That's true. Those higher priced cars often come with a large cc petrol engine equivalent and they often come with smaller diesel engine as options.

For me personally I think diesel is not suited for smaller sedan cars. For bigger and heavier SUVs / MPVs, yes they are beneficial in terms of power and torque you get from a smaller engine.

Yup. That is very unfortunate. I'm a new diesel user and with the little experience and observation I have, the bigger stations even have diesel pumps alongside the RON 95 / RON 97 pumps. In that way, mostly diesel powered private cars / SUVs will use it unlike the outside one that is usually reserved for bigger lorries.

If you see this sign occasionally at the pump station around your area, then by all means don't drive a diesel.

A full tank of diesel will most of the time outlast the longest highway stretch in Malaysia.

+1

I believe I read an article somewhere that hybrids are not environmental friendly at all. If you factor in the waste generated during production of the batteries, the notoriously gas-guzzling Hummer is actually greener than the Prius. Also, not to mention the disposal of these batteries. Sometimes when I think about hybrid, automatically Lynas comes into the picture.

Diesel fuel is Malaysia is not the cleanest. I believe the continental cars still have problems handling our diesel and that is probably why diesel cars as a general get a bad reputation.

Well, when a person can afford the X6, saving fuel is not on his top priority.

If you see this sign occasionally at the pump station around your area, then by all means don't drive a diesel.

VGT for the win !


This post has been edited by jchue73: Dec 9 2013, 03:21 PM

I believe it is designed that way as a safety feature so that it is impossible for you to put in the larger petrol pump
nozzle into your diesel tank.

Don't know how much the government will subsidise the EURO 5/6 diesel but when it comes, are we willing to pay the price somewhere close to RON 97 pricing?

Yes to turbo diesel.

Yeah, noise clatter is one thing but I hate the sour diesel smell in the morning when you start up the car.

I am aware that their prices are far apart. Going by that logic, our diesel price should be much cheaper than RON 95 but they are not. That is why I mention I'm not sure how much the government will subsidise the EURO 5/6 diesel. If going by current strategy for diesel pricing which the EURO 2.5 diesel prices almost similar to RON 95, I bet the price of the EURO 5/6 diesel will be somewhere between RON 95 RON 97. I'm sure the government will still keep the EURO 2.5 diesel for lorries and the higher grade diesel EURO 5 diesel (if they come) for SUVs / cars.

Oh, ok. If I were buying a recon car, I would also personally avoid diesel too since the diesel engine is not tuned to our crappy diesel.

Learn something new today.

Oh no. What would people say next? Your car runs on minyak masak?

Now if they can only make the turbo diesel as responsive as a petrol, I would be all happy. Perhaps the chip is the ticket.

Getting from mudah is a no no for me to begin with.

Yeah. As long as the driver and passengers feel good, it's fine by me.

Speaking about Hyundai, they are strict about the 5k service intervals. They warned me again before officially handing me the keys.

is ADDICTIVE !

Hyundai is strict about sticking to 5k service intervals + / - 10%. I think 7k would ask for trouble in voiding warranty. Not worth for them to find excuse to void warranty.

I'm told the Santa Fe's R2.2 CRDi engine does not come with DPF. Are the new Mercs, Bimmers and Audis diesel powered cars don't come with DPF also?

Thanks for the tip. Petrol I don't mind but with diesel I rather go 5k intervals even after free service or warranty. Turbo engine some more. With the dirty diesel, I prefer to have the oil changed and flushed more frequently. No good keeping all that dirty soot cycled in the engine.

Does Hyundai allow you to bring your own oil?

I need to let my wife drive and ask her to step on it while I follow behind. Always curious if this black smoke thingy is due to the diesel car being old or needs service.

I think at traffic light can do already. Or from a slow speed accelerate the car by stepping on it. I sometimes see those Hilux pickups on the highway and know when they step on the gas to overtake / accelerate by the black smoke the exhaust pipes gives out.

Yup. This has been my argument as well. Small cars, hybrid / petrol is better. No point mucking around with diesel. Larger cars / SUVs, the diesel engine power is worth the clatter / noise / smell for that sweet 400Nm torque.

Yeah but ECU tuning voids warranty.

Still on the first fill of Shell since convenient. The next one will try and remember to fill BHP / Petronas.

Tempting but expensive locally. Anybody tried to buy from the internet since it's virtually plug & play?

Anyway, how to know if it's single / dual channel thingy?

I went down south to Singapore. Easy to hit 160 to 180 whenever I could but traffic was heavy. Consumption was 8L/100km despite cruising at those speeds.

Anyway, power was superb. Carrying 5 adults and 2 kids plus a whole booth of stuff, overtaking and out accelerating 323 and other cars on the highway was super easy.

This was what I found in JB when I wanted to refill at night. Some stations were out of Diesel. Got me worried. Not familiar with place and having to find diesel at night. But luckily JB / Skudai area lots of stations.

