Well... where I live we don't have to pass emissions tests. This why we can still see old smelly Jettas with a black cloud following them on our roads. I guess this is why the dude where I buy my parts does the conversions. If he does it, it's because someone wants it.

But I wish the diesel market would be more opened in north america.

 

Its not about passing emissions tests with old cars, every new car MUST meet the current emissions laws, if it does not meet the laws then it cannot be sold here.
Once you take delivery of the car/truck then you, the owner, can do what ever the hell you want to the car.
Dodge had to add a exhaust filter to thier diesels, it needs to be replaced every 60,000 miles.
GM added a super hot catalitic convertor to incinerate the soot.
Ford did the same thing.
Ever look at the exhaust tip of a new Chevy diesel pickup truck? Notice the space between the exhaust pipe and the exhaust tip? That somehow makes the cat burn hotter.

 

Perhaps if the "socio-marketability" of diesel engines became more eco notable the political rules would be changed.

If you want a LR TDI for the mechanical advantages you are denied; but put french fry grease in the tank your considered a environmental HERO (hmmmmm?).

 

Unfortunatley, the diesel emission rules were changed about two years ago, making it even more difficult to build/sell a diesel in the US. California had a problem with smog, blamed it on NOX emissions, and the rest of the US had to pay. VW used to sell it's diesels in every state but california and New York... Although now, they have a new 50 state diesel engine. Go figure. Anyway, the diesel itself contributes less to green house gas emissions than gas. of course particulate is the problem, and the new bluetecs supposedly solve that.

If diesel manufacturers sold the idea of diesels saving the world by running on veg oil, and not producing green house gas, the eco crowd might buy that better than they bought the Prius scheme.

As a diesel owner, diesel is the way to go. easy to maintain, great mileage, and gobs torque when you need it. I have also had the diesel time while living in the northern US, and have had no problems with cold starts or anything like that.

If I could I would put a diesel in my disco. A diesel diso in the US would be great.

 

Older LR naturally aspirtated, TD and Tdi engines run extremely well on straight veg oil mixed 50/50 with mineral diesel. I've done it with mine on a few occasions when the diesel price over here got ridiculous.

The later TD5 and TDV6 engines, largely thanks to the increased viscocity of the fuel with straight veg oil in it and the injector pressures being significantly higher, don't like it at all. Bio-diesel made from veg oil and there's no problem as the viscocity range is, broadly speaking, similar.

If you do consider an engine transplant for a diesel engine, go for a Tdi over a TD5 and ignore the tiny horsepower and torque difference.

MH - volume for volume when combusted, diesel actually liberates more CO2 than gas does. The biggest difference is how much further you go on that volume. A good example would be a V8 D2 getting a peak 18mpg on the highway when driven nicely will do 18 miles on it's 1 gallon of gas (I love maths!) whereas my Tdi will get twice that its a gallon of diesel. The CO2 difference between petrol and diesel isn't as large as double the amount, so a diesel engined version will emit less CO2 overall than it's gas engined counterpart. It's one of the "enviromentalists" favourite bits of pseudo-science about diesel being more polluting than gas, or electric cars

Cheers,

 

TheULSD( ultralow sulfur diesel ) was introduced in 2007.
The Euro diesel's have had better emissions all along but with the dieselwe in theUS had we could not get the high preformance diesels in the US,, now we can.

Now diesel fuel is higher by about .90 cents per gal due to the fact the US is exporting it to the EU now.

Air bags killed the Defenders in the US in 1995 so Land Rover upped the GVW in the D-90 to 6019 lbs in 1997 to get passed the air bag rule.
After 1997 the loop hole was closed and no more D-90's,,
cost had little to do with it.

I have a 2003 Bora ( Jetta ) VW diesel that started out with
90hp and 155 ft lbs tq after,, now at 130 hp and 250 ft lbs tq its very hard to drive slow.
I still get 48 to 52mpg hwy and can double most speed limits,it will smoke a little if a SUV is tail gating.

 

On a somewhat sort of related note...

When I bought my Disco II, a few my friends said, "Why the hell did you buy that? Do you hate the environment? That thing gets, like, 14 mpg!" I calmly explained the them, "Fine let's figure I drive the Disco 6 months out of the year and I drive my SV650 6 months out of the year. The Disco gets 15 mpg, the SV gets 55 mpg. Figure my average mpg over the year and it comes out to 35 mpg. That's more than your little Civic gets."

Little do they know, when my SV650 drives by, it's about the equivalent of 100 Land Rover Discovery's driving by in terms of pollution. In reality, my baby-seal-killing, rain-forest-incinerating, polar-ice-cap-melting SUV is actually far more environmentally friendly than my 60 mpg motorcycle...

 

Your Rover will out last the honda and still be going when they buy another car that took its toll on the environment
as it was being made.

If a Rover if taken care of it will out last 3 or 4 disposable cars,,, like everyone has said 70% of Rovers are still ALIVE!!!

 

If you look at the process it takes to make a Hybrid, along with the battery, its almost laughable that they think its actaully saving the environment. I wish I could find the Top Gear Episode where they talked about it... they even compared the hybrid building process to that of the LR3 building process. It was amazing how much less effect it had on the environment. Crazy...


I found it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7yKOJXfpDA Its at the first part where he is talking about the Prius. haha this is a perfect example of why I think Jeremy Clarkson is amazing.

 

Jermey Clarkston said it the best way possible..."don't change what you drive, change how you drive"