Comment by VLM | Hacker News Reader

Comment by VLM | Hacker News Reader

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The article plays into the mythology of Americans not knowing about diesels with lines like "It is high time, America, to give diesels a better look."

However, all of us drivers have far too much life experience with driving behind/around giant bus and semi trucks that lay down a choking smokescreen.

Like it or not, diesels in America have a history of laying down choking smokescreens. Lack of regulation, lack of inspection, who knows.

Possibly new diesels or car diesels aren't as toxic. If you want to sell diesels to Americans you need to wait for them to forget about the last time they were "gassed" because they were nearby a bus or truck exhaust.

The other problem, living in a northern climate where diesel gels in the winter, its a huge hassle for the few diesel owners we actually have. And as if starting a gasoline engine at -15F isn't enough of a struggle, consider the poor diesel owner. They could sell well in Miami or New Orleans without the fuel issues, but inevitably someones going to move up north and the trash talking will commence. With extensive maintenance, expensive maintenance, they can be almost as reliable in the cold as a gasoline engine... almost. Why not save the extra maint money and buy a cheaper lighter higher powered gas engine? I have no question that the net gain to the environment tilts on the side of diesel in Louisiana, and it Might even net be cheaper. In the north... I strongly suspect the net overall system environmental costs of gas are significantly lower, as is the total system wide cost.

Good points. I think a lot of people in northern climates are familiar with block warmers and the notion of plugging you car in over night. In the 90's I drove a Chevy Love diesel mini truck (I think it was a rebranded VW pickup, not sure on that point Edit correction, it was an Isuzu), it rarely had trouble starting in the winter, if you used the glow plug button.

Now that gas prices have dropped in the US, I think alternatives to gasoline have simply become less attractive. When gas was near $4 a gallon a lot of people where disparate for alternative. Now that it's around $2 a gallon, not so much.

VW TDI owner and Boston resident, here.

Typically, gas stations which sell Diesel fuel put in anti-gelling additives that vary with the time of year. In the 12 years I've owned my car, I've never had a problem with gelling fuel, even when it got down to -5° F.

That being said, I'd have to lean on the glow plugs for 20-30 seconds at those temperatures, in order to get the engine block warm enough to turn over.

Diesel is much used and works fine in seriously cold parts of Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. There are special types of diesel that stations start serving when winter is coming (down to -45C without needing fuel preheater in car).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_diesel_fuel

> Possibly new diesels or car diesels aren't as toxic.

They aren't. That's the entire point of the article, hence "It is high time, America, to give diesels a better look."

Ugh not getting it. The problem isn't the new ones being better, its that until every last one of the old ones is melted down, it'll be a PR nightmare trying to sell new diesels to people who were just choked in a school bus smoke cloud yesterday or choked in a semi truck cloud this morning. It doesn't mean anything to those customers that the new diesels aren't like that, or the cloud generator was a 1990 model. All that matters is they can almost still smell that stinking cloud.

One effective although expensive way to sell diesels in 2015 would be to buy every pre-2005 or so diesel and melt it down into scrap metal. We can't afford that, although over a very long period of time it'll eventually take place naturally.

Another way would be to enforce emissions limits and emissions testing such that nobody ever sees a 1995 diesel truck laying down a smoke cloud. We've pretty much chosen not to do that, as a society.

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