Why do I love Diesels? Well to start with they are much more fuel effficent. They require less maintenance, and with the new technology they are not the noisy, smoking, stinking cars of the old days. In fact a lot of the Diesels now out put out less pollution than the gas engines. It is really a sad thing that the tree huggers and environmentalists don't wake up and realize the new Diesels are good. There are so many of the manufacturers that have Diesels oversea but they won't import them .

I have had three diesel vehicles and I loved them all. My 1990 Dodge Cummins had 400,000 plus miles on it when I foolishly got rid of it. All I ever did to the engine was change oil and filters regularly and I had NO problems with it. It never failed to start even in 40 below weather in Gillette, Wyoming and it got 20-23 miles per gallon on the highway.

When I got rid of my Dodge, I got a 2003 VW Beetle with the 1.9 liter Turbo Diesel and a five speed manual. I was getting 45 plus miles per gallon with less than 500 miles on it. Unfortunately I swerved to miss a big buck deer and ended up rolling it with only 5700 miles on it. It was getting better mileage before it was broken in than a lot of the hybrid cars.

Now I have a 2002 Jetta TDI with the automatic and I am getting 45 mpg with it once it got broken in. It has almost 80,000 miles on it and I expect to drive it till 500,000 miles maybe more.

The whole secret to a Diesel is always let it warm up good before you shut it off. It is harder on a Diesel to drive it to the grocery store and shut it off than it would be to drive it across country. Use good oil and keep it changed. Change your oil filter every oil change and your fuel filter every third oil change plus change your air filter regularly too.

My wife has a Subaru Forester that is gas but they are coming out with a Diesel Forester soon and we will trade the gas one in for a Diesel. They have them overseas now.

Dodge's new 6.7 liter Cummins is so quite you can hardly hear it run.

I will always own a Diesel vehicle

Learn more about this author, Bill Whitney.
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