Hybrid vs. Diesel Debate

in the market for a car, going the veggie diesel way. Having trouble finding a diesel. Automatically think VW, but....... Anyone got experience with a MERCI_BENZ or VOLVO bio-disesel convert. ? Please share.

With piezo fuel injectors and sulphur free diesel
(like the europeans have) coming soon diesels
made by vw, mercedes, bmw will win hands down
over the hybrids. Hybrids are getting an unfair
advantage from tax incentives. Even so they will
turn out to be a failure.

Consider this scenario: You are involved in an
accident. Your car is hit in the rear. Cant get out.
Gasoline is leaking from your crushed tank.
You know any little spark will likely make you
become cremated.

Another scenario. Your wrecked car has diesel in
the tank. If you are a smoker you can even light
a cigarette not worrying about being fried even
if the diesel flow thru your car.

all this sounds like a diesel-hybrid is the best long term design.

the concept of recovery of lost energy - breaking or coasting - should never be left out of car designs. it's just too basic & novel a system to skip.

a plug in veggie diesel hybrid just might be my next car. in what? 8 years? ~ maybe?

see ya

Here's an experiment:

Pour a gallon of DIESEL fuel down on the ground and throw a lighted match on it. The diesel fuel will EXTINGUISH the match!

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME WITH GASOLINE!

Just something to think about if you're involved in an accident and you're trapped inside with fuel gushing out everywhere from your car's fuel tank.

having a diesel car you can even have home delivery of diesel..275gls x whatever number of
tanks you have. I have two tanks at home. Never
go to a gas station or worry about another oil
crises. My 2002 Jettta is fun to drive..great
passing power. It gets average 44-45 mpg in
mixed use. If I drive it hard and use a/c a lot
then it drops to 40-41mpg. On long trips I get
well over 50. Most reviews in newspapers says
diesels get up to 30% better mileage. Well the
VW TDi get almost 100% so I dont know where
they get this info from. While in Europe last month
I drove a MB CDI for a week and the mpg was over
40. And as new injectors (like ceramic piezo)
get widely used the hybrids might as well be
used as artificial reefs. They are just to complicated
and expensive to build.
y

vw makes the best diesel cars around

to all u battery boys and girls. My tdi has a trailer hitch and tows my 600hp race car to the dragstrip.How much can that 1.5 tow. I'll race u up hill without downshifting. Definition Torque. I see lots of used hybrids for sale, but not many tdi's they are so demanding carmax wants to buy it !

Looks like a consensus. What the world needs is a TDI hybrid. Then we can have great highway and great city MPG. Add a larger battery to the hybrid idea and plop a solar panel on the roof and it looks better still.

I prefer the biodiesel because it would put "our"
farmers back in business.
Does anyone know what the enviromental clean up
of smashed batteries would cost,"if" an accident were to happen to a hybrid car ?