Thread: What's more environmentally friendly, a Disco/Defender V8 or Diesel?

Originally Posted by TerryO

Yeah Chops I think most of us would really like a link to where that report is.

Being able show the more fanatical greener people I know that their misconceptions about reality are based on a car companys PR rather then facts would be really good thing.

Cheers,
Terry

Hi guys/gals,

The email it came with I couldn't find last night,, it will take going through a fair section of my history,, but I will do my best. The table makes more sense when you have the email to read.
The next thing is the "table" that I do have, is in/on an Excell worksheet,, can I upload that? If not, let me know how I can get it on here, I'm happy to try and do so.

The Prius is definitely ironic but I still find it a step in the right direction, and as a learning process and by people having a say by buying them, may in fact turn out to become environmentally beneficial in the long term.
Personally, I can't wait to see a big advancement in electric cars, I reckon they will be excellent, so good for many applications, including 4WD.
I look forward to seeing racing electric cars, and their advancement.

It won't happen,electric power is a dead end.Bio is the future. Pat

Electric cars may become viable for city use (and I hope they do), but even in that application they demand a better battery (in the sense of charge density, efficiency, cycle life, cost and charge rate) than anything currently available. Typical endurance of the very best available today is around 150km, with a recharge time of hours.

Compare this to a typical small diesel sedan, with a range of close to a thousand kilometres and a refuelling time of minutes.

And then there is the problem that widespread adoption of electric cars would mean a substantial increase in generating capacity - and put this against the background that Australia's greenhouse emissions are mostly from power generation.

And I see little advantage in hybrids - as a typical example, the local health service here has a couple. In 100% country driving, they give worse economy that the Corollas they have, and have less room. And you could do even better by buying small diesels, which would also cost less.

John

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the v8 does the most damage on simple fuel consumption alone. A well tuned diesal should get twice the milage a v8 does. i know my v8 chews fuel like its going out of fashion amd if i'm having a serious off road day she'll use half a tank in 100 ks. Im very seriously condidering selling my v8 and changing over to a diesal, with a chip and a bigger turbo installed into a td5 i reckon the major difference will be fuel consumption. I guess i could get rid of the 37 inch wheels, that may save some fuel but who's gonna look at me then?!

Originally Posted by willem

[snip]
Diesels require more servicing than petrol motors. This can have a greater impact on the environment - more oil, filters, etc, are used.

Hmm, I don't know if I agree with that.
TD5 scheduled serving is 20,000km, Tdi's are 10,000km, it's just that people choose to over service them IMO.
Most tdi's go over 250,000km before people even think of pulling injectors.
No plugs, leads to replace either.
Then we have the (usually) inherently longer serviceable life of a diesel vs a petrol engine.

Yes, all very debatable.

Originally Posted by willem

The particulate matter in diesel emissions is quite carcinogenic, more toxic than the emissions of an LPG powered engine. So even if the emissions are about the same, the effect of the emissions on people are different.


Willem

True, but being negated in modern diesels with particulate traps.

Hi Mudsloth,

you say your thinking of getting rid of your V8 to buy a diesel because it will be cheaper to run.
In all seriousness why not just fit LPG to your V8? A V8 on LPG is cheaper to run then a diesel and is cleaner for the enviroment if that is a concern.

LPG also is also not an imported fuel like diesel, which is even better for the country.

Add to that the cost of changing over vehicles which would be quite high, stamp duty etc and chances are you would be much better off having dual fuel fitted to your V8 then buying a diesel.

just a thought...

Cheers,
Terry

Who cares... (about hypotheticals that is