The Diesels want away in '88 and I thought we would not see them again, but they were back in '90 unfortunately with the bad 3.5l engine.
So we may still have hope the MB will again be sending Diesels to the US.
Vote for Al Gore and we will all be driving electric cars with 10 HP and 100 mile range. Actually we have them now, there are called golf carts.
P E H

Are we speaking of the same "concerned" Congress that has required MTBE to be added to gasoline to clean it up, even though it has been proven to be extremely hazardous? There is currently a cleanup of our water sources and THEY are still mandating that we use it because the fuel companies have such large stocks of the additive!! PLEASE do not ever believe that Congress has our, or the environments, best interest as their concern. They are paid politicians that maintain their jobs by pandering to the loudest and wealthiest lobbyist.
In part it is our fault for not being the concerned citizens we should be.
As to the previous poster--please rest assured that they are correct--IF Gore wins this election your quality of life will be threatened severely. In this election, more that most, it may come down to the less of two evils. Please way your vote carefully.

P.E.Haiges,

"Vote for Al Gore and we will all be driving electric cars with 10 HP and 100 mile range. Actually we have them now, there are called golf carts.
P E H"


You and Larry are killin' me!!!!



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'89 420 SEL
'90 300 SEL
'68 Olds 88 Convertible
'84 300 SD (sold it)

Don't blame congress, we should blame ourselves if we continue to vote for elected officials who support luddite environmentalist public policies.

I did not realize that automakers were thinking about phasing out diesels. In fact it has seemed the opposite to me at least in terms of light trucks. Diesel engines are finding there way into more and more Dodge, Ford and some GMC/Chevy trucks. The 5.9L Dodge/Cummins 24valve turbodiesel and the Ford/International 7.3L "Powerstroke" are quite popular for their incredible torque, durability and relative fuel efficiency especially with gas prices so high. I also read recently that Ford was going to put a diesel into some of its large SUV's. Hopefully the environmentalists will not prevail since even in "Green Party" Germany diesels are popular.

"Vote for Al Gore and we will all be driving electric cars with 10 HP and 100 mile range. Actually we have them now, there are called golf carts."

This is off-topic, but actually, if/when battery technology ever gets to the point where electric cars are economically feasible, they'll have a number of things going for them. They're quieter, cleaner, and electricity is much less expensive than gasoline. They also have the advantage of a instantaneous and flat power curve. One of my friends is on CalPoly's EV racing team, and I've heard that the best electric cars/trucks (they race conversions) do 0-60 in the sub-5 second range.

waitin' for the day...

anthony

Quote:
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This is off-topic, but actually, if/when battery technology ever gets to the point where electric cars are economically feasible, they'll have a number of things going for them. They're quieter, cleaner, and electricity is much less expensive than gasoline.
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Apples and Oranges I say! The best batteries today still are 200 to 300 times the weight of fuel. Thus 1 lb of gas or diesel will require 300+ lb of batteries! And we are not talking Lead batteries here, those are 1000+ times heavier.
So, accelerate that much weight, carry it safely, and stop it safely, well... you do the math.
ULEV vehicles and Hybrids are the future if you want clean and economic, but those do burn gasoline or diesel.

Also, once cars go electric we will need more powerplants. More powerplants will go up, and the prices of electricity will go up to cope with the demand and the infrastructure of supplying all that electricity. Just look at San Diego, CA. Heck, look at all CA since it is allready crunched for electricity.
Powerplants are highly efficient at converting petrol to electricity but they are not perfect. Considering all the losses a good hybrid will get darn close to the efficiency of the electric plants.

Sorry for getting on my soap box, but people that believe in electric vehicles seem to bet on technology that is further out there then the Mars. Like Mars, we probably will get there but it will be years!

Again, sorry but it seems some tree huggers have their math all wrong.

Mark.

Oh well. Screw the tree huggers. It's diesel for life for me.

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Rgds,
Aaron Greenberg
MB technician
Mercedes-Benz of Cincinnati
'67 250SE Cabriolet
'77 450SL
'80 300SD
'85 380SE
'86 420SEL
'89 420SEL
'93 300E 2.8
'74 Jensen Interceptor Mk.III
'81 DeLorean DMC12
'84 BMW 745i Turbo

Power plants are not very efficient at converting fossile fuels to electrical energy. At least 2/3 of the energy created from burning the fuel goes up the stack, out the cooling tower or down the river.
So electric cars overall won't be any more efficient than gas or diesel cars are now.
The most stupid waste of energy is electric heat. If the fuel was burned in the building to be heated, only about 1/3 of the fuel that is burned in a power plant would be needed. This does not apply to geothermal heat pump systems because they get 3 times as much heat from a kilowatt hour than does resistance heating.
P E H

I know an executive with MB and he said Mercedes had decided not to import diesels for now for emission reasons.

Also, he told me MB is producing a highbrid as we speak in Mexico. I actually saw one of these. It looke like a Toyota Echo.

Mr. BILL

90 300SE
85 300D
84 300SD (sold)