Audi's Diesel Plans for the U.S.
In spite of the high cost of diesel, Audi is anticipating the US passenger car market to be approximately 10-20% oil-burning in the next few years. Economic arguments to the side, Audi has announced its diesel product plans for the US in the near future. A 3.0 liter common rail V6 diesel engine, with 211 hp and 406 lb ft of torque is headed for the Q7 crossover and the new A5 coupe. In the A5, Audi claims it'll make 0-60 in 5.9 seconds. The A4 will also get this engine down the road. But in addition to the diesel V6, the Audi Q7 will also have oil-burning options of a V8 and V12. The V8 has 326 horses and 560 lb/ft of torque and Audi claims it will get 24 mpg combined. And if you really want to go the nose-heavy route, the diesel V12 with 500 horses and 737 lb/ft of torque will warp time and space as you hit 60 in 5.3 seconds. Since diesel fuel has suddenly shot up in price (oil manufacturers realized diesels get better mileage, and as such represented lower profit per mile?), Audi's right to argue the performance aspects of these engines rather than prioritizing their efficiency, which is still respectable considering the performance you'll get.
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For Audi vehicles, diesel prices should be compared to premium gasoline prices, not regular.
[...] Just the Q7... Audi’s Diesel Plans for the U.S. | The Truth About Cars No new news here, other than they are talking about making more TDI products for North America [...]
Folks are making bio-diesel for anywhere between 50 - 80 cents a gallon from recycled vegetable oils. I'm really looking forward to the date when we can use oil palm or algae for production of biodiesel, and then knock the socks off of the oil co's. I'd love to have an Audi turbo diesel in my old 944.
have you ever driven one of those 6 cylinder turbo diesels? I've driven a decent amount of them in Germany and let me tell you. they're great. I rented a 6 cylinder mercedes diesel and found it would spin dougnuts on dry pavement, pull you so hard into the seat you couldn't touch the dashboard, top out at 160 mph, and that with 40 mpg. had similar performance with a VW passat, and Audi A4. In fact for a while I was starting to think the fuel gauge was broken. I was beating the piss out of this engine and the gauge wouldn't go down. I love how the turbo diesels have the power from the low RPM,s. It does take some getting use to. In gas engines, you try to get to the top rpm's to reach your fun power. the diesel has a very slight lag and then slams you back in yur seat, but you need to cut of the power and switch gear mid rpm cause you'll only loose power after that. Learn to shift at mid rpm, and your gold A few years back I emailed Audi and asked why they didn't bring the performance diesels to American and they told me there wasn't a market for them. I would think there should be. sports car that gets similar mileage to a hybrid. Granted the cost of diesel in the US is a total rip off. In Germany it was the same price as regular gasoline, (which was actually about $5 a gallon at the time). In fact later I rented a mid power BMW gas model and wished I had the diesel feel back. Even the smaller turbo diesel engines have respectable power, but when you get into a 6 cylinder turbo diesel, you'll be surprised