Breaks Guinness World Record for Lowest Fuel Consumption Across 48 States

The previous Guinness World Record for the lowest fuel consumption on a nationwide drive was 51.58 miles per gallon and the Taylors broke it by setting a new record of 58.82 miles per gallon, a whopping 14 percent improvement. In 20 days, driving across 48 states the Taylors drove 9,419 miles, exceeding 60 mpg on several legs of the record-setting run, spending only 6.9 cents per mile (total was $653).

"The terrain was very diverse, the weather less than ideal, and the traffic heavy at rush hour and the VW Jetta TDI handled it all beautifully, showing its fuel efficiency and its fun-to-drive dynamic capability, just two of this vehicle's many attributes," said John Taylor. "The car efficiently helped us to drive to a fuel economy world record."

The Toyota hybrid is hailed as an eco-paragon, so how does it fare against a big BMW? To find out our correspondents go on a run to Geneva

But are transport and tax planners – here and in the US – being fair to the people who drive conventional cars? The official fuel consumption figure for the Prius – supplied by Toyota itself – is 65.7mpg in mixed motoring. That’s a claim not supported by many of the letter writers to The Sunday Times who say they get nearer to 50mpg. If our readers are right and the official figure is wrong it has important implications, not least of which is that people driving frugal diesels are getting a raw deal.

To find out we set a challenge: to drive a Prius to Geneva using motorways and town driving. The direct route is 460 miles but we drove almost 100 miles further to give the Prius the advantage of running in urban conditions where its petrol-electric drivetrain comes into its own.

We took along a conventionally powered car – a diesel BMW executive saloon – for comparison and drove both cars an identical number of miles (545).

Yes, Diesels get a raw deal, and in the USA we get down right screwed (BMW has no plans to sell any 4 cylinder diesels in the USA)

Ford Fiesta ECOnetic

Published July 29, 2008

The recipe for the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic: Put a turbocharged direct-injection small diesel engine into your basic super-mini—and then make every possible tweak to improve mileage. (Photo: John Voelcker. All rights reserved.)

What does it take to make a four-seater car that equals the gas mileage of hybrids sold in the States, but without the expensive battery pack and electric motors? Many cars made for the European market use a simple formula: Put a highly efficient turbocharged direct-injection small diesel engine into your basic super-mini, or “B” segment, car—one size smaller than a Volkswagen Golf—and then make every possible tweak to improve its mileage even more.

The latest example from this recipe is the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic, introduced at the 2008 British International Motor Show in London. And it’s instructive because Ford will offer the Fiesta to North American buyers in 2010, the first of several European small cars that Ford will make and sell in the US. Two days after the show’s press preview, Ford announced a stunning quarterly loss of $8.7 billion and a plan to build several of its European car models, the Fiesta among them, in North America.

Italics mine!  Ford's 8.7 billion dollar lesson

That Diesel May Be The Way To Go

By JIM MACPHERSON

July 23, 2008

Volkswagen's newest Jetta diesel is turning over a new leaf at Gene Langan Volkswagen in Glastonbury. The lush vegetation on this test-drive model 2009 Jetta TDI Loyal is a decal celebrating the engine's cleanliness. It meets the standards in all 50 states for emissions.

With this new 2009 Jetta diesel, the only way to verify that a diesel engine resides under the hood is to see the "TDI" (Turbocharged Direct Injection) on the trunk lid or the steering wheel. Noise levels are tamed, vibration is absent even at idle, performance is quite good – and there is no odor or soot from the exhaust.

Even after some spirited driving, our white TDI review car showed no evidence of exhaust residue on the white bumper, just inches away from the tailpipe opening.

"At idle, you simply can't tell it's a diesel," said Jeff Cocco, a sales representative at Gene Langan Volkswagen in Glastonbury. He had high praise for the engine's power and economy, too.

Fuel efficiency is one of the diesel's virtues. Previous-generation Volkswagen diesels have easily exceeded 40 miles per gallon, even in stop-and-go traffic. In tests of the last-generation VW diesel with a manual gearbox, we managed 46 miles per gallon overall, with mid-50-mpg readings in highway driving. No four- or five-passenger hybrid has exceeded these numbers in our tests.

John McCormick: Car culture

This topic is a burning concern not just because of costlier gasoline, which is, of course, a major drag on the U.S. economy and which affects all of our lives. It is also pertinent when it comes to diesel fuel, which, for no apparent reason, recently leapt up in price, well above the level of gasoline. Perversely, this has occurred just as consumer interest in fuel-efficient diesel vehicles is on the rise and as several major automakers are launching a new wave of advanced, clean diesel models.

Anti-diesel effort brewing?

It's bad enough that gas prices are shooting up, but Big Oil's reluctance to produce sufficient supplies of diesel -- thus driving up the price -- does seem like an effort to snuff out a promising, extremely fuel-efficient technology just as it gains a foothold in the United States, the world's most energy profligate nation.

So why is diesel suddenly so expensive just when the country needs it badly? That's a question that Congress should be asking oil executives next time it has them lined up for a grilling.

Congress should also ask the Big 3 CEOs why they won't have any diesel cars for sale anytime soon, despite selling them elsewhere in the world..

