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When Buying a New Truck, SUV or Motorhome,
You’ll Have to Make an Important
Choice.
By C.J. Baker
Which
is better, gas or diesel? It’s a question confronting
more and more new vehicle buyers in the light truck, SUV, and
motorhome marketplace. And soon, it may be a question for car
buyers too. Whether you opt for the more expensive diesel engine
in a new vehicle may hinge on your experience with diesel engines.
Perhaps it will depend on your desire for performance. Or maybe
your decision will be based largely on economics, but chances
are there will be an emotional element to the decision too.
For
most new vehicle buyers, diesel engines connote power —
the power to move or pull heavy loads. The terms "strength",
"heavy-duty", "durable",
and "rugged" are all associated with diesels.
Power — that’s part of the emotional appeal of
diesels. After all, you don’t think of diesel engines
for light-duty applications like motorcycles or lawnmowers.
You may not even think of diesels as appropriate for automobiles,
but that too is changing.
It’s also possible that most of your impressions of
diesels have been less than favorable. If you’re like
most folks, your past experience with diesels may be mostly
with big trucks and buses. At one time or another, everyone
has been stuck behind a particularly smoky (and stinky) bus
or big rig truck. That big diesel-powered behemoth was probably
slow too. Fortunately, those old, slow, and dirty diesels are
disappearing from the scene. Such diesel engines, especially
those of a couple of years ago, don’t necessarily have
much in common with the smaller diesels used in today’s
pickups, SUVs, and motorhomes, but they have been part of shaping
public thinking. Chances are that your diesel perceptions are
based largely on past diesel technology, because the new generation
of modern automotive diesel engines has only been around for
a few years, and the changes have been dramatic. In fact, almost
all of the objections people once had to diesel engines have
now been eliminated. That might seem like a lot believe, so
let’s take a look at some of the specifics.
Modern
diesel engines now have computerized engine management to
control electronic fuel injectors that operate at incredibly
high speed and pressures. What this means is that the right
amount of fuel is injected at the best possible time for optimum
combustion efficiency with minimal pollution and virtually
no smoke. That’s right, smoke is a thing of the past
(unless someone has intentionally altered the fuel curve to
hot rod the vehicle for extreme power, but more on that later).
And now that smoke is gone, so is almost all diesel exhaust
odor. What little diesel exhaust aroma remains will be gone
when ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel replaces current diesel fuel
in 2006, as mandated by the EPA.
The
next thing you’ll notice about modern diesel engines
is that they are quiet. Gone is the clattering sound at idle
or low speeds. This is due to “pilot injection”,
another benefit of electronic fuel management.
Pilot injection is an ingenious noise suppression cycle for
modern direct injection diesels. Modern diesels with pilot
injection run almost as quietly as comparable gasoline engines.
This is especially beneficial in diesel pickups and SUVs, where
engine noise is more noticeable.
Performance
is something else that has changed. Older diesels tended
to be slow and sluggish. That was especially true of non-turbocharged
diesels. Today’s turbo-diesel engines
are responsive and surprisingly nimble. Some are downright
quick, and for most modern diesels, performance upgrades are
readily available. Such modified diesels are frequently faster
and quicker than comparable gasoline engine vehicles.
The last common objection to diesel engines, other than the
initial cost, is the availability of diesel fuel. Happily,
more and more gas stations have added one or more diesel fuel
pumps, so filling up no longer requires a mandatory trip to
a truck stop. Diesel fuel prices are typically close to that
of regular grade gasoline, but that depends on availability,
where you live, and local taxes.
Having
covered the common objections to diesels, it’s
time to look at a few of the advantages. Aside from the extra
torque and pulling power of a diesel engine, one of the biggest
advantages is fuel economy. Diesel engines typically deliver
20- to 40-percent better fuel economy than comparable gasoline
engines doing the same amount of work. Depending on how many
miles you drive a year and the cost of fuel, this can amount
to a substantial savings that offsets the cost of the diesel
option over the life of the vehicle.
There
are other less obvious benefits from having a diesel engine.
All of today’s diesel engines are turbocharged.
As well as adding efficiency to a diesel engine, a turbocharger
also has the advantage of offsetting power losses when a
vehicle is operated at higher altitudes. If you live at
high altitude, of if you will use your vehicle to travel
to locations at high altitude, a turbo diesel makes a lot
of sense. (see Understanding
Today’s Diesel elsewhere on this site)
Yet
another advantage to selecting a diesel powerplant is that
power upgrades are readily available if you want to increase
performance beyond factory levels. Simple upgrades can easily
boost a diesel’s power output beyond that of any gasoline
engine option in most vehicles. Diesels are quite easy to upgrade,
and the modifications cost far less than what would be necessary
to get equivalent power gains from a gasoline engine. Quality
diesel upgrades, such as the Banks products sold elsewhere
on this site, not only increase horsepower and torque, they
improve engine efficiency and durability too. Here again, Banks
power upgrades can often pay for them selves in improved fuel
economy over the life of the vehicle.
If
you have a desire to have the strongest pickup in your
town, once more, the diesel is the way to go. Banks has the
necessary high-performance tuners and performance bundles
to wring maximum power from a diesel pickup while still providing
a margin of safety to prevent engine or turbocharger damage.
The Banks Six-Gun tuners with the optional SpeedLoader will
even allow you to intentionally make some smoke at selected
times by simply dialing in the desired setting (see Racing
the Diesel elsewhere on this site). With a Banks-modified
diesel, you can choose the power level you want on the fly – another
thing you can’t do with a gasoline engine.
So
what are the advantages to selecting a gasoline engine?
Aside from slightly lower initial cost, there’s little
to recommend gasoline engines today. It’s a new world,
and diesel is no longer the fuel of the future — it’s
the fuel (and the engine) for today.
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