danoid wrote:
Well I've been (anonymously) bugging the VP of powertrain for four years about diesels on an internal (Chrysler) forum. My last question about diesels vs. range extended electric vehicles finally promted him to invite me to a personal meeting to 'show me the financials' (my interpretation - career limiting move to accept and get reamed).
So should I ask Mr. Lee to show Arnold the 'financials' describing why Chrysler hates diesels?
As much as we all would like for you to state your case and convince them to give us some cool diesels, this really comes down to the company culture. Some companies, as in my employer, have a relatively laid back culture. Here, being Dow Corning, this would usually be okay. It would really come down to the personality of that particular "manager." We do have a few managers who will come down on employees who disagree and don't tow the party line. Most of them, though, prefer that we give a little push back when it comes to project decisions and such.
I would suspect that with all the stuff going on, you probably have an updated resume already. If it were me, and I was serious about doing this, I would have a talk with my manager (and maybe manager's manager) to determine to what degree this would be a career decision...maybe even invite them along if you were to have the meeting. Accountants can do some magical things with financials, so having an extra "filter" or two wouldn't hurt. If they were on board, they would have a little more street cred to challenge the numbers along with you.
I have to say, my inlaws do extract a good bit of joy by giving me grief about the Jeep, and I've gotten many suggestions to trade it in. When I paid the extra $2K over the cost of the gasser version, I viewed the purchase as essentially buying two cars...the intent being this one would have the longevity of two cars. Given the crap I take, I'm now determined to keep it for a very long time just to show 'em...as some point, I'm going to start telling that I intend for my 5-month old daughter to drive it to college when that day comes.
I actually had to do some spreadsheet calculations to show them that it would cost me a whole boatload of money to get something else...between the extra 3 years of payments, and they the extra cost of fuel due mpg differences (even with diesel being higher typically)...it just didn't make sense.
With there being a big push to make things "greener," I can understand the concept behind hybrids and the electric vehicles. Something that I don't see mentioned in the discussion is the aggregate amount of energy and resources required to make a car/truck; be it gas, diesel, electric, gas-hybrid, diesel-hybrid, etc. I don't know if they are done, but I just don't see cradle-to-grave cost estimates for a particular type of vehicle. If a diesel car lasts twice as long as a gas car and gets 25% better fuel mileage, it seems that there should be a sound environmental and economical argument in favor of the diesel car, and both vehicles are equally recyclable. For a diesel versus hybrid/electric, it's hard to know that the difference in longevity will be...equal??? The battery packs will have some end-of-life costs associated with them in terms of disposal or recyclability. If they were lead acid, it's an easy question to answer. However, I under the impression that the newer battery technologies are too complex to have a simple recycling program take care of them, so there would be an "environmental cost" due to having to dispose of them. If all of these things were considered, I think diesel would have a very strong argument.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do. I still like being employed myself, so I certainly don't blame you for any trepidation you may have.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
My last three new vehicles had diesel engines. Two VW's and the CRD. I sure would like a Dakota size diesel pickup 
