[Vwdiesel] Polo TDI

[Roger Brown]

Good points below.

The other one I heard a while back is that with the big focus on reducing particulate 
emissions from diesels has an opposite impact on global warming.  The particulates help to 
block and reflect heat from the sun, countering some significant fraction of the potential 
warming from the CO2 in the same exhaust gas.  So by going to great measures to cut diesel 
particulates and even moving away from the more efficient diesel engines you are both 
reducing the heat lowering effects of the particulates and raising the heat increasing 
effects of burning more fuel (in a less efficient engine) and making more CO2.

Funny thing too is I was looking at the Calif. Air Resources Board particulate data over 
the state and guess where the particulates are higher and lower?  LA and the SF Bay Area 
are relatively low and it is the mountainous and desert areas (where relatively few people 
live) where particulates are much higher.

But have some big rig or a bus drive by with black smoke behind it and that is horrible to 
most folks.  Have a gas engine vehicle drive by and you see nothing so it must be OK, yet 
the gasoline exhaust will kill you while the diesel exhaust might give you a headache.


James Hansen wrote:
>> VWOA is missing the boat as we speak.
>>
>> Best,
>> Joe
> 
> Well said Joe.
> 
> Thing is, VWoA has been bit in the ass by your EPA everytime they do
> something to get their diesels into the States.  the are so knee jerk
> anti-diesel, the jeep CD's were legislated illegal before they made it
> to market.
> 
> I'm not the most popular guy when I say this, but I'm really really
> tired of having the entire north american auto market being driven by
> the insane in LA.  If everyone that lives in high population density
> wants to drive everywhere all the time one person per car, then they
> SHOULD have smog, and I really don't see why screwing over the rest of
> the continent regarding nitrogen emissions is a wise goal.  It does seem
> to be the only goal, and nobody even questions it any more, and it 
> really conflicts with any tangible and sensible use of resources. They 
> just use the words "pollution" synonymously with nitrogen emissions, and 
> everyone seems to accept it as given.
> 
> For example, we now use at least 12% more fuel in the new tier 3
> emissions compliant large diesel engines.  I've heard figures in real
> world conditions as high as 30%.  Why?  So a farmer in Bugtussle can 
> drive a combine that has little in the way of smog producing nitrogen 
> emissions, and it will alleviate the smog over the vast prairie... oh 
> yeah, that's right, we don't get that here, we just have to meet the 
> same emissions standard as LA just in case we drive our combines and 
> tractors to LA.
> 
> Point is, big picture, we are increasing the reliance on foreign crude
> to keep smog out of the large urban centers by focusing on only one
> component of exhaust.  It seems to not matter to the legislators how
> efficient your new escalade is, as long as it produces no NOX, 10mpg is
> just great.
> 
> We'll never see a Lupo here, unless it is brought in as used in a few
> years. It saddens me that people still rave about mileage figures that
> are just beginning to approach what we as a group of VW diesel owners 
> have been getting for years and years, in old outdated cars with about 
> as low tech a motor as you can get.  Thing is they were engineered from 
> a completely different perspective, one that is pretty rare nowadays- to 
> be thrifty and functional primarily, not designed to win the bling award.
> 
> The stuff that is coming down the pipe in Europe recently, and moreso 
> with the upcoming X prize for a high mileage performance car is really 
> getting my hopes up.   The Loremo prototype has turned in 140mpg real 
> world numbers so far.  It's looking good, just no chance of that 
> happening here anytime soon.   I expect high mileage cars to be 
> available in kit form someday, sooner than a manufacturer actually 
> brings in production cars.
> -james



-- 

   Roger