Buying a diesel-powered vehicle was once a way to save money. Which you saved by spending less on the fuel and less on the maintenance. This was possible not just because diesel engines burned less fuel (about 20 percent) to move a vehicle a given distance but also because diesel fuel cost less than gasoline.
Of course, that was once-upon-a-time.
Diesel now costs more than gas. It also costs about twice as much as it cost only a year ago, when the price averaged about $3.50 per gallon. It was $4.10Â as recently as late August. It currently costs about $6.50 – when this article was written on Sept. 26. By the time it is published, the cost may be $7 or even more, depending on political events. The cost of that is unaffordable – for most people.
A few weeks ago, I reviewed the ’27 Ford F250 pickup, which was optioned with the turbo-diesel V8. This truck comes with a 34 gallon tank. At current, late September prices, it would cost about $220 to fill this truck up. If you had to fill up once a week – as most people generally do – it would cost you nearly $900 each month, which is a sum equivalent to the monthly payment you’d be making on the F250 itself.
There is also the cost of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) which adds to the cost of owning any diesel-powered vehicle that requires it – which is all of the currently available ones. It is not – by itself – a prohibitive cost. But it is another cost added to the cost of owning (and driving) a diesel-powered vehicle. There is also another cost. One that is hidden but nonetheless one everyone who buys a diesel-powered vehicle pays. It is the cost of the DEF system – which includes the DEF tank, the DEF quality sensors, the DEF pump and lines, the DEF injector and the diesel catalytic converter(s) as well as the cost of maintaining/repairing these parts.
There are other parts, too.
Diesel engines used to be less costly to operate because they had fewer parts than gas-burning engines and so there were fewer things that needed to be fixed. For example, diesel engines – when they cost less to operate (and even to buy) – had a relatively simple mechanical injection system that required no electronics (unlike the electronic fuel injection used in gas-engined cars since the 1980s). I own a diesel-powered tractor that is nearly 50 years old and its mechanical injection system still works; in the 20-plus years I have owned it, the only maintenance I have had to do is change the fuel filter and (once) purge air bubbles from the lines. It does not need maintenance, basically.
The mechanically injected diesels once used in road-going vehicles are (were) similarly low maintenance. They have no spark plugs or wires; no distributors or coils, either. Some of the older ones don’t even have turbos. They ran kind of like a perpetual motion machine – via heat and compression – once you got them running. Which you could do by roll-starting them if they have a manual transmission. You don’t even need a battery – or an alternator, which they have but which is there only to keep the starter battery charged up. Once one of these old-school diesel is running, you don’t need the alternator (except to run the lights and other electrically power accessories).
That all changed when it became impossible for diesel engines to meet federal emissions requirements without electronically controlled injection and DEF systems. They are now as – or even more – complicated than gas engines and as (or even more) expensive to operate. Combine that expense with the expense of the fuel and it is hard to make an economic or practical case for diesel engines beyond their still-superior ability to make more torque (and so more easily pull heavy loads) and the increased driving range. Both of these things still matter to over-the-road truckers and maybe for you, too, if you need to pull a heavy RV or a load of sheetrock or like the idea of not-having-to-stop to refuel as often.
But it’s not going to save you money.
What could save you money, on the other hand, is a diesel made before the government made diesel engines as or more expensive as gas engines to buy and to operate.
The reason why isn’t even that – although it is a part of it.
It is because non-electronically injected (and controlled) old-school diesel engines that don’t have DEF systems do not have to burn diesel that costs $6.50 per gallon. They can burn almost any kind of oil. The first diesel – invented by Rudolf Diesel – was designed to burn vegetable oil. Linseed, peanut, sunflower you name it. You can burn such oils in any of the pre-electronically-injected/pre-DEF diesels, too. Unlike gasoline, which the individual can’t refine himself, it is realistically feasible for individuals to produce their own bio-diesel – by growing it (and turning the crop into the fuel). It is not dependent on petroleum from the Middle East, Russia or Venezuela. It is also not as directly affected by the policies and actions of political maniacs, either. 
