Diesels, which are high-mileage rivals to hybrids, generated interest with VW’s announcement that it would sell a diesel Golf with real-world highway figures in excess of 50 miles a gallon, and with Mercedes’s plan to consider frugal 4-cylinder diesels in larger luxury cars sold in America.

Josh Tickell, the author of the book, “From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank”, has just released the documentary film “Fuel”. For many of us, Josh’s book was one of the first sources of information available on how to run a car on waste vegetable oil. I haven’t seen it yet but look forward to checking it out.

Check out the trailer…

In a very interesting article in today’s NY Times, the full cost of ownership of various vehicles is compared. The difference in the cost of owning a Ford Focus and a Ford F-250 pickup (over five years) is $60,000! This is equal to the annual pretax income of a typical American family.

The most telling part of the article was this:

The company [General Motors] is also considering selling its Hummer brand, an emblem of the megavehicle. Rick Wagoner, G.M.’s chairman, explained the moves by saying that he thought the shift toward more efficient cars was “by and large, permanent.”

So GM has finally gotten the message loud and clear, about 35 years late.

According to the article, last month the Toyota Corolla and Camry and the Honda Civic and Accord all surpassed the F-Series trucks in new vehicle sales. “It was the first month since December 1992 that a car — not a truck —
was the country’s top-selling vehicle.”

That, plus Barack Obama clinching the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. The times they are a changin’.

Arctic Vegwerks has answers this question thoroughly here. And the winner is…

1. 1994-1998.5 Dodge Cummins 5.9l 2nd gen 12 valve
2. 1989-1993 Dodge Cummins 5.9l 1st gen 12 valve
3. 1983-1994 Ford International 6.9/7.3l pre-Powerstroke

A vegcar.net reader asks:

I [am] interested in running a diesel pickup (Ford F-250) on WVO. What kind of performance-MPG, HP can I expect? could you tow a small boat or plow snow effectively? I realize the engine size,vehicle weight, climate, altitude etc. can make a difference. can you give me some guidence with these issues?

I’ll try. To the best of my knowledge, diesels running on vegetable oil usually get just about the same mpg as when the run on diesel. As far as power, I have seen Ford diesel trucks running on veg oil pull a trailer with 1,000 gallons of veg oil on the back. Together with the trailer, this is over 9,000 lbs. I have heard some folks claim that there is a 5-10% loss in power when running on veg oil but I haven’t seen any data on that. If anyone out there has some information on this, please send it my way and I’ll post it.

Last winter I met a woman passing through town with her Ford Powerstroke pickup (a big green truck with a camper shell), looking for some filtered oil. I just came across her blog which is appropriately named, biggreentruck. It is well-written, interesting and a good window on how it is to travel in a veg powered vehicle. Check it out here.