Diesel? Why not?

We're now a two diesel household. The extra clatter under the hood really does grow on you. Our VW is about to finish its first (of many) fifty thousand miles. Our new (to us) truck just finished its first (of many) hundred thousand miles.

Don't let the size of our truck fool you... It's averaged 22.5 mpg over its first 2500 miles with us. Our VW wagon that will cruise expediently down the highway has averaged just over 45 mpg.

There's a certain beauty to the mechanical simplicity of even modern diesels - all the more so now that they operate with very little smoke and smell. Our VW hardly bats an eye in temperatures below freezing. The truck has a block heater, but its only "recommended" for temperatures down to twenty degrees or so.

There are certain drawbacks. Certain components in the fuel don't evaporate, so the pump handles tend to be a little dirtier than the gas pumps. Not every station has diesel. Diesels will belch the occasional puff of smoke - but don't let the absence of smoke you can see coming from gas cars fool you. There are still considerable quantities of particulate emissions from your favorite gasoline burning car... It's just that the particles are a bit too small to see. And, as Forbes reports today, diesels are about to get cleaner, and probably a lot more popular.

We have found that our diesels are a bit pickier about where their fuel comes from. Sometimes they'll belch a little extra smoke if they don't like their fuel. Sometimes fuel economy and power will be lower. Since the onset of ethanol blended fuels in Texas, though, I've noticed a similar finickiness in the Miata as well.

Diesel is running a bit high in price compared to regular gasoline - still not nearly high enough to counter the fuel efficiency gains and make us wish we had a gasoline powered truck, though. I suppose if the price of diesel gets too high, though, we'll just have to take up another hobby and start brewing our own...