BMW's New Diesel 116d Gets 54 MPG

It’s too bad diesel hasn’t taken off in the states – a zippy little car like this would be a great alternative to the ever-so-slightly-too-trendy Mini Cooper (also made by BMW!).

Enough with the Euro-diesel articles. We all know that there are a lot of very clean turbo diesels that get anywhere from 50 to 100 mpgs and we can not have them. So stop rubbing it in our face.

It’s not face rubbing, it’s impetus for us to make our “Of the people, for the people, by the people” government live up to the label and bring us what we need – a future!

re: Doug

Really, no face-rubbing here…I swear. I am just disgusted that a country (that would be us) who uses 25% of the world’s oil (once again the gluttonoUS of A) can’t get these great cars!

Hey guys, I drive a 7.3 F250 Powerstroke and since the low sulfer has been introduced, my fuel mileage has dropped. Would like to see some high mileage diesel engines for work trucks like the 250. However, we have the capacity to produce engines that get 80+ mpg re: the Moody brothers from Charlotte,NC, back about 1985. They had a car that averaged 80mpg..drove from Charlotte to DC with great raves from the news media and disappeared..Where has all this tecnology gone..(drove the car at interstate speeds by the way) If in the 50′s we had the technolgy to build a plane (SR71 Blackbird) that would fly 100,000 ft.plus high and from Cal. to DC in 33 minutes, what are we really able to do with our ground transportation?

Sorry Rick, but your errors on the sR71 records put your claims on other things into question. Here’s the URL:

http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/srrcd~1.htm

July 27-28 1976

Altitude in Horizontal Flight: 85,068.997 ft (25,929.031 meters) SR-71A. World Absolute and World Class Altitude Record for Horizontal Flight – 85,068 feet, surpassing the previous record of 80,257 feet set by a Lockheed YF12A in June of 1965. SR-71 flown by Capt Robert C. Helt, Pilot and Major Larry A. Elliott, RSO.

Speed Over a Straight Course (15-25km): 2,193.167 mph SR-71A. World Absolute and World Class Speed Record over a 15/25 Kilometer Straight Course – 2,193.167 MPH surpassing the previous record set by a Lockheed YF12A Interceptor prototype in June 1965. SR-71 Flown by Capt. Eldon W. Joersz. Pilot and Major George T. Morgan Jr., RSO

Speed Over a Closed Course (1000km): 2,092.294 mph SR-71A. World Absolute Closed Circuit Speed Record over a 1000 Kilometer Course (The SR-71 is a Class C-1 Group III jet engine aircraft, same as the Mig-25 Foxbat) – 2116 MPH, surpassing the previous Absolute Speed Record of 1853 MPH and the World Class Speed Record of 1815 MPH set by a Russian Mig-25 Foxbat in October, 1967. SR-71 flown by Major Adolphus H. Bledsoe, Jr., Pilot and Major John T. Fuller, RSO.

March 06, 1990

SR-71A #61-17972

West Coast to East Coast of USA (National Record-Speed Over a Recognized Course): Coast to Coast Distance: 2,404.05 statute miles…Time: 1 hr 07 min 53.69 secs…Average Speed: 2,124.51 mph

Los Angeles To Washington D.C. (World Record): Distance: 2,299.67 statute miles…Time: 1 hr 04 min 19.89 secs…Average Speed: 2,144.83 mph

St Louis To Cincinnati (World Record): Distance: 311.44 statute miles…Time: 8 mins 31.97 secs…Average Speed: 2,189.94 mph

Kansas City To Washington D.C. (World Record): Distance: 942.08 statute miles…Time: 25 mins 58.53 secs…Average Speed: 2176.08 mph

Crew for above four records: Ed Yeilding and J.T. Vida

(Above data verified by Ed Yeilding on November 22, 2002)

Just curious, why we can’t get these diesel powered cars in California?

Doug,

One big thing with diesel in the US is it costs more (~25%) than gasoline. In most European contries the diesel costs about 20% less than gasoline, so it makes even more sense. Plus people still think of the old 70-80′s diesels with loud, slow, smokey engines.

CO2 Builder,

The biggest problem is the diesels (even newer ones) have not been able to meet all oc the California emission requirements.

Why, OH WHY!, must we in the USA always be seemingly denied the importation of cars such as the BMW 116d. I can recall when VW would play games with the US market and continuously start and stop importing TDI’s for some unknown reason. If their purpose was to frustrate consumers by limiting supply, forcing them to pay sticker+ prices, well they’ve been successful. Where is VW’s diesel/electric hybrid we’ve been hearing about????

Corn lobbyists keep sugar prices artificially high to make HFCS more economical.

Are the corn people lobbying politicians to keep efficient small diesels out of the U.S. so that they can sell more corn ethanol?

California should be left out of the equation they shouldn’t force their standards on everyone else. If I want to a get clean diesel in TX I should be able to without having to worry about broke california.