In recent years, Jeep, Mercedes and Volkswagen have all offered U.S. customers diesel-powered products. However, they have not done so in California or any of the other 15 states that have adopted The Golden State's air pollution regs (Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington). Today, Mercedes has announced that they'll equip the ML, R, and GL-Series with a 50-state-compliant Bluetec V6 diesel engine. (The oil-burning E-Class awaits the '09 model year model changeover). The 3.0-liter V6 diesel uses urea injection to eliminate NOx emissions and particulate filters to "almost eliminate" soot. The powerplant makes 210 horses and a whopping 398 lb ft of torque. In the ML and R, it should deliver 18 mpg city and 24 highway (an improvement of 3 city/4 highway over the V6 ML350) In the plenty porky GL, expect about 17/23 mpg. Now, finally, we'll get to see if there's a market for "clean diesels" in the U.S.– at the top end of the market.
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Now if they would just offer this in the Jeep Wrangler here at a decent price point. It would be a barn burner of a product. In the rest of the world the CRD is the pretty much the STANDARD engine.
Low 20s on the highway with gobs of torque for off-roading.
It’s nice to finally see more choices that will be available in all states. However, dealers are going to have to edumacate people about how these vehicles can still be economical even with gas at $3.25 and diesel at $4. Most people can’t grasp the efficiency increase unless it’s translated into simple terms, like 15 gallons will take you 600 or 700 miles.
With diesel already topping $4.00 per gallon, coupled with the diesel engine price premium, this will be a tough sell.
One minor point for us penny-counters to keep in mind:
When talking about diesel in premium cars like this, we should be comparing it to the price of premium gasoline, which is what most of the cars in this category require.
Obviously diesel is STILL more expensive than premium (by 15 cents where I love), and there’s the added cost of the engine, but every little bit helps in this battle, I suppose.
brettc, thalter: The tinfoil-hat-type in me wonders if CARB hasn’t had a bit of say in diesel prices of late…
Hopefully the price-parity will improve as the demand for heating oil diminishes.
Where’s my econo-diesel? I rented a diesel SEAT in Spain that I still have pleasant dreams about. It saddens me that no similar cars can be found on the market here in the U.S.
Unfortunately the cost of diesel fuel compared to gasoline makes the possibility of success for diesel engines here pretty remote.
the ML and R, it should deliver 18 mpg city and 24 highway (an improvement of 3 city/4 highway over the V6 ML350)
Doesn;t stack up well against 20/20 hybrid Tahoe.
Anti-hybrid, pro-diesel nazis don’t talk about diesel preimum (over 87 regular gas).Actual seeling price of Jetta diesel was 20% over comparable gasoline counterpart.
So, is diesel generally cheaper than gasoline (or petrol) in Europe? Anyone?
As usual, we see new technology (the “clean” part not the “diesel” part) going into bigger/heavier/faster instead of more efficient. My 1986 Mercedes 300E stick-shift averaged 24 MPG before California started mucking with the fuel. 20 years later and the efficiency is lower based on fuel with more energy (and carbon).
What happens when you don’t fill the urea tank?
Now if they’d only put that motor in the C-class. I bet you could wring some pretty good mileage out of a lighter platform.
Or better yet, put the oil burner in the SLK. I’d be sold on that.
I hope it works, and brings diesels into the main stream in the U.S. But I don’t see the rich and pampered ladies and gentlemen soiling themselves at the self serve diesel pump. Maybe this will bring back the Full Service “gas station”. May I check your urea level Maam?
drifter said:
“Actual seeling price of Jetta diesel was 20% over comparable gasoline counterpart.”
That is just econ101 with the dealer looking for profit based on demand. It used to be that TDI’s were priced lower than the gasoline-powered VWs. When I bought my TDI in the pre-Katrina days of 2002 I paid $4000 less than the gasoline models sitting all around it. In fact I made a lowball offer and walked away smiling because the car had been sitting on the dealer’s lot for 6 months.
Prior to the double whammy of petroleum’s price doubling and CARB killing Diesel in more than a dozen states, Diesels were not in demand and subsequently cheaper to buy. Now they are artificially constrained in availability (by CARB regs) and in VERY high demand. If I didn’t love my TDI so much I could sell it for close to what I paid for it six years and 120,000 miles ago. Demand for Diesels far outstrips supply, so they carry a price premium at the moment.
Simple economics.
Being “pro-Diesel” does not make you “anti-hybrid”, (or a Nazi by the way.) The original design goal of the hybrid was lower emissions, not fuel economy. If fuel efficiency was the primary design goal then the ideal ICE for a hybrid vehicle is a Diesel engine.
–chuck
http://chuck.goolsbee.org
>>EJ_San_Fran :
>>What happens when you don’t fill the urea tank?
Eat a bran muffin and fill it up again.
(Sorry, couldn’t resist)
how does “a whopping 398 lb ft of torque” differ from any other 398 lb ft of torque? i read in all the car mags about a “healthy 300 hp” or an “astounding 500 hp” and i wonder how these horsepower ratings vary from other presumably unhealthy 300 hp or boring 500 hp ratings. just wondering why the authors don’t simply state the fact, e.g. this engine produces 398 lb ft of torque, more than enough to move the porker around, or something like that.
Google “Appleseed biodiesel processor”
brettc and thalter, I could have no said it better….
@Phil:
You raise a good question. There are two answers to it:
1. Without colorful, judgmental, and exciting language we’d just be consumer reports (blech).
2. It’s an impressive amount of torque in relation to the engine size, which is 3.0 liters, and the relatively unimpressive 210 horsepower output. BMW’s very impressive turbocharged 3.0 liter I6 makes 300 lb ft of torque, for example.
Diesel is about 7-10% more expensive than gasoline in Europe, the difference varies between countries.
For all you diesel lovers,
Basically the most economical diesel car in sale today in Europe, VW Polo Bluemotion 2:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=O4y02l2AW3o
70MPG vs 47.5MPG, real world mpg numbers are 50% bigger than in factory specs.
Bluemotion 2 Polo is a tiny very light car with small 1.4TDI engine, 80hp, 144 lb/ft.