I'm in West L.A. and the gas stations in Santa Monica on Olympic and S Bundy a Chevron and Shell both sell unleaded for about $4.49 and Prem for $4.69 but Diesel is $5.09...WTF. I thought diesel was supposed to be cheaper then unleaded...

Diesel has to be cheaper then unleaded to make it worth even thinking about taking advantage of the additional MPG that diesel offers. I'm not excited about getting a diesel engined Audi anymore now that the fuel is more then Prem...

If diesel gets better MPG, it's still cheaper to run diesel until it's more expensive than unleaded by a greater proportion than the mileage increase. For instance, if a diesel gets 20% better MPG than an unleaded car, at the prices you mention, diesel would have to be more than ~$5.40 before it starts costing more.

..the diesel prices here in San Diego are getting to be 20% greater than premium unleaded in some places...

I'd love to get a new Audi diesel when they finally get here, but the fuel savings/MPG argument is getting a little harder to justify.

..closer to 15%...but you get my drift!!

Cheers,

Nick

Diesels are usually cheaper to run from a fuel economy standpoint unless the price of diesel exceeds the economy savings that you mentioned.

But there is also the initial purchase price difference. IF a comperable diesel engined car costs $3,000-$4,000 more to buy, as many do, it takes a LONG time to make up the difference with fuel economy unless diesel is much cheaper than gasoline.

There are many reasons to buy a diesel but, USUALLY, short term (less than 3-4 years) vehicle ownership overall cost savings are not one of them.

I read somewhere that the federal tax is higher on diesel based on idea that it's mostly used by big trucks that cause more wear on the highway. It was not enough to account for the total difference.

One of the car mags (don't remember which) had an article about diesel production.

They said that there were 2 main ways to refine crude and the refinery is designed one way or the other.

The method used in the US results in proportionally less diesel and more gas from the crude oil. In Europe, they use a different method that results in more diesel and less gas.

Perhaps someone can find the article...

I found the article from Car and Driver...

"oil refineries tend to fall into two categories: catalytic cracking and hydrocracking. Most U.S. refineries are set up for catalytic cracking, which turns each barrel of crude oil into about 50-percent gasoline, 15-percent diesel, and the remainder into jet fuel, home heating oil, heavy fuel oil, liquefied petroleum gas, asphalt, and various other products. In Europe and most of the rest of the world, refineries use a hydrocracking process, which produces more like 25-percent gasoline and 25-percent diesel from that barrel of oil. So the rest of the world is already maximizing diesel production. In fact, despite using a refining strategy that minimizes the production of gasoline, Europe still ends up with too much of the stuff, so it exports it to America--about one of every eight gallons of gasoline that we consume."<ul><li><a href="http://www.caranddriver.com/features/columns/c_d_staff/csaba_csere_the_steering_column/should_american_vehicles_go_diesel_just_when_the_w orld_is_running_short_of_it_column">http://www.caranddriver.com/features/columns/c_d_staff/csaba