I'm not sure of the longevity of diesels, I've done some researching around the net.
For example, I did a google search on "used VW golf" and most of the sites were located in "diesel friendly" countries, mainly England and Austrailia and almost all of them post miles driven either well under 100K or slightly above.

AutoTrader, a popular circulation, has a miles driven search filter and I did one for VW, all models, 1981 to present:
http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/search...p;isp=y <br />

I couldn't get the above link to work on this site but it will take you to a page with 3 pictures near the top. Click the "Mileage" link just below the pictures to reach my link.

I found one page of diesels with over 100K miles, cars with under 100K appeared as early as page two.

I also did the same search for Honda with the same search filter:
http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/search...1&isp=y <br />
There are eleven pages of Honda's with over 100K miles compared to VW's one. The highest VW is a van with 240K miles, the highest Honda is also a van with 576K miles.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

Might think about this only one or two cars have been avil in a diesel.

during the mid 1980s sales spiked to 500,000 units sold then tapered back down to 35,000 units a year (30K are VWs). THATS total units sold not just one brand ( mostly one brand VW).

How many Hondas are sold every yr??? Have to take that into account when looking at the # of pages by any brand.

The Accord competes with the Toyota Camry for the title of best-selling car in the US. Honda sold more than 414,000 Accords in 2002 and sales in 2003 were up as of the third quarter

http://www.reviewcar.com/2004_honda_accord_sedan.htm

Thats 10 yrs worth of VWs sold vs one line of the honda line up of cars.

will varify those #s but I saw the info on a PDF on the net awhile ago.

Thanks, but it logically seems that if these cars typically last 500K-1 million miles then they should, by now, vastly out number the older gasoline cars, and there should be a multitude of pages with used ones with over 750K miles, over the 5-6 decades they've been on the market.

There are a few diesels that can be found that have ~750K but these are few and far between, not at all a typical representation.

Jorpet-
(Regarding your post #71): One good thing about Greenhybrid is that (so far) the community respects the views and opinions of other members, even if we might strongly disagree. I'm not sure if you have taken notice of that, and it sets it apart from many other forums.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

its very typical

just because an engine design can last 500K+ miles doesn't mean the car itself will.

also take into consideration the # of cars that are sold that are diesel.

http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/GDP-SRCE.xls

according to latest 4th quarter 2004 numbers

Retail sales (millions of units) 5.3 avg domestic and 2.2 million import

those #s seem kinda low but still thats around 7.5 million cars and out of that
only 30-40,000 are diesel.

thats 1 diesel sold for every 188 - 250 gas cars sold.

I'd say thats a pretty high ratio and explains on two fronts why there aren't that many out there.

1. car is used up before the motor
2. ratio of cars sold

....Which begs to beckon, if the bodies are used up or worn out before the engines and are discarded, doesn't the engines go to the bone yard with the body? If that is true, how do they go the extra distance?

I haven't noticed any for sale ads of used 200K mile diesel engines.

Being originally from the Minneapolis area, I know that auto bodies are pretty much wasted after about 10 years, but down here in the South they can last 3 to 4x that. The sun is really hard on the paint but we don't see the rust.

Yesterday I saw a Mercedes from the 70's which looked in great shape, looked very well maintained. Last week I also saw a Gremlin, Pacer, 2 Pintos and a 70's Grand Torino in similar shape.

Even with the higher ratio of gas cars sold, if the diesels run up to 10x longer we should be seeing most of them still on the road in these areas where cars in general last longer.

Looks like they all last about the same.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

10 times longer?? I never said that

most gassers go about 160 - 200K miles and need rebuilding a Diesel can go 400K plus

10 times longer is redick I even think so

Many people in many places have claimed that diesel cars go 500K-1 million miles. Some claim that gas cars go about 100K.

100K x 10 = 1,000,000.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

those people are smoking crack

any modern gasser can go 150K miles without too many problems.

seals and rings will be in bad shape but still get 200K before I would rebuild a typical gasser.