Well from what I just heard I may be giving up driving my diesel daily.
After having a meeting with some top executives at some oil companies, I was assured that from now onwards diesel will remain more expensive than gasoline. This is attributed mostly to lack of refining capacity and the increase in demand for diesels in rapidly growing economies such as China and India which have started purchasing many heavy duty trucks than run on diesel. Just have a look at DaimlerChrysler's (DCX) financial reports to get a good idea of how much the demand for diesel has increased in these last few months. The Commercial Trucks Division's sales were up 42% and as of now, DCX's Commercial Trucks are its most profitable segment. Furthermore, so many more commercial trucks are on order that the aforementioned division of DCX will add 4,000 factory jobs and 1,000 engineering jobs this year!
Had enough yet? Well, actually, the cost of diesel will be driven even much higher in 2006-2007 when the manufacturers are required to start producing low sulphur diesel. I was informed that it will cost more to produce and should have the price of diesel permanently above that of premium gasoline by at least 20 cents a gallon!!
Furthermore, these oil companies don't hesitate to increase the cost of diesel because over 99% of vehicles that use diesel in the USA are commercial trucks used by companies who have no choice but to pay the premium and perhaps recover some of their costs by raising the prices of their goods and services.
I'm going to plan to sell my 300SD before all that hits. Search results on this website revealed that W126 300SE/300SEL owners average about 20-21mpg in combined city and highway driving. Well, my 300SD currently averages about 21-24mpg in combined city and highway driving. With the more expensive diesel, the time to give it up may be coming. I'm yet to thoroughly research the cost advantages of owning that 300SD over a 300SE/300SEL before I decide. Overall, it isn't looking too great for diesel motoring.
