Technobabble

USA-Bound Diesel-Powered Hondas Deliver High MPG

Posted by on Aug 22, 2007 | 13 Comments

Did you know that diesel engines can be 30% more fuel-efficient than gasoline engines? Unfortunately, diesels have earned a bad rap for being noisy, smelly, nasty polluters. The good news is that a number of automakers have been hard at work designing engines that break the mold and dispel everything you may have thought you knew about diesels. While Germans automakers Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz have long been leaders of the diesel camp, Honda is poised to change the game with a clean and green i-CTDi diesel engine that delivers plenty of power, great mileage, and is easy on the environment.

Honda has been selling a range of fuel-efficient diesel powered cars and SUVs in England, in preparation for bringing a number of models to America. The big question is when and which diesel-powered Hondas will arrive on our shores. It sure would be nice to haul around six people in a sleek family cruiser that pulls down 44 miles per gallon…

Check out the Honda diesels that are sold in England … Will we get them all?

[tags]honda, diesel[/tags]

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/theoracle/ the oracle

    As long as they don’t move out like a lame toad, it will be great. And hopefully many will use biodiesel to further help the environment.

  • http://www.geekbooks.com/ Dan Gray

    Fear not, they’re not lame toads. MPGoMatic lists the 0-62 MPH figures for the lot … the Civic is rather sprightly.

  • Mike

    I just do not understand what the problem is. There always have been more fuel efficient vehicles and technology but we cannot get them. A 24 mpg highway minivan is almost absurd but that is the best we can get. The Europeans have a 58 mpg 7 passenger minivan that has incredible zip, again we cannot get them. Is it that obvious that our countries USA,Canada) are run by people who make a profit from oil. Bush is an oil-man and so is his father. Big business is running this country and profit for them is most important. Why can’t we (public and media) get organized and find out who is responsible for saying we cannot have fuel efficient vehicles. (or alternative energy sources) Does the media have enough guts to go against their big business sponsors.

  • GiM

    Mike, you are right! I was coming from Europe, and my first problem here were the PC items at lower performance and higher price (on shops – not internet!) (I must change the power supply…).

    In Europe they do have other standards! For them, a North American car is a monster – especially regarding fuel consumption…

    Renault had before year 2000 a limousine with 9l/100km (~35GPM) at 80MPH, and an ordinary car (~2 liter engine) with 5l/100km (~65MPG) at same speed…

    How about FORD, they have a VAN model make in Belgium, at about 60MPG, not available for North America…

  • Chris Nickelman

    Ford in Europe has had a line of diesels using their TDCi technology (turbo diesel, common rail injection) – we rented a Ford Focus station wagon 3 or 4 summers ago – and I dared to follow a Porche in autostrada traffic. It was that fast!
    And I barely felt the diesel knock through the gas pedal. Why hasn’t Ford brought these cars over? What are they waiting for ….?

  • David Horsfall

    Manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz & VW have tried selling their highly efficient diesels in the USA but people there being able to buy gasoline at ridiculously cheap prices, have simply voted with their feet & carried on buying gas guzzling vehicles. Now with prices rising (still cheaper than most other countries) maybe they’ll start to take notice & buy them. They might also be very surprised at the performance many diesel cars will provide which will “destroy” most average gas guzzling cars.

  • Dave S.

    A few points.

    New for 2007 is ULSD, a lower sulfur diesel blend (15ppm v. 500ppm) that, with the supporting hardware, promises to reduce emissions – but not necessarily increase fuel economy.

    I drive a truck for a living. A vast number of truckstops (in the eastern half of the US anyway) ONLY offer some blend of bio-diesel. This bio-diesel may offer some decrease in emissions (I’m not sure of that) and it may reduce our dependency on foreign energy sources. It may also REDUCE your fuel economy – due to a lower energy content! (less energy/gallon means more gallons consumed per mile!) Finally, if you’ve been paying attention to the news, you’ll note that this surge in bio-fuel production has had a ripple effect through-out the economy – due to diversion of crops to bio-fuel production from food production.

