the market, I might be willing to try one of the modern diesels.

On a related note. A coworker recently bought a 2016 Corvette, 475 or 485hp. He says he's getting 35mpg on his daily commute.

I have an '08 Boxster S. My commute is about 2.5 miles with speeds up to 60 or so and 11 stoplights. I think my average speed is 35mph and my avg mpg is usually around 12.5. That's more a function of my commute (my right foot may play a part). On a recent highway trip I was averaging about 25mpg on the highway, then 23mpg on more rural backroads.

[john70t]

Diesels jam.
R.Diesel and H.Ford was on this 80 years ago with homegrown bio fuel.

A hybrid diesel with a ceramic engine, multi-cylinder kill, flow-through ports, variable compression cylinders, and a vapor-burn mode (for a start) would jam much more.
But that is too complex for today's DD.
One can always dream.
Breaking 2,500 mpg, Canadian Team Wins High-Efficiency Race 2,500+ mpg.

Just getting city traffic engineers to time their freaking stoplights would be a huge advancement IMO.

[motion]

I was getting 60 in a Skoda diesel wagon in Europe last month. Awesome car!

[fred cook]

The Spanish hold the record. They got 3,000 mile on a galleon!

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by ShakinJoe

It is a crazy good highway car to boot and it begs me to question why anyone would want a Hybrid or a Electric Vehicle.
Oh, it has awesome torque!

I was cheering you on until the last couple of sentences. I'm glad you are happy with your diesel. It sounds like it really suits your driving needs.
But.
I haven't put liquid fuel in my Volt in about 1200 miles. That's 1200 miles at an average of 3 cents per mile for elecricity. That's $36 for 1200 miles of travel. How much does it cost you to go 1200 miles? At 45 mpg, 1200 miles is 26.7 gallons. At $3 for diesel (cheapest in a long time) that's $80 for fuel. $36 vs $80. Get it?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I was cheering you on until the last couple of sentences. I'm glad you are happy with your diesel. It sounds like it really suits your driving needs.
But.
I haven't put liquid fuel in my Volt in about 1200 miles. That's 1200 miles at an average of 3 cents per mile for elecricity. That's $36 for 1200 miles of travel. How much does it cost you to go 1200 miles? At 45 mpg, 1200 miles is 26.7 gallons. At $3 for diesel (cheapest in a long time) that's $80 for fuel. $36 vs $80. Get it?

Ask him what he paid for the Benz then tell him what you paid for the Volt.

Oh, and electrics have instant torque.

[Arizona_928]

Just don't run it dry on your quest. I would hate purging nozzles on the side of the highway...

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Ask him what he paid for the Benz then tell him what you paid for the Volt.

Better question is when he closes the door in the benz, does it buckle the sheet metal?

[rob justice]

Good lady of mine used to have a Golf GT tdi.
Admit the thing was pretty good on fuel with it averaging 60mpg.
Thing being - during the 85k miles she clocked up in the thing, I can't remember a single one I enjoyed.
Glad it's gone.

[bri450sl]

I bought a new Lincoln MKZ hybrid. So far, without babying it, I've been averaging 41 mpg with the air running all the time. I'm happy with mileage.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Ask him what he paid for the Benz then tell him what you paid for the Volt.

Oh, and electrics have instant torque.

Yes, the acceleration is unbelievable. I paid $27355 for it. After my tax credit it will have cost $19,855. It's a NICELY appointed car.

You should buy the car that suits your needs. A Volt makes no sense for primarily highway driving and an ICE powered car is less efficient for short local trips.

[FLYGEEZER]

Gotta be a Volt forum somewhere for the electrolux owners to go.

[LakeCleElum]

I dunno why these little turbo diesels havin't been coming to the US sooner. I have been renting them in Europe and Australia for over 15 years and they were around long before that.

I did over 850 miles on a tank in a Peugeot in England/Wales/Scotland back in 2001.

AU has had the small, Japanese, 4 cyl turbo diesel pickups since before my first visit in 1988. I would have been their customer for a new one a long time ago, but it's always coming "Next Year".

I'm happy for Shakin and Wdfifteen thinking outside the box. Enjoy.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by FLYGEEZER

Gotta be a Volt forum somewhere for the electrolux owners to go.

