Quote:
Originally Posted by Grovsnus
Sadly, diesel in the US isn't the same as diesel in Europe. Over here, the diesel fuel is a badly refined high sulfur product meant for tractors, sold at a higher price than petrol. It would ruin the engine of most modern European TDI cars.
Many manufacturers have (token) diesel models, but they are special US models made to run on the inferior fuel, and aren't very popular. Mostly because the US consumer doesn't know how different modern diesel engines are from the soot spewing engines of yore, yet not politically concerned enough to demand low emission diesel fuels.
And, of course, the powerful corn (maize) lobby in the US fights it, because they want a switch to E85, not diesel.
Keep in mind that the imperial gallon is rather larger than the US gallon.
37-40 mpg (UK) =~ 31-33 mpg (US)
50 mpg (UK) =~ 41 mpg (US)
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Good point but still good fuel consumption compared with US petrol cars. Other thing to bear in mind is that unleaded is £6.18 a gallon and diesel is £6.32 a gallon in UK. This equates to $7.69 for unleaded and $7.87 for diesel per US gallon.
Not sure price of fuel in US but it must be at least half UK price. So this means US drivers are better off.
