Want French Fries with that?

A handful of customers have asked me what I think about vegetable oil conversion kits for Diesel Jettas (a.k.a. grease cars). The cars will amazingly burn restaurant waste oil. While this sounds like a crazy democratic plan to save the planet, people actually are doing this to reduce emissions and of course save money at the pump.

Apparently the car still starts and stops on Diesel fuel, but it burns the used restaurant oil most of the time when the car is warm when driving long distance, making it a hybrid of sorts. A small computer aids you in knowing when to switch to burning grease. Stock Diesel Jettas are already capable of 50mpg or more on the highway, so using vegetable oil would extend the life of your tank of diesel fuel that much more, but you're not getting better mileage.

The do-it yourself kits start at $1,500 with everything you will want to have (controllers, filters) but plan on spending another $500 to $1,000 to have the kit installed.

Verdict: Right now people are paying a huge premium for used diesel Volkswagens. So, after considering the price of the used VW, the premium, the conversion kit, the installation, the grease hunting on weekends (and I did work at restaurants in my college years and yes, the grease bin stinks!) - I'm out! At least for now.

If you're thinking about saving on fuel and the environment, save up for the new 2009 Jetta TDI 2.0 due out in November 2008 which reduces NOx emissions by up to 90 percent. You will be getting a cleaner car, tons of power (140hp and 236 lbs./ft of torque), incredible mileage (40-60mpg), full use of your trunk and a warranty covering all systems.

Grease conversion information for Jetta TDI:

vegcar.net (TDI grease information)
vegtruck.com (TDI grease information)
votechusa.com (TDI grease conversion)
goldenfuelsystems.com (TDI grease conversion)
greasecar.com (TDI grease conversion)