Old Top Gear 1991 - Buying a diesel

one reason for the unpopularity of diesel cars has undoubtedly been their dirty image they're associated with dirt and muck whether it's coming out of the exhaust well whether you putting it in the tank you spill this gluten oide stuff on your hands or your feet the smell stays with you for days our petrol count is doing something about that not least by providing these natty little gloves are they putting diesel pumps in a rather more civilized area not just in a trucker's Enclave the question is though is Diesel's yucky image environmentally justified diesels are said to be cleaner than even catalysts equipped petrol cars meaning less acid rain and less destruction of forests they're fuel-efficient too contributing less to global warming but what about those smoky exhausts now all that smoke is actually such a diesel engine produces even more than an ordinary petrol engine that's one without a catalytic converter now that not only makes your washing difficult to keep clean and it makes buildings absolutely filthy but there's a nasty little rumor around that it causes cancer despite many studies that link isn't yet proven but the legislators and some of the manufacturers are playing safe folks far gonna leading the purge their new golf unbelt diesel is fitted with a turbocharger that reduces the amount of search rather than aides performance and a simple catalyst not only removes those diesel smells but also have spydra carbon emissions so why doesn't everyone buy such an environmentally sound car why don't you well the trouble is that Diesel's the old vault is no exception a little bit slow the own vault may be the cleanest liquid-fueled car and current production but it takes 16 seconds to get from nought to 60 one way around the problem is to fit a large capacity engine this is the route pojos followed with the 205 which gets an 1800 CC diesel engine giving petrol style performance and much-improved refinement another solution is to bolt on a turbocharger with such a device fitted the Vauxhall Nova 1.5 TD how to performs most of its petrol driven stablemates and manufacturers are up to the same tricks they've already used to extract more performance from their petrol engines the Citroen XM turbo diesel has multi valves three per cylinder to be precise sitchin also makes the best-selling diesel on the British market the bx it's 1600 CC petrol equipment is just picked at the performance post by the 1800 CC turbo diesel which is not only a little bit faster than the 1.6 petrol but it makes all the right green noises too however these are the only noises it makes that are right even this perhaps the most refined and maybe even the best diesel engine in current production it's still desperately clattery when it's cold but never mind that never mind all the reasons for and against diesel the main reason why this and other cars of its type of being bought in increasing numbers by the fleet market its fuel economy the turbo diesel VX is said to do 9 mpg more than its petrol equivalent with the Montego the gap is apparently even more marked some 18 mpg diesel cars should also be more reliable according to the German equivalent of the AAA diesels are only half as likely to have a breakdown the main reason is that a diesel engine doesn't have any spark plugs so there's rather less electronic dubbings to go wrong so if it's more reliable more environmentally friendly and a deal more economical surely that's enough to offset a few power and refinement deficiencies sadly not you see the problem is cost this Nova 1.5 turbo diesel is 975 pounds more than its petrol driven equivalent for golf on belt more reasonable I'll grant you but it's still 390 pounds more and the fuel is not that cheap either in countries like France and Italy government's impose a lower tax rate on diesel fuel and that has led to much greater popularity for diesel cars oil companies say production costs of diesel and petrol are roughly equivalent the price differences are down to the level of tax and seasonal changes in demand for heating oil because the pump prices of diesel and petrol are about the same in Britain you have to do round about 70,000 miles before savings on fuel economy offset the extra cost of your car now the only way you're gonna get that break-even point down to a realm where taxi drivers aren't the only ones to benefit is if you reduce the tax on diesel fuel now all the government do that probably might if the environmental aspects were suddenly to become overwhelmingly important but they'd have to if the European community told them to so the future of diesel cars in Britain is really in the Chancellor's hands if he reduces tax on much xix sales will almost certainly boom if he doesn't no matter how good the cars get diesel is likely to remain a niche market

Channel: celticmadliam

Views: 4,057,840

Rating: 4.8841491 out of 5

Keywords: Old Top Gear, 1991, diesel, buying, jeremy clarkson, tiff needell, william woodward, classic top gear, chris goffey, BBC, economical, heavy, slow, particulate filter, 50mpg, epic economy

Id: sEZEEbAqgfc

Length: 5min 27sec (327 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2010

Reddit Comments

[u/JTan696969]

I feel that we have to address the elephant in the room: Jeremy had an AFRO?

[u/FriedChicken]

It's really stupid that Europe went the way of diesel, and the U.S. the way of gas/hybrid.

It should have been the other way around. Diesels benefit from long stretches of constant speed (American driving), and hybrids/gas benefit from lots of stop/go (European driving).

[u/DukeboxHiro]

38.7p/litre :(

[u/St0rmtroop3r]

So very well-spoken, what happened...

[u/breadandbutter123456]

Who decided to put the theme tune to Grandstand on this?