# Highway monster



## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

rcruze said:


> started with a full tank of gas


o rly?


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## rcruze (Mar 22, 2018)

Yup. Got get the night before....got the my destination with 121 miles left on the tank....when I left, drove for 30-40 miles before fill up and ended the day with 120 miles left!


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

You drive the world's only diesel-powered vehicle that runs fine on gasoline?


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## rcruze (Mar 22, 2018)

Gas, diesel or diesel gas...who cares what it is called...call it Dino bones for all I care. Point is still the same. A "tank of gas" is a phrase...


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## BodhiBenz1987 (Jan 13, 2018)

rcruze said:


> I drove for 16 hours today... covered just about 1200 miles...started with a full tank of gas and only had to fill up once...
> 
> I have said it before, but the diesel cruze is just a hwy monster! My cruze control was set at either 75 or 78 mph the entire time and i still got 8 hours of driving without needing to refill.....
> 
> Even after owning this car for a bit now, I am still just so amazed at how many miles this car will rack up with very minimal issues.... i hit 130k today!


I haven't put nearly the miles on mine as you (just hit 30k haha), but have had it a couple years and still get so excited over the fuel economy. After not going very far all summer, I finally took a mini-trip with a friend down to DC last week, 245 miles round-trip, almost all highway. With two of us in the car, going ~65-70 and occasionally faster, a couple toll booths, three stops, a few stop lights at either end of the trip, AND an active regen, per the computer's calculation we did 62 mpg for the day. It also reminded me how comfortable and effortless the car is when you're on the highway a while. Just makes me want to get out there and drive all day. I hope mine is still going strong when I get to your mileage.


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## MRO1791 (Sep 2, 2016)

It is quite amazing what these cars will do on a long highway drive. This is why I have 3 Gen 2s and a Gen 1. A car with a turbo diesel engine is a great combination for highway driving. It still is rather odd this combination did not catch on in the US for a larger share of the cars on the road. Even with cheap fuel, it is great to have to stop for fill ups less than half as often as a typical gasoline vehicle, that time savings alone adds up over the life of a vehicle. Knowing this option was likely to disappear from the US market (and it did), I pushed to get the full family fleet while it was still available, actually considered adding a Diesel Equinox as well.. but at this point if I go there it will have to be a used one, since that option has now also left the list of options on the new production cars. A friend of mine got a Diesel Equinox and is enjoying it, it's not the MPG monster that the Cruze is, but its still well over 40MPG highway for an AWD small SUV, which is quite respectable indeed.


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## BodhiBenz1987 (Jan 13, 2018)

MRO1791 said:


> It is quite amazing what these cars will do on a long highway drive. This why I have 3 Gen 2s and a Gen 1. A car with a turbo diesel engine is a great combination for highway driving. It still is rather odd this combination did not catch on in the US for a larger share of the cars on the road. Even with cheap fuel, it is great to have to stop for fill ups less than half as often as a typical gasoline vehicle, that time savings alone adds up over the life of a vehicle. Knowing this option was likely to disappear from the US market (and it did), I pushed to get the full family fleet while it was still available, actually considered adding a Diesel Equinox as well.. but at this point if I go there it will have to be a used one, since that option has now also left the list of options on the new production cars. A friend of mine got a Diesel Equinox and is enjoying it, it's not the MPG monster that the Cruze is, but its still well over 40MPG highway for an AWD small SUV, which is quite respectable indeed.


Yeah, this was part of my motivation to get mine when I did. I knew the manual was going away and suspected the diesel would be soon to follow. There are now no diesel sedans available in the US, and one SUV (the Jeep Wrangler). I haven't had time to do the research but I think 2020 was the first year that no diesel passenger car has been offered in the US since at least the 1960s. Of course they were mostly Mercedes and VW. It was always my niche and part of my identity so it's sad for me to let go of it. On the other hand I feel like part of some secret society now when I tell people about the car. The funny thing is I've seen three different Gen 2 diesel Cruzes on the road in my area (two less than a mile from my house) and four diesel Equinoxes (three within a couple miles of my house). So someone found out about them somehow. The Equinox or Terrain would be very tempting if I didn't already have two Jeep CRDs. The fuel economy numbers I have seen for them are awesome for an SUV ... better than most sedans on the market.


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## MRO1791 (Sep 2, 2016)

BodhiBenz1987 said:


> Yeah, this was part of my motivation to get mine when I did. I knew the manual was going away and suspected the diesel would be soon to follow. There are now no diesel sedans available in the US, and one SUV (the Jeep Wrangler). I haven't had time to do the research but I think 2020 was the first year that no diesel passenger car has been offered in the US since at least the 1960s. Of course they were mostly Mercedes and VW. It was always my niche and part of my identity so it's sad for me to let go of it. On the other hand I feel like part of some secret society now when I tell people about the car. The funny thing is I've seen three different Gen 2 diesel Cruzes on the road in my area (two less than a mile from my house) and four diesel Equinoxes (three within a couple miles of my house). So someone found out about them somehow. The Equinox or Terrain would be very tempting if I didn't already have two Jeep CRDs. The fuel economy numbers I have seen for them are awesome for an SUV ... better than most sedans on the market.


There was a Mazda CX-5 Diesel for MY 2020, not sure how well it was selling, it's EPA MPG wasn't that impressive. It did have some new technology to minimize need for EGR, which included some interesting ideas on the exhaust valves to quickly warm up the engine. They were very expensive, and only the premium trim level was available with the Diesel, when compared to the gas version it would be a tough economic selling point.