    Whilst Google did not reveal any 58 mpg mini vans to me, it did reveal that the mini vans that got the greatest fuel economy were diesels with manual transmissions. Two BIG NEGATIVES for the US market! It’s also worth noting that the US has different standards regarding the manufacture of vehicles than do other countries. That Ford mini-van (listed in the links on this page) may get excellent fuel economy (with diesel engine/manual transmission) but Ford isn’t going to spend the money to retool their assembly lines to make a US spec vehicle that, in all probability, won’t sell enough copies for Ford to recoup their costs!

    Ah yes, the obligatory ‘Bush/Big Oil/Big Business’ bashing. For all the clamor in the US for a high MPG/low emissions vehicle, you’d think these vehicles would be in every garage by now! But, every time the consumer is offered one of these vehicles, they run out and buy the pick-up truck, the SUV, or the sports car! Witness the GM EV1, or the Volkswagen Beetle Diesel. That’s NOT ‘Big Business/Big Oil’ controlling the country, that’s the CONSUMER dictating to ‘Big Business/Big Oil’ what to produce based on what the CONSUMER is willing to spend his money on!

  • concerned

    Mike hit the nail on the head. It’s interesting to note that one can purchase a Volkswagon Rabbit diesel car or pick up truck from the early ’80s that gets 45 mpg for a fraction of the cost of a big, gas sucking SUV. You won’t find a new small truck imported to the States that gets anywhere close to 45 mpg highway and it’s my understanding VW still manufactures new diesel Rabbits for the European market. They haven’t imported them here for years but second hand ones are still available. A person has to ask themselves if that young mother dropping off her 6 year old child at school for the day really needs a Chevy Suburban to do it when something much more fuel efficient and a lot easier for her to park would do the same job.

  • http://www.geekbooks.com/ Dan Gray

    Ford will have to explain why they can’t/won’t bring a diesel-powered S-Max to the States. In the meantime, Honda and VW stand to gain marketshare. Lots of it.

    America is HUNGRY for clean, quiet, fuel-efficient diesels.

    If the American manufacturers can’t get their domestic small diesels out quickly enough, there’s a good chance that they’ll simply end up buying the engines from other sources. GM wedges Honda engines into Saturns. The Saturn Vue SUV uses a Honda V-6.

    Who wants to guess which small domestic SUV will be the first to have a diesel?

    The used car market is telling. Used VW diesels are currently demanding a huge premium over their gasoline-engined counterparts. Take a look at the price of a used Jetta TDI diesel vs the gas-engine Jetta for any given year. It’s remarkable.

    There are some great automatic transmissions these days. The MPG differences between manual and automatics will ultimately work out to be fairly small.

    I believe that soy-based (and other) biodiesel is a net positive. Good for most emissions, good for America’s farmers, good for reducing our dependence on foreign oil, as well as the trade deficit.

    But I don’t see corn-derived ethanol as a long-term best solution.

    Two different issues, there … :)

  • Jenny M.

    I’ve been waiting forever for a good diesel to come on the market. I refuse to purchase any new car that doesn’t get at least 40 mpg. I’d love to buy something like the CR-V with a diesel engine. I can’t think of any good reason for the long delays in getting fuel efficient cars onto the US market. Is there any other type of product where consumer demand is so repeatedly ignored by manufacturers? I’m not conspiratorially minded, but it really does make one wonder. The oil companies could certainly afford to “influence” the auto-makers into prolonging the introduction of highly efficient vehicles.

  • lloyd nelson

    Get me a small cargo van that gets 40 mpg and I will buy it now!

  • Brianna

    Why not? I don’t understand why they won’t sell those vehicles to us. When I was in South America, I rode in a 12 passenger diesel van, I think by VW, that was brand new, fully loaded and carted a ton of people around with great mpg. Why can’t we have that here? No one wants to drive hummers and expeditions anymore… because fuel prices are ridiculous!!!!!

    • http://www.geekbooks.com/ Dan Gray

      @Brianna – you might be thinking of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter Van? It was sold as the Dodge Sprinter here in the USA for a number of years. It’s still available as both a Freightliner and a Mercedes-Benz.