In the decentralized future, this could be a way to keep machinery going – and keep civilization functioning.
. . .
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Diesel was a lot cheaper just 9 months ago and the Strait of Hormuz was 100% open and free of charge and safe. No fees, no drones, no missiles. A beautiful thing. Then Trump CHOSE to issue a huge pack of lies, assassinate the top religious leader of Iran, blow up a girls school and turn our military 100% over to a foreign nation, all for no reason except a bribe he had been offered to win his election, and some pictures the foreign country has of Trump or his big friends, doing bad things with young girls and boys. The world was a lot better off even under Biden than this pathological liar and murderer.
The real problem is that Donald Duck (from lame duck Donald) is doing that on purpose (the destruction of cheap diesel and gas). He’s doing it to serve his globalist handlers who are the ones pushing the climate hoax agenda which Donald Duck pretends to fight (but embraces in reality).
If the lame duck really wanted to get energy prices as low as last year, he would remove all the ships from the region and end the blockade.
But he doesn’t want, on the contrary he doubles down. He is now pushing to block Russia in the arctic and arms other zionist puppets like him, the criminal Saudis to attack Yemen so that all remaining energy routes are impacted.
Note that ‘israel’ never has any problem to get oil and gas, US taxpayer provides even when it cant provide for himself.
US taxpayer will also soon provide 4000 bombs of 200 pounds, more than all the bombs used in WW2 by the allies, all that given by Donald Duck with US citizens money to escalate the genocides in Gaza, Lebanon and maybe Iran.
Trump Sending Israel Forty Thousand Two-Thousand-Pound Bombs
https://chuckbaldwinlive.com/Articles/tabid/109/ID/5162/Trump-Sending-Israel-Forty-Thousand-Two-Thousand-Pound-Bombs.aspx
Not a word from the other globalists, the UN & co. Of course, we know who control them.
As Garry Barnett writes, it is becoming clearer everyday that all this is yet another manufactured crisis, the like of ‘covid’ by the exact same people for roughly the same agendas.
Genocide, Democide, and Mass Murder – Populations as Cannon Fodder
https://garydbarnett.substack.com/p/genocide-democide-and-mass-murder
Lame Don of course was at the helm when they launched the plandemic. Pure coincidence according to the last zombies who still support him.
Diesel also keeps much better in storage than modern gasoline, though AV fuel can store pretty well, if you can get it.
Much lower vapor pressure.
Their goal is not to get us into more efficient and less polluting vehicles. Rather, their goal is to get as many of us as possible out of privately-owned vehicles, period.
You got it, Myles.
Just rescind the ultra-low sulphur mandate. I remember in the 1980s and 1990s diesel was much lower in relation to other prices, and there was no pollution issue to speak of
^This.
This can be done tomorrow with the stroke of a pen.
Then make peace with Iran.
Both of these things will help. Basically anything else will do nothing or make it worse.
The EPA could also get rid of the emissions requirements that effectively require DEF systems for compliance purposes. Actually here’s the skinny on that: Very seldom if ever do they outright ban stuff, they demand exorbitant fees. Almost none of this is explicitly statutory, it is accomplished by rulemaking. So either you challenge the fees in court, or pay the fees, or skirt the “rules,” or figure out how to “comply.” Usually “compliance” is the least expensive, most predictable, lowest-friction option so that’s usually the one companies go for if possible.
Not to worry, all, the orange man cometh:
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/coming-monday-trump-roll-back-costly-green-rules-drive-down-car-prices
If you look at all the countries that the U.S. has overthrown or attacked over the years, those countries attempted to decouple their economies from the world reserve currency (the Dollar).
The Dollar is devaluing every day that this Nation continues its reckless spending and many nations want an alternative and who could blame them from wanting to get rid of a depreciating asset.
So basically America’s foreign policy objective is to prop up the Dollar by force or else see this economy collapse. That would result in making Zimbabwe and the Weimar Republic’s collapse look like a recession compared to would happen here.
