Diesel Fill Up June 27, 2006

I need to answer a question for myself before I continue to fill up on Bio-diesel. Please note - I will continue to fill up on Bio-diesel after this tank. Is Bio-diesel the cause of the decreased mileage I am achieving, or is there another factor? To answer this, I had to fill up on, sorry to say, regular grade diesel fuel for this tank. Is this a cop-out or an experiment? I'm not sure, to tell the truth.

Other items of note with the 240D:

I love the new stereo head unit and speakers - photos to follow. I can add up to 17 ablums on one CD using MP3 formatting. I currently have two CD's in the car with 32 albums between them! There are four 2-way speakers now in the car that sound great. I feel that, to play loud modern music, I will need a sub-woofer at some point. I miss the bass that the ML320 develops (it has a sub-woofer under the driver seat).

I just installed "diamond cut" headlights that fit right into the space vacated by the old yellow-cast 7" sealed beam units. Wow, the 85W H-4 lamps emit a white light that really illuminates the road.

Efficiency summary: 160 mile round-trip to Socorro to create the punch list for Cramer Hall at New Mexico Tech plus around 120 miles of in-town driving

General conditions: driver and two passengers, 75 MPH highway driving and in-town with various passenger loads

June 27, 2006 Diesel Fill-up in Albuquerque
13.45 Gallons @$2.93 per gallon = $39.40
286 miles @ 21.26 MPG - city/highway driving

Bio-diesel Fill-up June 19, 2006

Here are the latest stats for the 240D. The mileage figure is slowly climbing. I thought about buying regular diesel as bio-diesel is up to $3.09 per gallon, but stuck to my initial goal of running bio. Mickey at Jim's Fine Car Service finally received and installed my ignition lock (keyed to the serial number) along with the new glass insert for the passenger mirror housing that was installed at the end of the last visit.

General impressions:
The car is very slow with the air conditioning on, but less so with the A/C off. The new radio/CD is great and is keeping us entertained on our slow sojourn. The sunroof is a fabulous feature and provides lots of New Mexico sunshine without blowing the passenger cabin around. The brakes seem solid and the new pads and rotors provide great stopping, even without anti-lock.

We were almost hit on our return from Belen last Saturday at a poorly planned traffic merge on the Interstate. Luckily, the errent Ford Focus decided at the last minute to veer slightly away since I was boxed in at the front, rear and the side!

Efficiency summary:
60 mile round-trip to Belen to see the Mopar Club annual show at Auge's Chrysler Dodge Jeep dealership plus a little less than 300 miles of in-town driving

General conditions: driver and three passengers, 75 MPH highway driving and in-town with various passenger loads

June 19, 2006 B20 Bio-diesel Fill-up in Albuquerque
14.35 Gallons @$3.09 per gallon = $44.50
344 miles @ 23.34 MPG - city/highway driving

Bio-diesel Fill-up June 09, 2006

150 mile, bi-weekly trip to Socorro to visit the Cramer Hall job site at New Mexico Tech plus 55 miles of in-town driving

General conditions: driver and three passengers, 75 MPH highway driving

June 9, 2006 B20 Bio-diesel Fill-up in Albuquerque
9.533 Gallons @$2.97 per gallon = $28.40
205 miles @ 22.55 MPG - city/highway driving

First BioDiesel Tank!

Unitl I learn to make BioDiesel fuel, I have purchased my first tank from the Ever-Ready Oil Company.

Here is a Shameless Plug:
Ever-Ready Oil Company
1200 1st Street
Albuquerque, NM 87102
M-F 8-5pm Sat 9-2pm

Here are the fill-up statistics to date:

June 6, 2006 B20 Biodiesel Fill-up in Albuquerque
13.397 Gallons @$2.97 per gallon = $39.79
271 miles @ 20.23 MPG - all city driving

May 7, 2006 Diesel Fill-up in Albuquerque
11.272 Gallons @$2.79 per gallon = $31.55
305 miles @ 27.06 MPG - highway driving

May 7, 2006 Diesel Fill-up in Flagstaff
6.546 Gallons @$3.39 per gallon = $22.25
164 miles @ 25.05 MPG - highway driving

May 6, 2006 Diesel Fill-up in Phoenix
12.247 Gallons @$3.09 per gallon = $37.95
309 miles @ 25.23 MPG - city/highway driving

OK, I was expecting better mileage but, to be fair, our new baby was in the shop for two weeks during the duration of this tank-full, continuously being moved around every day and basically getting 0 MPG. I did get 25 MPG on the highway during the trip from Phoenix before the new tires, suspension, glow plugs, etc., so I think that this mileage figure should be closer to the expected norm.