Diesel cars in Europe

[mcmxi]

I'm always amazed by how many vehicles are diesel powered in the UK and Europe and how few diesel options are offered in the US. My brother has a couple of BMWs, and the fancier and rarer one is a 6 series GT 630d which has a 3.0L diesel engine.

My brother pointed out the automatic front grill vents on his car yesterday which is kind of neat. They remain closed if the engine oil and coolant aren't at an optimal temperature. @bird dogger makes and sells front/side covers for various Kubota tractors, and I have something similar for my F250 (that I've never used), but I was impressed by BMW's solution. You can see that the vents are closed in the first photo below.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

What is the price of diesel and petrol over there?

 

[mcmxi]

What is the price of diesel and petrol over there?

With the current exchange rate of £1 to $1.25, diesel is about $6.95/gallon (US gallon) and petrol is about $6.58/gallon (US gallon). Petrol stations around the M25 charge £0.20 more per litre since they have a captive audience.

My brother was telling me that they can no longer use off-road diesel in farm equipment and have to buy regular diesel now.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Please ask you brother what the cost is to replace those 'kind of neat' grilles !!!

as for diesel vs gas depending on the side of the pond. Europe is TINY ! heck it'll take me 2 days to get out of Ontario going west, in the summer. 3-4 in Winter.
Size is also why Europe has electric trains, for the most part.

 

[L35]

I still run a 04 Jetta tdi and that car is the best. 265k on it, still pretty tight. You do need to keep up on the little things so they don’t become big things but man 45mpg pretty much no matter how you drive it is awesome. It’s a shame the emissions defeated the economy and cost but the planet needed it I read.

 

[Vagabond]

Europe also made the choice to promote/subsidize diesel for many years, but they've rolled that back more recently as the problems with particulates and NOx have proved harder to solve than they expected.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

VW 'solved' the problems years ago..... 'tweak' the computer numbers.....

 

[D2Cat]

Back in the '70's Volvo had like venetian blinds in front of the radiator to control air flow.

 

[CGMKCM]

Please ask you brother what the cost is to replace those 'kind of neat' grilles !!!

as for diesel vs gas depending on the side of the pond. Europe is TINY ! heck it'll take me 2 days to get out of Ontario going west, in the summer. 3-4 in Winter.
Size is also why Europe has electric trains, for the most part.

My Chiropractor has a 2023 BMW with that type of grill. Her car was backed into and She saw no damage. Told the panicked little old lady that backed into her no damage and no problem. Later she had a CEL code pop up and took the car to BMW. BMW dealer charged $200 diagnostic fee and quoted $2800 to replace louvers. The new louvers were $1200 + installation. The minor impact from the accident cracked the louver assy and the louver was stuck closed.

 

[L35]

My ram has it. Wife’s VW has it. They are everywhere.

 

[mike0000]

We have a 1999 Mercedes E300, 6cylinder inline turbo diesel, 283k miles and still going. Engine and transmission have never had a serious issue. I bought it with 116k miles on it, best car I’ve ever owned as far as reliability. It is harder to get parts for it, I have to order them, even oil filters online. Looking forward to passing 300k.

 

[lugbolt]

my Mustang also has "active grill" that closes at highway speeds. It does help MPG a little bit too. Not a govt mandate, rather a reaction to a 'rule'.

 

[The Evil Twin]

Some years ago, you could buy a 5 series with the 3.0 diesel here. The sedan and wagon were available as diesel. They are great highway cars. Not so much on windy roads because of the weight on the steering wheels.

 

[WFM]

My 2015 F150 had radiator luovers I believe. Not sure my current truck does.
But I remember back in 1982ish a buddy has a ford escort diesel , five or six speed stick. He got 60 mpg. I always wondered why they never kept making thoses for the mileage.

 

[The Evil Twin]

I just remembered my ex girlfriends Corvair had louvers too.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

my '53 farm tractor had them as well.... manual of course...EVERYTHING back then was manual.....

 

[hedgerow]

Back in the sixty's and seventy's most semi tractors had shutters in front of the rad. When air to air coolers went in front of the rad shutters were gone. In eight's and early ninety's I dove a lot of diesel cars and small diesel pickups. Had several VW rabbit cars and trucks and Chev love and S-10 pickups. Back when diesel was diesel and all the same color. Very cheap running around rides. My old 50 JD A has manual shutters on it.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

neighbour's rabbit always smelled like a fish n chip shop during Spring, Summer and Fall.....
always seemed to be hungry for some reason....

 

[lugbolt]

why don't you see many diesel cars here?

Cause they cost. A LOT more than a gas burner. Diesel costs more, maintenance costs more, repairs cost a lot more and all of that is rooted by our laws and rules. For the vast majority of us, it's cheaper to drive a gasoline powered vehicle. Even most of the UPS local delivery vans are gas burners now; at least in this area. A few V10 Fords power the Fedex local delivery trucks too. There's one that delivers to work and the muffler is rusted off. It actually sounds GOOD when he's on the throttle leaving the shop. Been noisy for the 4 years I've worked there so I guess they're in no hurry to fix it and if I were the driver I probably wouldn't say a word about it until the fumes started getting to me.

 

[jyoutz]

I had a 2013 VW Passat TDI. Best car I ever had: 45 mpg with 4 people and loaded trunk, city or highway no difference. It would pass anything on the interstate and the handling was phenomenal. Used 2 liters of DEF every 10K miles. I sold it back to VW with the great buy back offer in 2017. I drove it for 100K miles and was paid only $4k less than I bought it for new.