The US’ Middle East policy has been very successful at one thing: There’s entire armies of Inigo Montoya’s vowing revenge for killing their loved ones.
For the powers in charge (not named, because that’s not the point), record and persistent high fuel prices are a win-win. Their XOM holdings are up 62% and the overheating economy is inevitably going to cool as prices increase. A nice controlled recession is just what the doctor ordered to reset people’s wages to a more “sustainable” relative rate. And justification for dropping interest rates to make more bubbles.
In Spain diesel is now about the same price as petrol, but the diesel is 12% denser and that is one reason they consume less.
One disadvantage of modern diesels over petrol here in Europe that Eric didn’t mention is the particle filter and even catalytic converters. Biannual inspections include smog tests, and on older vehicles the particle filters often clog up. This costs potentially thousands of Euros.
Then there is the AGR/EGR valve and the system that often have problems aside from the carbon build up they cause.
The Addblue system also often causes problems, as Eric says. Pumps, sensors, injectors etc can go bad.
Then there is the HPFS (High Pressure Fuel System) (Usually Bosch) and the injectors. Replacing these at 150k km is going to run into thousands of all currencies. These are lubricated by the diesel fuel and can fail “catastrophically”.
Petrol powered autos have fewer pollution systems and they also cost less, but EVs have none.
I think a big looming issue is fuel quality. All of these modern diesel engines require modern highly refined low sulfur fuel. If fuel shortages keep spreading it is quite conceivable that fuel quality as well as availability will decrease.
OR, look on the bright side. In 1977 even tiny villages in Germany were coated in foul diesel smell. I dont want to ever smell that again, EVER. The mass scream of 50cc two stroke mini whatevers was the soundtrack to the stench. I never need to hear that again EVER.
Thankfully maybe shortsighted assholes didnt destroy all railroads into stupid bike paths.
I think the issue is not what would we like the future to be, but rather what can we do to continue to be productive through the inevitable comming collapse.
I’ve always disliked diesel exhaust, especially from the older diesels, and will not abide breathing it for any length of time. Even so, I am converting everything I have to older diesels.
There are good reasons why we changed to modern ways, and there are good reasons why we will change back… through steam and horses, to donkeys.
Any time I spend 30 seconds thinking about government, I’m completely baffled why ANYONE would favor it’s existence. Without it, we might have colonies on Mars, mining asteroids, without Musk. A great many, if not all of the problems government pretends to solve would simply disappear if government did. And it’s costing us far more per year than it could benefit us in a thousand years.
B-b-b-but where will the sociopaths find long term employment?
Oh, the humanity!
Exactly Mark,
Government is where all the busybodies are concentrated.
It doesn’t matter if you like it or not, government is a part of human nature.
It cannot be eradicated, as soon as you do a new one pops up.
The founders had the right idea, make it small and weak and bind it up with rules. But nothing other than outright force will keep it that way. And of course, virtuous people willing to put everything on the line.
“It cannot be eradicated, as soon as you do a new one pops up.”
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”
Look into the primate species called Meerkat. A meerkat will die quickly without constant social support. Look at the aspiring aspirants around you. Look honestly. Learn.
Why are ‘we’ in this stupid, evil war that drove diesel above $6.50 a gallon?
It ain’t that damned complicated. Here’s a picture worth a thousand words:
https://ibb.co/nNhGtjXy
Just ask foreign-born Senator Ted Cruz which star appears on his favorite flag … and how many points it has:
https://ibb.co/r22q432Q
This can run on used fryer oil…I wish I still had my ’81 Rabbit…better get it while you can…
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1983-volkswagen-rabbit-pickup-3/
Or used motor oil or seed oils. But modern diesels cannot.
Rabbits. . . I had a diesel and a gas 80. The gas version kicked ass. I used a junkyard to keep a dozen diesel fuel intake lines on hand for that ones weekly leakly. A total piece of worthlessness died in 2026: Post beetle Volkswagens, you either love or despise em.
Yes.
Good friend of mine was involved with making biodiesel from discarded used cooking oil.
His test vehicle was a modern diesel powered VW Beetle.