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## BodhiBenz1987 (Jan 13, 2018)

MRO1791 said:


> There was a Mazda CX-5 Diesel for MY 2020, not sure how well it was selling, it's EPA MPG wasn't that impressive. It did have some new technology to minimize need for EGR, which included some interesting ideas on the exhaust valves to quickly warm up the engine. They were very expensive, and only the premium trim level was available with the Diesel, when compared to the gas version it would be a tough economic selling point.


The CX-5 diesel actually quietly went away for 2020 though I think they had 2019s around the lots for a while. Indeed a hard sell at the price add-on. The weird thing is they have yet to take the diesel 6 off their "future cars" list. It's obvious it isn't happening for the US, but it's still floating there. I really like Mazda and their continued effort to further develop both types of ICE, but I think they were marketing to the wrong niche by putting it only in the top-trim. Maybe they were hoping to get the Mercedes people, but I think the Mercedes people would probably just go for a gas Mercedes rather than follow diesel to Mazda.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

MRO1791 said:


> There was a Mazda CX-5 Diesel for MY 2020, not sure how well it was selling, it's EPA MPG wasn't that impressive. It did have some new technology to minimize need for EGR, which included some interesting ideas on the exhaust valves to quickly warm up the engine. They were very expensive, and only the premium trim level was available with the Diesel, when compared to the gas version it would be a tough economic selling point.


Mazda was discounting those SUVs by $10,000 right after launch, which should tell you how well they expected to sell.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

BodhiBenz1987 said:


> The weird thing is they have yet to take the diesel 6 off their "future cars" list.


Don't get me started.

I still have my Fall 2008 issue of whatever that magazine is that Subaru sends to customers. I don't remember the title. Anyways, it promised that the recently unveiled diesel engine in Europe was "Coming Soon" to the USA. So I waited. And I waited. And I waited. And I checked in about once every quarter with the local dealership saying "Hey, I want to buy a Legacy with that diesel engine!" It never arrived. Then, in the midst of this, Mazda swore the 6 sedan was "Coming Soon" with a diesel engine, and they even teased that it might have a manual transmission option. So I waited. And I waited. And I waited.

Finally, I bought a 2018 Cruze sedan because both Subaru and Mazda could not or would not deliver.


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## BodhiBenz1987 (Jan 13, 2018)

Barry Allen said:


> Don't get me started.
> 
> I still have my Fall 2008 issue of whatever that magazine is that Subaru sends to customers. I don't remember the title. Anyways, it promised that the recently unveiled diesel engine in Europe was "Coming Soon" to the USA. So I waited. And I waited. And I waited. And I checked in about once every quarter with the local dealership saying "Hey, I want to buy a Legacy with that diesel engine!" It never arrived. Then, in the midst of this, Mazda swore the 6 sedan was "Coming Soon" with a diesel engine, and they even teased that it might have a manual transmission option. So I waited. And I waited. And I waited.
> 
> Finally, I bought a 2018 Cruze sedan because both Subaru and Mazda could not or would not deliver.


I don't actually remember the Subaru one. I do remember constant news a diesel Jeep Wrangler was coming starting when I got my Liberty CRD (2005). At least they finally did it 15 years later. I guess in Chrysler's case it was worth it because they had to develop it (and service it) for the trucks anyway. Between the historic lack of interest from the US, the stigma, the government microscope, and not wanting to service the complicated and unique systems for the few people that bought them, it's just a losing game, unless it's a truck that they can sell all day.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

BodhiBenz1987 said:


> I don't actually remember the Subaru one. I do remember constant news a diesel Jeep Wrangler was coming starting when I got my Liberty CRD (2005).


This is it: 2008 Subaru Turbodiesel Boxer - First Drive - Motor Trend

Subaru developed a boxer diesel engine because they were not much of a seller in Europe where people expected a diesel option. Small petrol engines are fine over there for cheap cars, but move upscale and you have to offer a diesel engine in a notable number of countries because of fuel taxes.

It (obviously) never arrived in the USA. I think the financial crisis put a lot of things on hold and that included investing lots of money into a new engine for the USA when we aren't a country that typically demands diesel engines.

The Jeep Liberty CRD came as a marketing test for Daimler-Chrysler. Maybe it sold enthusiastically enough to offer an option in the Wrangler, but both that and the Liberty would have had to be updated engines because the Liberty diesel engine didn't comply with 2007 emissions (it was sold in 2005-2006 only). That's right when Daimler unloaded Chrysler because it was a money-losing operation at that time, and I think plans just got lost in the wind. Now that it's Fiat-Chrysler, the Chrysler branch has access to diesel engines developed by Fiat (partnered with GM through Opel, now partnered with Peugeot & Citroën when Opel was sold to Groupe PSA).


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## MRO1791 (Sep 2, 2016)

Barry Allen said:


> This is it: 2008 Subaru Turbodiesel Boxer - First Drive - Motor Trend
> 
> Subaru developed a boxer diesel engine because they were not much of a seller in Europe where people expected a diesel option. Small petrol engines are fine over there for cheap cars, but move upscale and you have to offer a diesel engine in a notable number of countries because of fuel taxes.
> 
> ...


The killer for Diesel in the US is our emmissions standards. It drives cost way up, and perfomance and MPG down (and reliability issues, warranty claims, lawsuits, you name it). Makes it a hard sell over gasoline options, and we have higher tax on Diesel than gasoline.. take all that into account and it's a tough market to introduce a Diesel.


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## dundonrl (Jul 11, 2017)

Highest mileage I've seen on the distance till empty on mine was 740 miles, driving from North Carolina back to North Dakota. The fuel economy that it gets is just astounding (better than both my bikes, 2015 Kawasaki KLR-650 and 2018 BMW K1600 GTL)


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