Anyway, I guess that was an exception. Perhaps diesel is more in demand in places like JB where there would be long queues of trucks refilling before entry to Singapore or after Singapore.

Yeah, noisy. For small cars I find the diesel noise intrusive and not very elegant. For bigger cars / SUVs, I find the diesel clatter more bearable. But then again, that's my own perception.

Noise insulation inside the cabin is another matter. I found that if I drove my Mazda6 (famous for being dead silent on idle) at 160 or 180km/hr on highway, it is way noisier than if I drive at those speeds with the Santa Fe. The low diesel engine revs helps.

LOL Same here. I found the BHP stations I came across were the smaller ones and therefore did not bother to waste time asking around. That's why I ended up with Petronas.

Yeah, I notice the few diesel bimmers parked at my office. The clatter is quite obvious. No idea about noise from the inside though. Sat in my friend's E90 320i petrol before and thought the engine noise was quite audible too inside the car under normal driving.



You expect a flat peak on the torque curve all across the rpm range?

I think it dictates a different style of driving. The gears are there for you to keep the engine running at peak torque if you require it.

Anyway, tried using any chip tuning yet?

Thanks for sharing. I take it yours is the new Santa Fe DM? Elegance or Executive Plus?

I have not hit RM 120 at the pump station even though I always pump when the tank is "empty". I guess not brave enough.

Yes, very effortless on highways. Torque is additive. Straight line acceleration as if in a smaller but powerful sedan car. Only one thing I dislike when pumping diesel especially in an unknown station is finding a machine that dispenses diesel. Sometimes I need to go around the station to locate the diesel pump. Pumping petrol is easy. Just stop at any machine and you're almost sure to hit a RON 95 pump.

Your FC not fantastic meh?

BHP diesel? Don't know if it's luck or not but I only tried once and somehow got lower mileage and thought the power decreased. Perhaps it's a one off or something wrong with that diesel batch.

Will try again the next time. Quite hard to time it correctly because with the great FC, I seldom visit the pump station and when I need to refuel, I cannot find any BHP station along my route.

For outstation travel, I think it's a hit or a miss. But then again I tell myself if trucks and lorries can go to those destinations, diesel should be readily available.

Yeah. I also got confuse why he was complaining about average FC. But then again, he's driving a 320d. The Santa Fe is much heavier.

Anyway on my DM, I get 12.5km/L on highways. But that's full load and overtaking the end December traffic down south in Johore to Singapore and back. Occasionally hitting up to 180km/hr. Very effortless.

You meant 800 km per tank?

Anyway, diesel habis in Klang Valley? Never experienced it yet but on my last trip to Singapore, I experienced diesel habis while trying to do a refill in JB town just before Causeway.

I was hitting back and forth between 140 to 180 sometimes. Not all the way smooth traffic and constant speed. In fact heavy traffic in December last year from KL to Singapore. I managed to hit the same as you per tank at 12.5 km/L. That's on full load i.e. 5 adults, 2 kids with luggage. I'm pretty sure if you hit constant 110km/hr, 800km per tank is achievable.

The other Sunday night on LDP from Kelana Jaya to Damansara, sticking to 100km/hr on 6th gear constantly with my family onboard, I manage to get hit 6.4L/100km (15.6 km/L).

For the kind of size and weight SUV, a hybrid engine will only run out of breath.

Turbo diesel is the only economically sound solution for moving big SUVs efficiently.

Better late than never.

Yup. The Santa Fe has excellent NVH.

Yup. That's one of the benefits of the EURO 4 diesel.

1800 to 2500 rpm.

Errr, 1000km. 1000 miles and people will say you're trolling.

LOL. But when I wash my tailpipe, black water will drip from it.

I see you drove the Executive Plus version with panaromic sunroof and 19" wheels.

BTW, nice pic. May I ask which car park is that?

I will just say again that diesel engine on a small car like Fiesta does not make sense. You go through all the unnecessary vibration and noise for a small car is just not worth it. A diesel engine on a bigger vehicle makes more sense.

Anyway, my first taste of diesel was a manual Land Rover. Up on a steep muddy terrain, putting it in 1st gear with no throttle and the engine with the help of a locked diff will just slowly pull a full loaded Land Rover. Simply amazing.



Wah, the things he does, is it possible ah in Malaysia? Next thing you know BMW gets bad publicity when a driver suffocates trying to better the 1000 mile record.

1000km per tank is more doable in Malaysian traffic and climate conditions.

This post has been edited by jchue73: Apr 25 2014, 12:29 AM

You're referring here as in somewhere in Europe? Diesel is cleaner where you are. Taxes higher for diesel?

Rest my case.

I was not making reference to Malaysian weather being hotter and therefore less efficient.

I was more concern about how would a driver tahan not using air conditioning with windows closed in hot humid climate like Malaysia just to perform the feat. Also, where would you be able to maintain a journey with 60 to 70 mph all the way? Our highways are not that long. Unless consider journey from JB all the way to Bangkok but that would be crazy if not impossible to maintain that kind of average speed.