Lainey

I'd better hold on to my SUV.

canberra

Back at you, Deb !!!

....and yes, I hope so

silvershadow

I find it interesting that America has not embraced diesels. They are particularly well suited for driving in the West. Diesels run well over long distances producing relatively low fuel consumption. They also are well suited for hilly terrain, as you don't need high rpm's to generate torque. Both my diesels climb hills with no fuss/no muss not even bothering to downshift on a 6% grade. All that happens is the boost pressure goes up.

The new clean diesels don't smell, don't soot, and have lots of power and gobs of torque. The biggest problem I have with my 335D is what BMW did to keep idiots from fueling theirs with gasoline. They modified the fuel filler neck and the mod leaves the handle levered way away from the car and spits diesel onto the paint whenever you fill up the car.

I think there will be diesel hybrids included in the mix, and I would venture a guess that the MPG champs will be diesel hybrids. I read in Autoweek several months ago that Peugeot had shown a diesel hybrid at one of the auto shows and were touting 70 mpg fuel mileage.

boltonblue

John,
i suspect that diesel hybrid actually will not make very good inroads for one simple reason.
Diesels don't perform as well from an emissions standpoint when they are cold.
If you think about a hybrid which tries to modulate the engine on and off, it is usually in the 'cold engine' state.
With that said, a diesel-electric rather than a hybrid, could make remarkable numbers.

Filthy Beast

I have decided that my next truck wil lbe a diesel, although that is still several years down the road.

Spokes Man

^^

Roy. I always enjoy reading your posts.

RedY2KS2k

I suspect we'll return to the days where purchasers of gas hogs pay a premium price to subsidize the sale of fuel sippers so that the company can meet CAFE. Personally, I'm OK with that since it's other peoples' money.

I think that the EPA CAFE standard is combined city/highway average, but I didn't check.

I can see a situation where families have one "local only" electric, small hybrid, or really small car and one "real car" rather than two real cars." I know that we could get by with one "local only" commuter car that never gets more that 40 miles from home, as long as the other car is capable of weekend trips. But we practically never need to take two car trips out of town at the same time. Of course, I would expect the wife to commute in the "real car" during the week, rather than having 3 cars.

silvershadow

When you talk about diesel-electrics, I assume you are talking about a constant speed diesel powering a generator producing electricity to run electric motors at the wheels. A setup like that could be very efficient and very clean.

BTW, valid point about the cold engine problems associated with the diesels. It would be interesting to see if the Peugeot diesel-hybrid had any emission numbers associated with the fuel mileage numbers.

In addition to engines, I think future cars will extensively use aluminum, magnesium, and carbon fiber to reduce weight.

Legal Bill

I think that in some ways this will be like the late 1970s and early 1980s when we imposed regulations as a result of the 1973 oil embargo. The first generation or two of cars will be compromise vehicles. But the next generation will be greatly improved and then ten years later, the cars will be excellent.

RC - Ryder

I always have one car for highway hauling. I tend to keep it for 10 or more years. My last one was an Acura Legend; my current one is an Accord V6 Coupe. I hope circa 8 years from now there will be an appropriate, reliable replacement to meet our needs.