Honda Diesel?

Unbeknownst to some Canadians Honda offers a full line of diesel motors in all their cars & trucks in Europe. Now the market for diesels in Canada is strong, but obviously not enough to warrant a diesel in every model. There are a few cases for the diesel to makes it way to our, sometimes frosted, shores. The all new 2012 CR-V is a pretty good candidate.

The gas model gets about 9.5L/100km in combined driving. The equivalent CR-V diesel, Honda's 2.2 common rail, achieves about 6.5L/100km. That is quite an improvement, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. There are a few "perceived" penalties for going diesel. One is the loss of horsepower, but that is superseded by the addition of the much more useful, torque. In this case the gas CR-V makes 180 HP @ 6800 RPM & 161 ft lbs @ 4400 RPM, while the diesel makes 140 HP @ 4000 RPM & 251 ft lbs @ an amazingly low 2000 RPM. So we are penalized by 40 horsepower but compensated with an additional 90 ft lbs of torque. In this case especially the torque is beneficial for what the CR-V is for, light off-roading, and towing duties. The other "perceived" penalty is cost. For whatever reason the manufacture of diesels is higher than that of a similar gas engines, & that translates into a higher sticker price, usually to the tune of about $2000.00. Of course you'd easily make up the difference over the course of you 48 month lease & probably be ahead of the game by year two. Best of all you can save money by not having to drive to the gas station in the first place. Range on a European spec diesel CR-V is an average 875km per tank. Compare that to about 590km per tank on the Canadian gas model. With the price of gas & diesel being so close, it’s easy to gauge your own personal savings. Thanks for reading. Join me next time for part two, reinvigorating the Ridgeline.