Electric Cars. An interesting concept. I think they have their potential. The issue that needs to be recond with is where does the power come from. The only acceptable path is if the car is powered by alternative power in the end. Obviously you cannot make power out of power without losing some... ie: you can't use wind on a car to power the car completely. But with solar and wind and other technologies i would be very willing to have a vehicle that was electric. I refuse however to go electric if i have to plug it into the wall and only go 10 miles between charges. The great wisconsin winters are also hard on storage of electricity. All things to recon with. I hope someone is working towards this...

Ethanol vs biodiesel. Ethanol is a very lossy conversion. It takes far more fosill fuels to generate a gallon of Ethanol (in the us) than ethanol is worth. The other thing to remember is that if you run ethanol you will get far worse fuel economy. And it is heavily subsidised by the us government. Biodiesel on the other hand is not subsidized. Is only slightly more expensive and you keep the power ratios and efficiencies of diesel.

With the jetta... I have 65K on my 2006 Jetta TDI (Diesel). The true mileage has been averaged mid 40's however that includes towing a half ton, doing short, long and moderate trips, and always driving like i stole it. I have also gotten as high as 60MPG. based on my average, including an oil change and fuel filters every 10K miles i average approx 11-13 cents per mile. The comparative gas jetta (based on sticker mileage) would be running 14-16 cents per mile at current fuel prices. Given that for the first year and a half diesel was significantly cheaper than gas that means that the shift was more like 6 cents per mile compared to 10 -12 cents per mile.

People always laugh at me for the price of diesel but twice the mpg of most gassers i can't argue with the memorial day price of 4.79 per gallon of ULSD. Biodiesel is also a great use for waste oil from restaraunts.

There is a lot there. It is a stepping stone not an end. We need to force the government to give the diesel market the same rights as the gassers. Unfortunately they put their eggs in the ethanol basket.

ok pulled away... later.