theoldwizard1 wrote:
Newer emission regulations and the cost to customer have ruined the fuel economy of small diesel engines.
I have to disagree here. My 2.0L 328d gets averages 40 mpg combined and the 2.0L 328i average 26 mpg combined according to fuelly. The only benefit of my diesel car is fuel economy cost savings since the gas version would run circles around it. My 2014 Ram 2500 6.7L Cummins diesel averages 15 mpg mpg stock while the 6.4L gas version averages 12 mpg according to fuelly. In this case, the diesel has much better towing performance and greater capability than the gas version which adds more value unlike my car.
I find that most people who say this do so on emotion and have no real data to back it up. In contrast, there have been multiple studies like this one (
LINK) that have shown that you do actually save money with diesel vehicles in most cases. It differs from vehicle to vehicle in how much (or little) is saved as you can see on pages 27-33 of that link, but you do save money in most cases.
