Honda diesel sets 19 new world speed records

cool. i had a 1978 peugeot 504 diesel and a 1978 mercedes 240d. at that time, they had no pickup to speak of, but by golly they could just run and run and run at highway speeds.

then came the early 1980's GM diesels and the whole market was shot to hell...

glad they are trying to make a comeback. diesel engines have issues, but they are strong and last long and run well.

 

Two things that I'd like to point out:

1) The mpg figure seems like it's in imperial mpg... if it is then the figure is lower for the US equivalent.

2) Dan K. got 85.7 mpg over 916 miles on a single tank. See www.groups.yahoo.com/Prius2g... the Prius mpg is higher.

 

Mirza:

lets forget the mpg and look at the unmistakeable quantities of 3.07 liters/100Km


that is 62.1 miles on .81 gallons

translate that and you get 76.6 mpg and that is american miles and american gallons.

the Prius cant touch that.

 

Would you care to read my original post? I never said that the figures were unimpressive, but I said that Dan K. got 85.7 US mpg for a whole tank. The nominal mpg for the Diesel Accord is 43.6 mpg... try 55 for the Prius. He isn't the only one to get above 80 mpg either... a Japanese poster on the Yahoo Groups 2G board has reported similar figures.

Here is the link for the exact post in which the 85.7 mpg tank was made (I didn't have the exact message number until now):
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Prius-...2G/message/8248

I have met the guy through a hybrid rally, and he is genuine. A few others on that board have also met him in person.

Furthermore, if you read the article you'll see that one of the diesel Accords got that figure... the other got lower. Dan's run was more than twice as long as the fuel economy runs that the Accord diesels went through.... if that one Accord (TSX?) travelled for 967 miles like Dan did, then would he/she be able to sustain that figure? Seems like an interesting question to me...

Edit:
In my first post I said he got 916 miles on the thank... actually the figure is 967.... just an error on my part.

 

Definitely true... but the drivers of the diesels didn't travel at those speeds either in the fuel economy runs after the speed tests were done.

 

Mirza:

i read your original post and i posted based on your comment

"1) The mpg figure seems like it's in imperial mpg... if it is then the figure is lower for the US equivalent."

AND i stand by my post since my post was merely to point out that your conjecture was wrong. My post had nothing to do with what anybody else got as far as mileage, it was simply to reinforce the facts in the article as they were printed.

As far as what the Prius can do, you will have to search far and wide to find a bigger Prius fan then me. and until the Prius demostrates the ability to consistantly get 80 mpg or whatever you claim I must consider your claims to be aberrations that shouldnt be considered when considering a purchase or even for any real discussion purposes. I dont consider reports of 28 mpg in the consumers reports test to be a realistic number of what an average consumer can expect and your numbers are in the same class in my view.

As far as the high mpg's of diesels, this 70+ mpg is not all that unusual. Europeans have enjoyed very high mileage cars for much of the past 4 years. now obviously the numbers come from a closed course, professional driver and undoubtedly slow boring driving.

another thing to consider is that this Accord was a randomly selected normal production model car, unaltered in any way. i have no details of your Prius but can you say the same for your car??

and i dont know why im going on about all this when all i was saying is that your "imperial gallon" thing was wrong.

 

These Prius are unmodified production vehicles. You can check them out (Dan K's Prius is one of the silvers) at the pics of the hybrid rally at my webpage:

http://homepage.mac.com/priustech/Prius/Menu9.html

Take another, closer, look at my first statement:

"1) The mpg figure seems like it's in imperial mpg... if it is then the figure is lower for the US equivalent."

I said that IT COULD BE UK imperial, and I never stated otherwise. I accepted your calculations that the mpg was indeed based on the US mpg.

Why don't you prove to me that the Accords were taken on the autobahn? And can you even prove how fast they went? The Prius CAN compete with modern diesels. I vehemently stand by all of the arguments I've made.

 

It seems to me like you've misjudged and misunderstood my posts and me (happened at least three times so far). I'm not some anti-diesel pro-gasoline fanatic... and I'm not unaware of the diesels in Europe and the fuel economy they get. Did I ever say anything to say that you were not a Prius fan? I think not.

What is with this gun emoticon? Seems immature to me.

Did you expect me to jump out of my seat in sheer ecstacy that this diesel was capable of 70 mpg? I never that the figures were unimpressive. I was pointing out that a few Prius drivers, driven with care like the diesels obvoiusly were, HAVE gotten past what the diesel achieved. You have an argument against the Japanese claims... I can agree with you on that. But this Dan K gave detailed descriptions of his trip (did you actually read those posts?). He has posted pics and what not before about the kinds of mpg he gets. Go to the Yahoo group and search for Wayne's Prius calculator, which predicts the mpg the Prius gets under given circumstances. If you play around with it you'll see that at speeds of around 40 mph the Prius is capable of exceeding 85 mpg.... granted, not under all conditions... but it still is capable.

As for the autobahn, the very article you posted mentions that "The route comprised of a mixture of motorway and non-motorway driving, during which one of the Accords achieved a staggering 76.6 mpg average." There is NO way that "non-motorway" driving includes the Autobahn.

 

And what is this about hybrids not being able to compete with modern diesels? Sorry to say, but that is pure bs. I'm sure the Lupo diesel can easily get higher mpg than the Prius, but it is NOWHERE comparable to the Prius in any other way. Last time I checked it weighs less than the Honda Insight (you can check for me if you'd like). Furthermore, the term hybrid is not exclusive of diesel technology. There are full diesel-electric hybrids being used everyday... as a matter of fact, right now there are diesel-electric buses transporting people around Seattle and other places. These aren't van-sized buses, they are full-sized transport buses.

http://www.gm.com/company/gmability/edu_k-...id_allison.html

http://autonet.ca/AutonetStories/Stories.c...m?StoryID=12020

http://email.gmcanada.com/corpdb/cachq/pre...36?OpenDocument

So please don't lecture me about diesel technology or make this some kind of gunfight between us, which it is not!