Now we got Garrison Keillor hawking cars?

[lsanderson]

A Love-Hate Relationship Bears a 50-State Diesel
By KEVIN CAMERON

ASSIGNMENTS this juicy are rare in the career of an automotive engineer: the opportunity to develop a new generation of high-efficiency diesel engines that would lead a major company into a fuel-sipping low-emissions future.

It was a challenge that Kenichi Nagahiro, whose portfolio as a Honda senior engineer included Formula One racing engines and the company’s VTEC variable valve timing technology, should have relished. Instead, he turned it down.

Mr. Nagahiro eventually relented, agreeing to head the program — but only if he had a free hand to design an engine that would overcome his disdain for the noisy, smelly diesels previously on the market.

The initial product of the program — the first diesel engine designed entirely by Honda — was introduced in 2003 to power a European version of the Accord. A British advertising campaign played off Mr. Nagahiro’s reluctance, asking, “What if a diesel engine was built by someone who hates them?” Television commercials featured Garrison Keillor singing a tune called “Hate Something, Change Something.” More

Comments

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Still runs on a petroleum base I see?
One step forward. Two steps back.
SIGH!

Well...

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

It's much, much, much more efficient than a gas car. Bio-desiel?

Re: Well...

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Rudolph Diesel designed the engine to run on peanut (or any vegetable) oil back during the turn of the last century.
His idea, to provide a cheap source of transportation to farmers.
Wikipedia points out the important aspect of how bio-diesel is VERY different from straight vegetable oils or waste vegetable oils. You can find the article here