Back from Italy
 

I just came back from Italy and I'm really glad we mostly have gassers here.

Even though the new diesels are clean, the vast majority of the cars I've seen in Italy are not. The smell was pretty bad on busy roads.

It was so bad in fact that I elected to install a brand new cat on my TDI (the 200k miles one is shot), and never run it in a way that emits black soot anymore.

Welcome home, tasdrouille. (I see you got out of town for the start of the 400th anniversary fete :D)

I have a friend with a new Jetta (2 years old) - don't know if it qualifies as "cleaner" diesel or not, but I don't notice either the smell or the typical diesel sound from his car.

However I occasionally walk/bike past a city bus stop where the small diesel buses are sometimes left idling, and the fumes are awful.

Welcome home! Hopefully soon we'll have neither diesels nor gassers, ;)

I work on running diesel trucks in a garage everyday. Love it in the wintertime when the doors are closed :)

2 year old VW diesels are not considered Clean. They still get the worst air pollution score. However the Pump Deuse (2 year old vw diesel) is noticeable less smelly than my car when cold.

The New TDI doesn't smell at all (to me) even when dead cold. I had the opportunity to see one started last year at SEMA.

I'm now at the point that non-clean Gasoline Exhaust Makes me sick; a few years ago I drove a car with a 3" pipe coming straight off the turbo and a rich tune everyday in traffic and it just seemed normal. G R E A T