I would buy a diesel outlander. The gas mileage is better and diesel motors seem to last longer. Plus getting a turbo outlander and some add ons could make for one fast SUV. I know everyone has seen turbo trucks doing all wheel drive burn outs. Anyone watch PINKS with the bully dog turbo diesel dodge?

 

Your maths is wrong if a us gallon is bigger you will get more mpg. All diesel cars can run on 100% bio diesel but they need to have the injectors and fuel pump modified. Diesel is not a standard thoughout the world, imported carsfrom Japan (2nd hand) will need it seals on the fuel pump changing before you can put UK diesel in. If not the seals on the fuel pump will leak. This because our (uk) diesel is more acidic than Japanese diesel fuel.

Mitsubishi UK will not honour the warranty on any engine running over 30% bio diesel or an iso ???? stated in the manual

If more farms produce rapseed or grain for fuel we will have to pay more for grain/wheat used in food stuffs, in the UK we have seen bread go up by 5p per loaf because farmers get a better return for fuel crops than growingfood stuffs

puddy

 

What I wrote was that one UK gallon is 1.2 US gallon, which means a uk gallon is a larger volume of fuel (US gallon = approx 3.78L, UK gallon 4.55L), thus more miles per UK gallon. I agree that I don't think rapseed diesel is the solution (and it requires more from all rubber parts to not dissolve them), synthetic diesel made from biproducts in the lumber industry is alot more interesting though

I think diesels are still the better solution for the environment on the whole though - either way, I am looking forward to my new car.

 

Biodiesel has not been an issue for fuel lines for well over 10 years, when "natural" (nitrile) rubber fuel lines were phased out in favor of synthetic (viton). And even with my early-90's Mercedes, the lines did fine on biodiesel for a few years, then finally started showing some leakage, at which point we simply had all the lines replaced. And the engine is sooo much happier on it. Of course for a car that ran on the dirty stuff for over 10 years, it went thru a few a few fuel filters while the biodiesel did its thing and got everything cleaned out.

As far as warranties, in the US a mfr legally cannot ban biodiesel and/or automatically void the warranty. Of course they can "recommend" up to 4 or 6 or whatever percent is politically expedient. And of course they can refuse to cover damage that was caused by bad fuel, biodiesel or otherwise. (D2 with water contamination would be the same story.) Getting good fuel is always important!

 

That depends on what you define as "environment". Many scientific studies indicate exhaust gases from common-rail diesel engines still form a greater risk to health than modern gasoline engine (more particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide etc.) If you're only concerned about climate change than diesel engines are usually a better choice..
And I'm not so sure Diesel Particle Filters found in some cars reduce the health risk completely..

 

Well, mostly thinking about lowering consumption of fuel really. Once I can buy an all electric car that will take me a decent distance on one charge at a reasonable price I'll probably get one. Then again, I probably care more about paying less for driving the same distance opposed to getting an "environmentally friendly" car, they often coincide though.

 

Malu,

You said

"Once I can buy an all electric car that will take me a decent distance on one charge at a reasonable price I'll probably get one."

Is this close? www.teslamotors.com

 

I'd love one of those, but the price is out of my league for now, but hopefully they'll get lower. Having an all electric as a second car would be awesome

 

The psa 2.2 engine will cost an extra £1000 and will be offer as a preminum Mitsubsubi have no plans to drop the VW engine in the UK market

Mines a 2008 model[/quote]

Puddy

 

Interesting how much can differ between two european countries - in Sweden they will only offer the 2.2 now, and charge around $3000 more.