Only available in Europe, the Mini Diesel gets 60 MPG and with improvements will get over 72 MPG. Why can't we get them here in the US? Oil companies?

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/05/25/m...l-run-cleaner/

 

Yup, talked about it in this thread

 

And the MINI One Diesel has the tork of the MCS. MINI USA needs to drop the MINI Cooper and bring the MINI One Diesel and the MCS.

 

72 is imperial gallons, right?

 

I believe now it is the MINI Cooper D.

 

I'm in Portugal now, and the Mini Cooper D is popular no doubt, especially when gas is $7.50 a gallon. They still have the Mini One here also, not sure of the specs but seems to be a scaled down version of the Mini Cooper.

 

With premium gas over $3.30 per gallon I would get one.

 

I'm sure car companies and many consumers would have a heart attack if a car actually showed up here tomorrow that got 60 mpg. The current rhetoric in car advertising seems to present 30 mpg as utterly outstanding....how low the bar is set.

It is interesting to me that MINI billboards proudly state that a Cooper can get "40 mpg highway with a tailwind." Clever....and consistent with the sticker...but regular Coopers are capable of getting 40 mpg in city driving. I feel like I'm driving a secret weapon!!!!

 

Diesel is way expensive compared to gasoline in the states.
The normal seasonal variations in price is no longer as pronounced.
Diesel was 4.68 or so around here and regular a dollar less.
Hey, I heat with oil too. :(

 

Diesel is also more expensive in the UK. But that's mainly because the taxation authorities reckon users won't mind paying more when we get better torque, lower vehicle taxes, higher resale values and better economy. (We do mind, of course, but not by enough for me to want to go back to petrol!)

Diesel is now taking about 40% of new passenger car sales in the UK but is still far short of the 50%-plus of mainland Europe, where prices are lower.

 

Hey, you're preaching to the choir.
I loved the Beetle TDI I traded in for the MINI for 213k miles.
I would've gotten a MINI diesel in a heartbeat if they would be available here.

 

So if you break it down to cost per mile ....

Fuel cost per mile would be 12 cents (diesel at 5.00 p/gal w/60 mpg) vs 7.5 cents (gas at 4.00 p/gal w/30 mpg). Fillup for diesel based on a 13 gallon tank = 65.00 and gas = 52.00.


Correction ! - That is 8 cents per mile for diesel and 13 cents per mile for gas ... Sorry about that, Vegas on the brain right now


This does not take into account bio-diesel which would be cheaper and bringing the cost down to almost the same per mile. However maintenance cost for diesel engine is much less long term vs gas engine.

Now if you make your own bio diesel, the cost drop big time since no taxes per gallon (for now, but the feds will figure out how to close that loop hole soon ....).

I would go a Clubman Turbo diesel for my wife to do local kids/school stuff in a flash ! That would mean for her, fillup once a month vs once a week

 

I wouldn't risk bio-diesel in a modern common-rail engine as I want to be sure of a Cetane of 50 as a minimum - and the Cooper D engine likes 55 better.

And there are ethical arguments about the loss of space that could be used for food crops and the inevitability of higher prices.

 

My record was 962 miles on one tank with my Beetle.

I think your math may be messed up.
Wouldn't you divide 500 cents by 60 miles, or 8.33 cents/mile for diesel and 13.33 cents per mile for gas, in your example?

 

Yes, the risks are quite substantial since the costs are quite high, and the mfr will blame the bio-d for sure.

Does the MINI diesel have a NOx scrubber, similar to the new VW and MB, as well as a particulate filter?

 

When I think of bio diesel, I think of used fryer oils and not crops ... Your points are very vaild !

 

Oh snap .... My bad, I am so thinking about Vegas tomorrow that nothing is coming out right ....

Yes I posted the info wrong ! Thanks for catching that !

 

VW and MB rely on urea injection to get the NOx count down to the levels needed for approval in the "California" States and there's no room in the current MINI to fit it. So it could only be approved in the rest of the US at the moment - where EURO 4 pollution standards are acceptable - AFAIK.

I'm fairly sure though that MINI's announcement that Ds are coming to the US will infer that the anticipated revisions due for the 09 or 10 model years will include addition of urea injection too - both in order to gain All-State approval and to meet the coming EURO 5 standards, because I don't know another way to do it!

(My guess is that the battery will be moved to the boot (trunk!) and that the urea tank will go into the present battery box. But .)

The downside is an inevitable price rise.

 

The new Jetta diesel won't be urea injection, but some other system that gets regenerated somehow.

 

Didn't know that.

 

The cost of diesel in NJ is over $5.00 a gallon, by the summer they are predicting $5.50+

 

Aren't you lucky!

I pay at least £1.20 per litre for top-grade 55 Cetane premium diesel, but most of that is taxes. (I'll leave you to do the sums.)

 

I agree with paco3, diesel prices are off the charts here on LI. I've seen around $5.00 a gallon, which is about 40% more than premium gas (at around $3.60/gal). So, 60 mpg with diesel fuel would be the cost-equivalent of only about 43 mpg! That's a little better than the current 37 mpg for the base Cooper, but the diesel engine would also probably be an additional cost option, so I'll stick with gasoline engines until the price of diesel is more in line with the cost of gas.

 

I don't think it would be the same here in the US. Go to your Mini change from American to English. In British gallon is 20% larger. Probably more like 50MPG American for deisel, maybe less.

 

It gets 60mpg in Imperial Gallons which are 1.2 to 1.0 gallon US. So in the US the badging would say 50mpg. I'd argue that a Mini Cooper (the base which this would possibly replace) gets more around 33mpg avg. Gas where I am is $3.10 and Diesel is $4.50.

So for me:
Mini Cooper D = 9.0 cents a mile.
Mini Cooper = 9.4 cents a mile.



So it's not that much better here. Is there a cost difference to the cars themselves?? Otherwise I don't know why they'd even try near me.