I'll chime in. It's been almost a year now since we last went to Italy. We
rented a Renault Megane convertible. When we stopped for the first fillup, I
opened the little door to the gas cap, and it said, Diesel Only. I said, No
S***?!?!?!?!? No one had the slightest idea! We drove it for two weeks, and
used what seemed like a thimble full of fuel. Unlike here, our fuel
consumption did not exceed our wine consumption.
Once I knew it was diesel,, I understood why it took a little more gas when
letting out the clutch, and that did explain the 4500rpm redline that I had
failed to notice, but the actual performance was more than adequate. For
ordinary driving, it was no different from a gas engine at all, and it
served decently for some more sporting driving on the Tuscan roads.
There's no doubt that most American consumers would be perfectly pleased
with a diesel, a possibility that is greater with the 9-1-06 clean fuels
deadline. I don't, however, think that the average car buyer would even walk
across the street to see, much less test drive one.
A continuing thread in Autoweek magazine is the superiority of diesels over
hybrids. interesting.
Bill Pearce
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