Diesel or Gasoline
 

Just curious, did some reading on diesel, and wanted to see what you guys thought. If you were looking to get a car that is daily driven (car not truck), and had the choice to get a diesel or gasoline, what would you choose?

Diesel has better fuel economy, but slightly higher maintenance costs and intervals, while gas eats a bit more gas, but doesnt require as much maintenance. Diesel, gasoline, or its an even tradeoff? Also, remember that diesel is more enviro-friendly than most gasoline engines, so if that matters to any of us here interested in saving the planet.

Chime in!! I know there are at least a few diesel guys here, mostly gasoline, so lets hear it.

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I voted Diesel. As long as I have another car to play with, I would love a diesel car.

Modern diesels are neat, but I'd prefer a small gasoline engine. Cleaner, quieter, easier to maintain. Actually it's mostly the maintenance issue, diesels are a expensive and difficult to maintain cause the fuel system is so damn high pressured.

Get and 87 merc 300td wagon. Then you can haul stuff if you need to.

Why are they so slow though?? My civic hits 60 in about 9 seconds, I looked up the stats on a diesel golf last night, and having 100 horsepower and 177 torque! at 1700rpm for that matter, it goes in 12.1

Is there any way to make them faster?? Its kind sad to see all of that torque to go to waste. Cant you tinker with the turbo, or the ECU

Maybe a CVT trans to keep it in the powerband would make it faster.

I didn't think diesels needed that much maintenence. I mean, I know rebuilds would cost more, but they should last a lot longer.

you can take a full size diesel truck into the 12's with a few mods..as long as its a turbo diesel lol

Yea, I read its not uncommon to see them with 500k miles+
Im talking cars though. A friend of mine is considering getting one, and his reason is "cause its european" so I want to know what the real deal is. He wants a golf TDI

i know a guy that has a vw diesel for his dd and gets like 40+ mpg, so if it was my dd and absolutely no modding to it then i'd go diesel. not to mention the fuel for it is like 20 cents cheaper.

Non-turbo diesels are slow.

But, yes, I would pick up a diesel car. It takes very little mods to make a turbo diesel fast, and still be more efficient than a gas engine.

Plus, that vdub isn't geared to get up and go. People buy diesel for a reason.

And torque gets you going, but hp will get you better speed. After all is said and done through the drivetrain, that golf doesn't have probably more than 85hp to the wheels, if that.

So the modifications for a diesel would be about the same as for a gasoline engine. The VW diesels are turbo 1.9 liters, but there has to be a way to give them some more balls, I mean 177 torque and they are still considerably slower than my civic

they seem slower than your civic however they make about 70 more ft/lbs and with VERY minor mods it would probably be faster on a roll

So from a performance standpoint, they arent really that great i guess. Hes not one of those people who is all about global warming and such, so I dont know why the hell hes doing it

definately deisel

you can buy kits now to convert used veggie oil into deisel feul that has a higher octane and burns cleaner and you pay about 40 cents a gallon after everything

And also, what is with the nice rich black smoke they put out

Definitely, some people are using grease from fastfood restaurants...mmmm....french fries while driving FTW

go to howstuffworks.com and look up deisel engines

There was a member here I remember who got a TDI jetta and had the licence plate Oil Brnr I think

Read that, watched vids, didnt find anything about the smoke though

i would get hungry too often