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Posted by David Sherman [216.18.131.159] on Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 13:38:46 :
In Reply to: Re: pos ford on craigslist posted by Keith in Washington [76.104.177.226] on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 22:18:00 :
I won't put the blame totally on the drivers. It's up to the engineers to pick an engine that's suitable for the way the vehicle is typically expected to be used. It's also up to the marketeers to sell the vehicle, taking into account the quirks of the engine that's in it.
The real problem with diesels in cars and light trucks seems to be that they were dropped in as a fuel-economy improvement over a gas engine, without any real thought (or disclosure to the customers) that the engine was a whole different beast and needed to be warmed up before driving, and not used for short trips. Perhaps the engineers warned the marketeers and the big bosses told the marketeers to ignore the engineers. The infamous Oldsmobile diesel was clearly an example of a lightweight diesel engine being treated like a drop-in replacement for a gas engine. Obviously the marketeers would have a harder time selling a diesel-powered car or truck if they had to point out that it has great efficiency... BUT you have to start it as infrequently as possible and make sure it's nice and warm before you go anywhere.
When I was a teenager, I worked for a man who had one of the Mercedes diesel cars. He had me drive it for him a couple of times. One thing I will way for Mercedes is they didn't try to hide the fact that it was a diesel. You had to use the glow plugs for a good long time before you could even try to start it, and when it first started it knocked and smoked a fair bit until it warmed up, letting you know that you should let it run while before taking off.
Maybe if they went back to the pony motor starting system, people would be less likely to use their diesel-powered pickup to go half a mile to the grocery store, or if they did, at least the motor would be nice and warm by the time they put a load on it.