Lennart: We want to hear you appraise the DCI now!
Sorry, I have been too busy to check the forum. However, I
did manage to delete a stylesheet, which caused the whole thing to look decidedly odd for 12 hours :-)
Yes Anders, as you expect me to say, - the 2.2 dci is a WONDERFUL engine, - however it is a cruiser, not a particular racy engine.
But having said that, its fantastic amount of power (130hp/290Nm) - does embarras many cars at the redlights :-)
AND, contrary to popular belief, it is so quiet that at most speeds you have hardly any noise but from the tyres.
My car is btw not a "Grand", - but a regular 2002 JE, which gives me a little less weight - measured at 1660kg including driver and 5 seats - and half tank.
However, I don't get to drive it much, as it is my wifes daily car, - and I have to make do with my Murena :-)
My wife only drives 2km to and from work, plus a little shopping etc - and only occationally do we drive more than 100km in one go. This also means we hardly ever fill it up (!)
This of course has a huge inpact on economy, but using the dashboard odometer and the amount of fuel we pour into it, it still obtains at least 12km/l. Using:
http://onlineconversion.com/this is approx 35 mpg.
This is quite far from the dashboard computers very pessimistic 9-10 l/100km. These are known to be quite inaccurate, and apparently ours gets it 15-20% wrong on the pessimistic side.
On a few occations, we have done a somewhat longer trip immediately after filling up, and then the indicated average is more like 8, which if corrected by the 15-20% inaccuracy should make it possible to average 40 mpg (~14 km/l) - provided we did such decent length trips for a full tank. But as it is, we don't.
On straight motorways, at a constant 110km/h (GPS) it will show 5-6 l/100km - which assuming the 15-20% still is correct at these low readings, should mean that it hardly uses any fuel at all (above 50 mpg) - but of course all cars do well at constant speeds.
Despite the inaccuracy, the dashboard "real-time" readout is very usefull for reminding you that your right foot really determines everything :-)
btw - chiptuning like this:
(
http://www.hs-elektronik.com/datenblatt-s/renault-espace-22dci-130ps-290nm.html )
will bring it to 160hp/341Nm, but I don't know about neither economy nor reliability of such chiptuned engines.
In the UK, diesel is not much cheaper than petrol (if at all?), so there the economic reasoning only comes down to the better mileage - but I would still recommend it for the torque and relaxed driving.
Another good reason for running diesel is of course the perspective of a world producing bio-diesel from stuff NOT out of Saudi Arabia.
Diesel cars also produce less CO2, which would be another buzz-word reason for promoting them. The particle issue still remains to be proven more ulhealthy than the petrol exhaust fumes even with catalythic converters.
However, at least here in Denmark, the politicians are holding back, - presumeably because they are highly influenced by the almighty oil-companies. So they impose higher import tax, higher fuel tax, and higher road-tax for diesel cars.
Would you believe that Denmark is among the largest
producers of biodiesel, yet we cannot buy a single drop in Denmark ! - it is all exported to Germany I believe.
We really are silly.
/Lennart