Cash For Clunkers

[spartonboat1]

As far as I know there are no "boutique" diesel fuels out there. The difference is only in the handling i.e. the heating oil guys may still have some residual sulfur in their storage and delivery systems.

Here's another thought. The new TDI gets almost 50 MPG. Why take the chance? To save a couple of hundred buck over the life of the car?

There's guys on the TDI forums crying about all the digital salutes they get because they do 50 MPH on interstates so they can "hypermile" and get 60 MPG. Why? So that rollerskate can get crushed by a Suburban doing 80? It's not like they're going to put your phenomenal mileage on your tombstone.

How cheap can you get?

fer grins the other day, I ran the old 2000 Buick Park Ave (209k miles) on cruise at 55 behind a truck for my 17 mile commute home. The avg mileage read 39.5mpg, actually over 40, if dropped down to 50mph. So I don't seen that many of these so called high mpg cars are that big a deal. GM was just too stupid to realize how good the mpg was on these old 3.8's, so never promoted it.

 

[Avenger]

That's true, although drafting behind a truck is kind of cheating. Actually a lot of those big cars got surprisingly good mileage on the highways. I think the Ford Crown Vic with a 5.0L got close to 30 on the highway. But accelerating all that weight in stop 'n go brought it into the teens around town.

Long ago I took my Volvo diesel on a 200 mile trip and did the drafting thing. The car usually got about 35 MPG on the highway, but with drafting I got close to 50, and annoyed a lot of truck drivers who don't understand aerodynamics. I'm not brave (foolish?) enough to try that with the Jetta, but I'd bet I could easily get 75 MPG or better if I didn't get crushed.

 

[nyrussell]

Hey Scrod,

Was the Volvo a stick like ours wayyyy back when? And drafting is only good if you want to slide under the truck (and please don't bring up the bar they added to stop you from going completely under) as I am willing to Hypermile to a point but...

As for mileage... Slow down, if you have to tailgate and do 80-90, you should have left earlier... Or you should go on a race track eh.... Or the Autobahn (now that was fun in my bosses mercedes)

Noel

 

[Avenger]

Yes, it was. I had a real love/hate relationship with that thing. A 1980 station wagon with a 2.4L Natural VW/Audi 6 cylinder. It had a 4 sp. gearbox with a Laycock overdrive bolted to it, on-off swith in the shift knob. It churned out a whopping 85 HP, but if you massaged the gears carefully it was almost adequate.

On the plus side, the lack of horsepower taught me a lot about conserving momentum and proper lines in corners. I learned to drive in that car, and took my road test in it. I think showing up for the test with a stick-shift car has a lot to do with why I passed on the first try. The inspector actually said "you're going to be a good driver" which I don't think they say very often. On the minus, the car was a horrible POS actually. While it never left me stranded anywhere (just luck really, the catastrophic failures like the hydro-lock all happened in the driveway) there wasn't a day since new that every component on the car worked at the same time. After many years and about 265,000 miles I was more than fed up with fixing it. I don't think I'll ever own another Volvo.

BTW, I said 75 MPG not MPH. The Jetta will happily get 50 MPG at 70 MPH no drafting required. Don't forget, I work with trucks and the people who drive and maintain them. Some of them are brilliant, and some of them are hacks. The problem is when you're on the road you can't tell which one is which, so I stay well away from trucks. Plus, I give enough of my income to the government without adding law-enforcement revenue enhancement.

 

[nyrussell]

My parents had the same relationship with their volvo diesel. Loved the machine, hated the repair bills LOL.

As for mileage, still breaking in the diesel... Have only 49,000 miles to go LOL

 

[spartonboat1]

That's true, although drafting behind a truck is kind of cheating. Actually a lot of those big cars got surprisingly good mileage on the highways. I think the Ford Crown Vic with a 5.0L got close to 30 on the highway. But accelerating all that weight in stop 'n go brought it into the teens around town.

Long ago I took my Volvo diesel on a 200 mile trip and did the drafting thing. The car usually got about 35 MPG on the highway, but with drafting I got close to 50, and annoyed a lot of truck drivers who don't understand aerodynamics. I'm not brave (foolish?) enough to try that with the Jetta, but I'd bet I could easily get 75 MPG or better if I didn't get crushed.

I wasn't close enough to really draft, but used the slow truck as my excuse to run slow, so that overtaking vehicles were not surprised by my slow pace. To really get in their draft, you get a lot of dirt in your teeth (grille). I had one long run to IN from MI, with a lot of surface (non-freeway) roads and avg'd 29.1, still decent.

 

[nyrussell]

Re: Cash For Clunkers --- TDI Update

I am now getting 50 mpg (even in the Blue Ridge Mountains (verified by WalterP) and am now looking at the Nissan Leaf for a second vehicle

God I love the mileage vs pump price I am getting/seeing

Noel