[T3] Back Home

[Keith Park]

Diesel prices in NY are all over the place, some much higher than gas, some
near the same price, and even in on area, they can go from way high to lower
than the price of gas
In a month or so... makes no sense, diesel is much less refined than gas, it
should be cheaper but as has been said, I think they charge whatever they
think they can get out
Of people in a specific area.

Keith


Topnotch Restorations
topnotch at nycap.rr.com
http://www.topnotchresto.com
71 Squareback  “Hothe”
65 Notchback  “El Baja Rojo”
93 RX7  “Redstur”
13 Subaru Outback "Blendin"

-----Original Message-----
From: type3-vwtype3.org <type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org> On
Behalf Of Jim Adney
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2023 1:39 PM
To: type3 at vwtype3.org
Subject: [T3] Back Home

We are back home, after finishing the rest of the trip uneventfully. I just
finished figuring our fuel mileage in our VW TDi Sportwagon, which I tend to
think of as a modern Squareback, but bigger and diesel powered. Our Diesel
averaged 47 mi/gal for the part of the trip that we drove it.

I don't have complete records of the Honda Pilot consumption, but I thought
it was in the neighborhood of 25 mi/gal. This is about the same as my 50
year old Squarebacks get. I'll post a better number if I can find the
receipts for some of the Honda Pilot fillups.

One difference between the Honda Pilot and our Diesel VW was that the Diesel
almost never needed to downshift to climb hills, while the Honda almost
always did. The Honda appeared to have a 5-speed AT, which often shifted
down to 4th or even 3rd on hills. Shifting to 3rd at 70 mi/hr puts its
engine into uncomfortably high RPMs.

The lesson here is that Diesel engines deliver very high torque. I now have
renewed respect for that white Fasty with the Diesel conversion. What's that
guys name?

One odd thing that the Pilot did that surprised me was that on several
occasions it would shake the steering wheel and display a large "BRAKE" on
the instrument panel. It did not apply the brakes, because I had not turned
this feature on. There was nothing in the owners manual about this
possibility. This only happened on right hand curves on 2-lane roads, when
it spotted a car directly ahead in the oncoming lane that was closing on us,
but was not on a collision course. This makes me wonder how this could be
prevented. It's got to be a difficult AI problem.

While driving from Wisconsin to Arizona and back, we had lots of
opportunities to watch gas/diesel prices. What I'm used to seeing here is a
price difference of about 75 cents to maybe $1 per gallon. On our trip, we
were surprised to see differences of over $2 per gallon, especially at the
big truck travel centers, especially Loves, which seems really odd, since
trucks are their main business.

Does anyone know if long haul truckers have special arrangements with those
chains, like Loves, that get them special prices?

We saw gas as low as $3.29 and as high as $4.19. Diesel usually sold for
$4.19 to $4.89, but we saw it as high as $5.29. Oddly, I just filled up
(Diesel) here in Madison for $3.89, the lowest price we saw anywhere, but
other places here are selling it as high as $4.19. It makes no sense for
Diesel prices to be lower here than in Texas. (Gas prices were low in Texas,
but Diesel prices were very high. Figure that out!)

Using Gasbuddy.com, I see HUGE prices on our west coast. I'd like to hear
what other people out there are actually paying. And is there an explanation
for why gas prices are especially high in California?

--
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

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