Five years ago today I was at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta for the last appearance of the big LMP1 racers in the ALMS and the North American debut of the +Porsche 911 GT3R hybrid. The flywheel hybrid system was eventually adopted by +Audi USA for the R18 e-tron quattro
Strangely, +Mercedes-Benz opened the introduction to the new U.S. market Metris midsize van with a comparison to the defunct Chevrolet Astro. The Metris may be similar in size to the Astro, but it drives way better than the Chevrolet ever did.
I never thought I would see the day when a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson stood in front a group of media to compare the brand’s latest product to the long dead Chevrolet Astro. For those who don’t rec…
I never thought I would see the day when a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson stood in front a group of media to compare the brand’s latest product to the long dead Chevrolet Astro. For those who don’t recall the Astro, it and its GMC-badged twin the Safari, were rear-wheel-drive midsize vans built from 1985 to 2005. Since the end of the Astro’s production run, no manufacturer has offered a similarly sized van in the U.S. market, until now. Starting in the first week of October, roughly 270 Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner dealers will begin selling the Metris which has been available in Europe as the Vito.
Lunar eclipse
Sandhill Cranes and Ducks
tonight's moon
Some food for thought
Analyst finds hints in the new way it is marketing smartphones – through monthly payments and frequent upgrades.
We've also emitted roughly 3 tonnes less CO2 although we've unknowingly emitted a lot more NOx. It's still too early tell what the total cost will be in lost resale value and societal health consequences.
We bought our 2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI wagon in November 2009 in large part based on the potential money we’d save at the pump. In the wake of the current diesel emissions fiasco and the fac…
We bought our 2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI wagon in November 2009 in large part based on the potential money we’d save at the pump. In the wake of the current diesel emissions fiasco and the fact that until recently, diesel has consistently been more expensive than gasoline, last night Julie? asked if we’ve even managed to save any money with this car.
I went to the Energy Information Administration website (an outstanding resource for historical data on fuel prices and supply) and downloaded the monthly average price data for the midwest which is available in a handy excel spreadsheet. You can also get national and regional data for annual and weekly averages. Based on the total mileage accumulated over 70 months and the EPA combined fuel economy estimates of 34 mpg for the diesel and 25 mpg for the 2.5-liter five-cylinder that was also available at the time I worked out the average monthly fuel consumption over the time we’ve owned the car. We have used approximately 23.1 gallons of ultra-low sulfur diesel per month and would have used about 31.4 gallons of regular gas with the five cylinder.
Putting that up against the average monthly price of regular gas and diesel we would have spent approximately $7,274 on gasoline. By comparison, despite the higher pump prices most of the time, I estimate that we’ve spent roughly $5,732 on diesel fuel, a savings about $1,540 dollars. The diesel emitted approximately 16.3 tonnes of CO2 over the past six years while the gasoline-fueled version would have output almost 19.4 tonnes, so we’ve saved roughly three tonnes of CO2 as well.
Does that justify all the extra NOx we’ve emitted? I have no idea. That’s one of those trade-offs that you simply can’t measure directly. Having paid a roughly $2,000 premium up front to buy the diesel engine, the economics are still an open question right now. A week ago, the $3,500 in extra resale value of a diesel compared to a gas engine would have more than covered the $500 difference we’re at right now in fuel savings and we would have been way ahead financially. A few weeks from now when this all sinks in, who knows what this car will be worth.
I don’t have answers yet, just some random data points. Stay tuned.
It's all about perpetual payments
When I first started speculating on the idea of an Apple car last February as rumors about Project Titan emerged, I was enormously skeptical that it would ultimately happen. However in the days sin…