Have manufacturers got the drive for car mpg rates the wrong way round?

[Delbert]

A newspaper article last week about diesel cars (Sunday Times 24th Jan UK) caught my eye when the author reported his 1.6 TDI car does 37mpg with a CO2 classification of 99g/km. Whereas I calculate my 1.6 petrol job to do 46mpg (although the dashboard indicator says 48mpg!) with a CO2 classification of 139g/km. With the apparent drive to reduce CO2 emissions, would it be better for manufacturers to build cars with a lower mpg figure?

Edited February 1, 2016 by Delbert

[Delbert]

Okay, my sarcastic opening remarks triggered no response, but perhaps the news items today (UK) about pollution, diesel powered vehicles in particular, seems to confirm my longstanding view that diesel engines have, and always will be, the most dirty and polluting of all vehicle engine types.

 

Indeed, how anybody ever thought that they were 'green' I've never understood. The only way to make them cleaner is to have such a complex exhaust filter system as to be totally uneconomic, if not next to impossible to manufacture.

[Endy0816]

Too many European terms. You need to use arbitrary units of measure based on body parts so the Americans can get the joke. We won't even talk about CO2 ratings. You need to be limited to hybrid or electric feel good options like normal people.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Endy0816

[Delbert]

Perhaps it's my odd way of expression, as It's not hybrid or CO2 output I'm taking about, but rather the apparent promotion and encouragement of diesel engine vehicles with tax concessions and the like. To me it's absolute lunacy. The things are dirty, have always been dirty and always will be dirty.

 

And from what I understand, the UK MOT (annual test) simply involves a smoke test for a diesel! I also understand that in contrast to a petrol engine vehicle, the catalytic converter on a diesel doesn't have to be working! And even the DPF can be non-functional as well! What sort of test is that?

 

And as for the higher MPG, my initial comments (#1) quote 37mpg for the newspaper reporter's 1.6 diesel, whereas my 1.6 petrol job does 46mpg! So even all the talk about more miles per gallon is rubbish.

 

Indeed, I can support the above figures, because from what I recall from a selection of vehicles during one of my employments (I kept figures at the time), I can report something similar between diesel and petrol.

[fiveworlds]

You're confusing the differences between petrol and diesel. Diesel creates more CO2 per gallon than petrol.

 

his 1.6 TDI car does 37mpg

my 1.6 petrol job to do 46mpg

Edited February 23, 2016 by fiveworlds

[Delbert]

"Diesel creates more CO2 per gallon that petrol"

 

Exactly! And with a lower mpg than petrol, it just makes it worse. Which is the opposite all the publicity and the apparent reason for lower taxes!! But I suppose it's the proof of the old axiom: say something loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.

 

P.S. apologies for not using the 'quote' facility, as it doesn't work on my IE 11.