Driving an SUV used to be a way to look cool. And it still is cool — as long as it's one of these three: the 2005 Jeep Liberty CRD, the 2006 Lexus RX 400h or the 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. What's special about them? They get good fuel economy. So good that you can break up your co-workers' coffee bar discussions about "guess what my two-year-old said…" with "you're not going to believe this, but my new pet SUV is getting 25 mpg." But there's more to it than improving your fuel economy. There's that wonderful feeling of knowing you've chosen the greenest transportation around without giving up an ounce of utility. That's what it's like to drive a hybrid SUV. The Jeep Liberty diesel might not qualify you for the same moral high ground, but then, you don't pay as much to get into one Full Article At least they mention this: "Finally, there's the emissions issue. Diesels emit less carbon dioxide than gasoline engines but release more nitrogen oxide and soot, especially when they run on the high-sulfur diesel fuel sold in the U.S"
How is driving a dirty diesel without guilt? Is Edmunds editor trying to say, better fuel economy equate to guilt-free? Here is how I see it. Gas only SUV is guilty in getting low mileage. Diesel only SUV is guilty in polluting the air with PM and NOx. Gas electric HSD SUV is really the only guilt-free solution here, super ultra clean with outstanding fuel economy. Note, HSD SUVs even beat the Diesel in fuel economy and performance! 0-60 by 3.7 seconds. Talk about superiority. Dennis
Maybe he had the HSDs in mind and (oops) forgot about the diesel. I test drove the RX400h and was quite impressed. At the end of my test drive, the mileage was at 9.0L/100km (26mpg). That included a few acceleration tests and a braking test among other things.
As much as everybody harps about getting away from fossil fuels, diesels are the one engine that can do it now. You can literally grow the fuel. I'm not talking about the current way either, of growing soy, and recycling waste veggie oil. All of that nice, useless desert land in West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California Nevada, and Utah offer plenty of space to have algae fields - and make enough fuel to replace fossil fuel derived diesel. For all of diesel engines percieved problems, running one on B100, and adding a few emissions controls to the exhaust, and no gasser or hybrid could touch a candle to being clean. The only holdback at current is cost per gallong, a threshold that will eventually be crossed. Diesels are far better than many here want to give them credit for.