For the judges in the 2008 World Green Car competition, it's often a low-emissions diesel, in this case the BMW 118d with Efficient Dynamics, which beat out two other diesel-engine finalists.

BMW 118d Wins 'World Green Car Award', Then Goes Back Home

By Matthew Phenix March 24, 2008 | 10:16:11 AMCategories: Diesel, New York Auto Show  

BMW brought its not-for-sale-in-America 118d five-door to New York City to claim the 2008 World Green Car award... and that's probably the only time we'll ever see the thing on US soil. Immediately following the event, BMW packed up the car and put it on the boat back to Deutschland.

The BMW 118d is a great car. There's room inside for five, it looks pretty good, and it lovingly adheres to BMW's rear-wheel-drive Ultimate Driving Machine philosophy. What garnered it the World Green Car award, however (beating such rivals as the not-for-sale-in-America Volkswagen Passat 1.9TDI and the not-for-sale-in-America Smart ForTwo CDI), sits under the hood: its 2.0-liter direct-injection turbodiesel four-cylinder engine.

In the 118d, this engine makes 141 horsepower and 221 pound-feet of torque. It will prod the car to 60 mph in about 8.8 seconds, returning 59 mpg on the (foreign) highway and spewing only 118 grams of CO2 per kilometer into the (non-US) atmosphere. Not bad at all.

And yet, despite winning the World Green Car award in Manhattan last week, BMW won't sell the car here. WTF Norbert?! What is it about America that makes you think such a car wouldn't be a smash hit here? What, we're not ready for a car that goes 700 miles between fill-ups? Indeed!!

Volkswagen made it official and pulled the sheet off its awesome Golf TDI Hybrid at the Geneva Motor

Volkswagen says the Golf TDI Hybrid is just a concept at this point, but Germany's Auto Bild and Britain's Auto Express say it's headed for production. Automakers often consider public response to a concept when pondering whether to build it, so if you want one, tell VW.

Subtle styling tweaks, including a narrower grille and smaller front air intakes, improve aerodynamics. VW says the Golf TDI Hybrid consumes 3.4 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers, which by our math is 71.4 mpg. That's a tad higher than the 69.9 cited in earlier reports, but either figure beats the gas-electric Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid by better than 20 mpg.

69.9 MPG Diesel Hybrid

By Chuck Squatriglia

February 28, 2008 | 10:04:10 AM

It's official - Volkswagen is unveiling a hybrid to challenge the mighty Toyota Prius. And not just any hybrid, but a diesel-electric hybrid it says will deliver 69.9 mpg.

VW's been experimenting with hybrids of the gasoline-electric variety since the early 1990s, but the Golf hybrid it will unveil next month at the Geneva Motor Show is the first production model the German company's rolled out. Volkswagen isn't offering much in the way of details, but the car is expected to have a  parallel hybrid drivetrain with a 2.0 liter engine. Look for it to have an all-electric mode at low speed, start-stop capability, regenerative braking and a 7-speed DSG double-clutch transmission, according to Auto Express and AutoBlog Green.

BMW to sell 50 state X5 and 335 diesels starting this fall

01/14/2008 -- Speech by Dr. Norbert Reithofer, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Dr. Klaus Dräger, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Tom Purves, Chairman and CEO of BMW (US) Holding Corporation, BMW Group Press Conference, 2008, North American International Auto Show, Detroit, January 13th, 2008:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This dynamic performance symbolizes an exciting year for BMW - worldwide, and specifically here in the U.S.:
1. We are launching BMW diesels in North America.
2. We are launching the BMW X6, the first Sports Activity Coupe.
3. We are bringing the successful BMW 1 series to the American market.

Here you have "The New BMW Advanced Diesel with BluePerformance". These are the first two BMW diesel models for the U.S. market: The BMW X5 xDrive35d and the BMW 335d sedan. Both cars will be available at BMW centers starting in the fall of this year.

Why are we bringing BMW diesels to North America?

More and more of our American customers expect the ultimate driving machine to give them not only high performance - but also fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly solutions.

Eric Larca of Brewster purchased his second diesel car, a 2006 Jetta, for about $25,900 when he lived in Connecticut. He said he was pleasantly surprised to find out that the car gained value with age. According to the Kelly Blue Book Web site, the suggested retail price for his car is now about $27,400.

Diesel cars are appreciating!!

"If that doesn't convince you to buy one, I don't know what would," Larca said. "Seems like a no-brainer to me."

GM plans diesel passenger cars in US by 2010-paper

No new Honda Accord Hybrid, diesel will make its debut

The petition

Super-frugal MINI Cooper D and inexpensive MINI One debuting in Geneva

Feast your eyes on this, car technology and high-mileage nuts. It's a Honda Accord that runs on diesel.

Honda expects to bring the clean-diesel car to the U.S. by 2010. It gets 62.8 miles a gallon on the highway, but otherwise looks and feels like a regular Accord. At that mileage level, the car is about as "clean" as a new Toyota Prius. But if you run it on biodiesel, a form of diesel made from vegetable oil or animal fat, it would be even cleaner than a Prius (Priuses get 60 in the city).

The advantage of diesel cars, however, is that they pack a lot of power.

(Credit: Courtesy Diesel Technology Forum)