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Wow, Squid! Did you get twins?
The Ford Fiesta as used in a driving exhibition. 
My kind of driving! It is soooo much fun!
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & Western
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
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Posts: 1,817
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Joined: Dec 2009
Ya got me!
but I got you first!
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & Western
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
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Squid,
That is a nice looking VW. I would consider one of those, but diesel fuel is hard to come by in the Chicago metro area, without going to a truck stop. It is also ungodly expensive. The Nissan stood out for me because it is basically a brand new car being sold at a used price. I want to take advantage of whatever warranty I can get.
You are right about the shade tree mechanic schtick. I have been doing that with my truck, and my wife's durango. I am over it. I am too old for that stuff.
Matt
Don't follow me, I'm lost too.
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For what it's worth, back when I was in high school, diesel fuel was about half the cost of Sunoco 260, the 102 octane gasoline we all ran in our hot rods in the '60's. It was, octane-wise, almost the equal to "aviation" fuel, which I believe was a few points higher. As I recall, 260 ran about 23 cents a gallon. My brother's and my '49 Ford Tudor with the Full-House '53 Merc Flathead in it got about 12 miles to the gallon! 
... but it was very quick! 
I may be mistaken, I'm not a Chemical Engineer, but it is my understanding that in the refining of a barrel of oil, diesel comes off a couple of refinement steps before gasoline. That's what I was lead to belive back in high school science class, if I remember correctly (it was a year or two ago) but then, what do I know ...
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & Western
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
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Matt,
When you consider the expense of diesel, consider also that you are getting better milage so use less of it overall. Diesel is always more expensive in the winter. The other part of biL's equation about diesel coming out of the refining process before gas is true, but it also comes out at about the same point as heating fuel - hence the winter pricing!
As squid notes, you should easily pull off 55-65 mpg. I have a 2001 Golf TDi and currently get about 6 l/ 100km (40mpg) in cold winter stop-and-start city driving - my commute is only about 10 km right now, so the engine does not warm up. In the summer, I can get 5 l/100km (47 mpg) city, and 4.5l/100km (52 mpg) highway. And that is not by being light on the accelerator either - 120 km/h (75 mph) on the highway. Keeping to the speed limit pushes the milage past 55 mpg.
So at its worst (heavy foot, city driving, cold winter) the TDi approaches Hybrid milage rates, with a far simpler engine and electronics. I'd be interested in seeing a Prius (or the like) when they reach the totals my previous diesels had (296,000km - 1996 turbo diesel Golf, 300,000km+ - 1982 diesel Jetta). Current car is at only 190,000km, so it's got a ways to go... 
Hope that helps.
Andrew
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Fuel Oil ... 
When I lived up in Pennsylvania, after a winter or two in my new house, looking at how much I had spent on heating oil, I started buying my heating oil for the whole winter in the month of July or August (watch the price to determine the best time ) and saved nearly 25-30% over buying it in the winter, being billed as I used it.
Not quite on the " A new car ..." topic, but a worthwhile money-saving tidbit to pass on, nonetheless!
Saving money is always in vogue!
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & Western
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
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Yeah, the mileage on the TDI makes you wonder why all the complexity of a hybrid. If you want to really cheap out, you cna make your own biodiesel and run it on the scraps from fast food restaurants - I've been behind someone runnign it before and was looking around where the McDOnald's was, only there wasn't want, it was the car in front of me.
Good luck with a Prius getting a half million miles - you'll be through several battery packs if the rest of it lasts that long.
And what I said before - what exactly is a domestic car? My old Dodge minivan was built in Canada, not the US. Honda Accords are built in Ohio. Some BMWs are built in South Carolina. Am I supporting US workers more buy buying a car from a US company that's made in another country, or a car from a foreign manufacturer that is built in the US by American workers?
--Randy
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