Diesel cars in Europe

[GreensvilleJay]

LB is 100% right..... COST, especially maintenance. Mason had a duelly to haul his forklift on triaxle trailer. Always complained about cost of 'oil changes', obscene.
other problem with diesel is getting 3 drops of diesel on your shoes, then onto the carpet, stink is there for MONTHS....

 

[McMXi]

I had no idea that adjustable louvers on front grills were so common and go back decades it seems. Not sure how many mentioned are or were controlled by the ECU though, but it seems to make a lot of sense for diesels, but I don't see the benefit for gasoline powered vehicles unless the intent is to reduce drag rather than reduce cooling. It's entirely possible that my brother's BMW uses the vents for more than one purpose too, i.e. reducing cooling in winter and to reduce drag at certain speeds.

@The Evil Twin, my brother's car is AWD and not only is it fast, it handles exceptionally well on those winding English country roads. He's owned a lot of nice cars over the years and this one is one of his favorites.

@GreensvilleJay, you mentioned the cost to repair or replace those active vents. That argument against a feature can be used on just about any technology or feature and it's typically a straw man argument. The active vents are not a gimmick, and frankly, the cost to replace or repair is a drop in the bucket for my brother. The only certainty here is what the vents accomplish, unlike R&R which is purely speculative.

 

[DaveFromMi]

Car companies (at least used to) get "carbon credits" for adding things like active grille shutters, electronic controlled compressors, forced recirc intake, humidity sensors in HVAC, engine shutoff at idle if conditions are right, etc.

 

[The Evil Twin]

The AWD may help the handling. I only drove the RWD model. It definitely wanted to push more than my E39 540 (which is also a little nose heavy).

 

[GreensvilleJay]

I'm well aware that 'shutters' are not a gimmick but the cost to replace is nuts. I don;t know if they work for that car, I do know the rad shutters on a 50s A-C B DO work, FYI be sure to open them come summer though.

As for 'gimmicks', the left front wheel well molding for wife's Nissan was $532 CDN + 1/2hr to install. I'm talking LESS than 4# of plastic.... $532 ! , oh yeah, 13% taxes on top of that. Makes the car look better (?) , serves no other purpose ,so to me a 'gimmick'.

 

[BBFarmer]

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)

Sweet mother of all. I can't even fully comprehend that. Most I ever paid here in the south was a touch over $4.

And before biden, and because of my cooking addiction, with the kroger discount i'd often get it stupid low.
This was early 2020 before it all went to S@#t.

 

[Botamon]

Sweet mother of all. I can't even fully comprehend that. Most I ever paid here in the south was a touch over $4.

Just be glad you don't live in California where they are encouraging people to move away from gas/diesel by taxing the heck out of it.......as seen in the town of Bridgeport:

 

[Wull]

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.

this is pretty much spot on, maybe slightly on the high side, depends on where you live but the average in the UK has it slightly lower than quoted. All service stations within the UK charge roughly 20p more per litre than other places, they are more expensive for everything.

Golf courses are still allowed to use red diesel but all construction and farms etc use white diesel albeit we get it at a very good price, it’s not as bad as we thought it would be.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

gas ,here in Ontario is $1.50 / l so about $4.25 US$/USG ?
diesel , $1.66 / l so ? $5.25 US$/ USG