There is. I'm a regular there, and it's interesting. There is a tech talk about how to optimize performance, tree huggers who brag about how much gasoline they're not using, and a faction that obsesses with going long distances on one charge of the battery. Some guy went something like 200 miles on a charge. One of the tree huggers was asking about draining the gas out his tank since it had been in there for over three years and he was afraid it was bad (probably right). One of the rational tech members pointed out that even from a tree hugger's perspective it's better to run a tank of gas through the ICE every few months than to let it go bad and throw it out. LOL!

[aigel]

I'm a diesel fan. The 993 is the only gas driven car left in the family. I recently bought the Ram 1500 diesel and it goes > 600 on a tank.

I have interest in EVs but all my cars are used for long distance travel. I may be ready in a few years when I can get to LA easily in an EV ...

[ShakinJoe]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I was cheering you on until the last couple of sentences. I'm glad you are happy with your diesel. It sounds like it really suits your driving needs.
But.
I haven't put liquid fuel in my Volt in about 1200 miles. That's 1200 miles at an average of 3 cents per mile for elecricity. That's $36 for 1200 miles of travel. How much does it cost you to go 1200 miles? At 45 mpg, 1200 miles is 26.7 gallons. At $3 for diesel (cheapest in a long time) that's $80 for fuel. $36 vs $80. Get it?

My driving is pretty much all highway and it is very common for me to jump in and drive 300 miles. Not really Volt territory.

Yes the Merc was expensive but so are my Porsches......

I was not in market for anything but a Diesel and it is my third in a row. My first two were VWs but the Merc is a class above in every way. It can get this mileage and also run at ease at 110 mph......

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by ShakinJoe

My driving is pretty much all highway and it is very common for me to jump in and drive 300 miles. Not really Volt territory.

Yes the Merc was expensive but so are my Porsches......

I was not in market for anything but a Diesel and it is my third in a row. My first two were VWs but the Merc is a class above in every way. It can get this mileage and also run at ease at 110 mph......

I've had a couple of MBs that were great on the highway. I didn't like their transmissions in town, but they are great road cars.
What kind of mileage does the diesel get at 110?

[ckelly78z]

I think most people have a problem with the smell of the deisel fuel (hard not to smell like that after a fillup) I love my 99 powerstroke truck and was averaging 19 mpg before I pulled the camper over the weekend. I could honestly see having a hybrid of some sort, but an all electric vehicle is out of the question for me....just not practical.

All of the tree hugging, Prius drivers who are hypermiling are doing their thing while I like to hear the turbo whistle as it spools up. With the cost of fuel going lower, I have to say that having a small car wiith super mileage isn't a big concern of mine, because all of my vehicles are paid off, and any new technology would cost me an arm and a leg to buy compared to driving what I already own for another 50,000 miles.

You also can't seem to give me answers about where all these batteries are going to go when used up and out of date....let alone where all the precious elements involved in making batteries comes from and thier mining practices.....not so enviromentally efficient as they want you to believe.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

I think most people have a problem with the smell of the deisel fuel (hard not to smell like that after a fillup) I love my 99 powerstroke truck and was averaging 19 mpg before I pulled the camper over the weekend. I could honestly see having a hybrid of some sort, but an all electric vehicle is out of the question for me....just not practical.

This!

My in-laws had a great Mercedes Turbo Diesel. We loaded up 4 adults and enough "stuff" to fill up our motel room and we got 36 MPG 25 years ago. The motel was OK with us plugging in the block heater and the next morning every car in the lot was covered in snow except our car. I got in and it fired up instantly and the heaters were working in no time. It was a great car except for fuel stops. Some cities we had to go to a truck stop to find diesel and stand next to big rigs and a layer of diesel goo on the ground and a fuel nozzle that delivered 100 gallons a minute. It was the fastest fill up ever.

My wife did not get out of the car and she had to pull it forward to get to a clean area and I had to scrub my hands and my shoes were trashed.

I hate it when an old diesel truck is in front of me on the road. The new diesel vehicles are great with the lask of stink.

Back in 1976 I drove my 1974 914 2.0 non stop from Houston to Oklahoma City. It was 496 miles from my hotel in Houston to my grandmother's house in Oklahoma City. I almost drove a few miles further just to roll the magic 500 miles but my bladder won out and I really did not care about the 500 mile number.