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Old 06-02-2015, 03:47 PM   #5 (permalink)
Ecky
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Join Date: Dec 2011
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ND Miata - '15 Mazda MX-5 Special Package
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I find diesels attractive in concept, but there aren't a lot of diesel cars that are available in the US that I would be interested in. I've been scared away from VW by reliability statistics, and there aren't many other small diesel cars.

It used to be that diesel engines held a huge efficiency advantage over gasoline engines, but Honda and Toyota had gasoline ICEs in the 90's (and possibly a little earlier, I dunno how efficient the D15B6 from the CRX HF was) that nearly matched the thermal efficiency of diesels.

Diesel fuel has something like 14% more energy per gallon than gasoline, and in the past as been priced similarly or even lower. However, more recently we've seen diesel pricing spike significantly higher.
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