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Juniatha,  <o:p></o:p> I see your reasoning about the gas turbine as it applies to a high performance super sports car.  I misunderstood you to be talking about small fuel-efficient cars, whereas this would be just another hybrid, but with a turbine engine.   <o:p></o:p> Actually, I like the smell of certain diesels, but that smell can vary.  The worst thing in the world is inhaling diesel exhaust from a diesel in cold weather when it has not yet warmed up.  That exhaust is a white, wet vapor of various exhaust components and unburned fuel.  That can leave a person gasping and hacking for air.  And if that kind of cold diesel exhaust happens to waft into your house, the smell hangs around for a couple days.  It is basically fuel oil deposited everywhere in the house.  Heavy diesel black smoke from turbo lag does not smell very good, but it is not like the killer white cold smoke.  I always thought EMD locomotives made a very sweet and agreeable smelling smoke.  I remember that agreeable diesel smell when passing between cars on passenger trains.  <o:p></o:p> Regarding changing the public perception of diesels:  I was referring to changing the diesel engines first to create the high mileage, super fuel-efficient compact diesels for the future, and then showing those to the public.  Assuming that these super diesels would not be smoky, noisy, heavy, clunky, etc., I think the public would accept them, especially if they outperformed everything on fuel consumption per pound of vehicle.   <o:p></o:p> As IGN mentioned on the previous page, GM came out with diesels for full size cars in the 1980s, and that probably had much to do with the public’s perception of diesels today.  Those GM diesels were indeed noisy, clunky, smoky, smelly, leaky, heavy, sluggish, and hard to start in cold weather.  Moreover, since they were made with gas engine blocks, they did not have that wonderful engine longevity that a typical diesel has.  In addition to all the aforementioned bad attributes, the GM diesels were short-lived maintenance hogs.     <o:p></o:p> And within this topic of energy-efficient cars, I am most amazed by what is happening with the Chevy Volt.  A year ago, a friend was telling me they would have fire and explosion issues with the Volt battery.  Why couldn’t GM see this coming?  Actually that is a rhetorical question.
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