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Small diesel truck - at last
I've been having to do a 90 mile round trip each day since buying my Toyota Tacoma and have been thinking of selling it and buying a beater truck and a sedan that gets 30+ mpg to save some gas money, but...
while reading a Consumer Reports in the doctors office there was a small blurb about Mahindra bringing a compact diesel truck to the US in early 2010.
It's about time.
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Small diesel truck - at last
KT, on the highway my Tacoma gets around 18mpg. It used to get 21 before the E10 mandate.
Murf, I'll have to check out the import of a small diesel truck. I've seen the occasional non-US vehicle here but don't know of an importer offhand. My biggest concern would be parts availability.
Maybe I could buy an old Tacoma with a bad engine and then pay someone to do a diesel conversion. I don't have the time to tackle a project like that myself.
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Small diesel truck - at last
OK, I'm convinced, no conversion!
Murf, I ran a three tanks of premium through the truck and saw no increase in mileage whatsoever. I thought three tanks would be enough to allow the engine computer to recalibrate - maybe not?
This truck runs against conventional wisdom when it comes to mileage anyway. When it was brand new it was getting 21-22 mpg highway. That mileage did not increase a bit after break-in, the only change was a drop to 18 when E10 came out and it had 20k miles on it by then.
Our Subaru didn't increase at all after break-in either. Maybe machining tolerances and lubricants have improved to the point where break-in doesn't make that much difference anymore.
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Small diesel truck - at last
KT, I set the cruise control for 62mph and it stays there nearly the entire trip. Going to work at 4AM has the advantage of empty roads 
Frank, it's hard to compare cost per mile when you don't have the option to compare straight gasoline vs. E10. All I know are gas prices are high and won't go much lower, mileage is low and isn't getting higher, and another 3-4 mpg would be nice. Today's ECUs can only do so much - they can't add more BTUs to the fuel and they have to maintain the optimum air-fuel ratio to ensure complete combustion with minimum emissions. It could be that optimum mileage is a lower priority for the programmer than low emissions or maximum power. It's all a compromise.
Ann, you bring up good points. To be an early adopter the truck would have to be beta or rev 1.0 but supposedly it's been available in other countries for a few years now. That said, it makes good sense to delay a purchase until some reviews of the US version come in and they get something of a dealer network going first.
Regarding mileage, generally I agree that the backyard mechanic cannot do better than the factory all things being equal. But since diesels are ~30% more efficient *and* there is no small diesel pickup available in the states it seems quite possible that a backyard mechanic could do better given time and money. Not that it would be cost effective. The easiest way to increase mileage would be to reduce weight. Who needs those pesky passenger seats anyway?
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Small diesel truck - at last
I'm running synthetic in the engine, dino in the diff. The tires are LT highway rib, not really off road.
The drop in mileage correlates directly to the date when Mobil started selling E10 in Oregon. I keep a mileage log and the date the mileage dropped 3mpg was after the first fill on E10. I always buy Mobil and I emailed them to confirm the date of conversion.
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Small diesel truck - at last
Talk about senior moments, I meant Chevron not Mobil. I couldn't tell you where a Mobil station is around here.
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Small diesel truck - at last
Murf, you mentioned earlier in the thread that you have often demonstrated that it is cheaper to run premium gas than regular. I'm curious what factors you considered in that analysis.
I ran a couple of tankfuls of premium through my Tacoma again. The truck seemed to run just a tiny bit stronger but the mileage actually dropped by about 0.5 mpg with no change in driving habits (still mostly highway driving with cruise set to 62). Comparisons were both of Chevron E10 regular vs. E10 "Supreme" from the same station. Premium is about 8% more expensive so it doesn't seem like a cost effective choice. Then again, when it comes to mileage nothing on this truck seems to follow conventional wisdom.
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Small diesel truck - at last
I'll have to double check the E10 in premium. The pump sticker says E10 on it but I ASSumed it was in all the fuels and not just in regular.
On the off chance that the ECU takes a long time to adjust to the new fuel I'll try it for another couple of tanks.
EW, sure it's possible to compute mileage, it's just not possible to do a pure apples-to-apples comparison. After all, it stands to reason that the driver gets lighter with each passing rest stop and heavier at each drive thru
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Small diesel truck - at last
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Ken, while you can compute mileage for a given set of factors and circumstances, because those factors change--and the will--you can't do and apples to apples comparison. And these mileage figures are averages over time and distance. The longer the distance the chances of apples to apples numbers being the same or close are greater.
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True. The standard deviation of my results is typically ~0.5 mpg so the numbers are all pretty close. It helps because I drive the same route every day and use cruise control. But if I had a big burger the night before I can count on the mileage going down a blip
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Small diesel truck - at last
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My wife's Toyot has mileage computer and it is very interesting to see what changes it. She picked up her sister one day and after driving I think less than a mile it dropped her mileage by a good bit. They both laughed at that for a while. So Ken, is it possible there is an issue with the engine it self that could be causing the drop in mileage? Are you 100% sure the overdrive (auto correct) is working?
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I don't *know* that there isn't something wrong but the mileage is pretty typical for this truck. Others are reporting the same numbers. That said, I was going to have the door weatherstripping replaced so I'll ask them about the mileage and show them the log.
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09-17-2009, 23:32 
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