Talking to an Audi rep, and Diesels in the US

[audiSean]

This has more or less been beaten to death. It's a chicken and egg
scenario. The diesel fuel used in the US is made from a sour crude
which produces a high sulfur content fuel. The diesel fuel used in the
rest of the world is from sweet crude which produces a lower sulfur
content fuel. The latest generation of diesel engines are designed to
run on the low sulfur fuel, and in fact the latest round of
advancements in diesel engine design require low sulfur diesel fuel.

Auto manufacturers will not import the latest gen diesel engines to
the US because we do not sell the correct fuel for the engines.
Refineries will not produce the low sulfur fuel because there's no
market for it. Who goes first?

On 5/12/06, Andrew Duane <andrew at savaje.com> wrote:
> My recent trip to France had some interesting Audi side-effects.
>
> On the airport shuttle bus, I happened to sit next to one of the
> VW/Audi regional factory reps, and we got to talking. After I vented
> a bit about my treatment by AoA and my dealer when my timing belt went,
> we started talking about TDIs in the US.
>
> I've always been mad that Audi doesn't import it's diesels into the US.
> I love my A6Q, but 20-22MPG just doesn't cut it. He indicated that there
> are problems with diesel fuel specs in the US, which made it hard to make
> most new TDIs work well. That seems to be getting fixed, and he indicated
> that some new A6 and/or Q7 models with TDIs might be here soon.
>
> On arriving in France, I discovered my rental car was a Peugot 307 TDI
> wagon. A very nice car, almost the equal of my A6. Handled well, ran
> smoothly, quite decent pick-up. And, when I refilled at the pump, I
> discovered that I got between 40 and 45 MPG, twice what my A6 gets!
>
> Now more than ever I wish Audi would get this ball rolling. Why waste
> money with hybrids of questionable longevity and $$$$ required battery
> replacements, when TDI technology is decades old, and gets an HONEST
> 40+ MPG in a decent inexpensive car? It would be a no-brainer for me to
> get an A6Q Avant TDI as my next car.
>
> Rant off, back to my jet lag.......
>
> --
>
> Andrew Duane            Member Technical Staff - SPG
> SavaJe Technologies     andrew at savaje.com
> 100 Apollo Drive        p: 978.856.4943
> Chelmsford, MA 01824    f: 978.256.8386
> _______________________________________________
> quattro mailing list
> quattro at audifans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/quattro
> ---
> Watch this space for ads :)
>


-- 
Sean [99 A6 2.8q]
http://registry.audiworld.com/audiworld/registry/details.asp?car=9728