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Guys, you need to look into the European car market to see what should be happening with diesels in the US. My everyday car is a 2007 Fiat Bravo, which is about the same size as a Mazda 3. It is fitted with a 1.9 litre 4 cylinder turbocharged diesel engine and returns an average of 50mpg (imperial gallons - about 42mpg US) in mixed driving. Doens't sound too good until you realise this car has 150bhp, 230lbft and hits 60mph in under 8 seconds. It is aslo every bit as quiet and refined as the gas engined versions. Fiat have recently launched a 1.6 litre turbo diesel with 100 bhp and that returns around 65mpg (54mpg US) and there are more economical cars still. What will probably annoy you guys most are the diesel powered American cars we have over here. Did you know that I could go out tomorrow and buy a Jeep Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, Wrangler or Patriot with a diesel engine, not to mention the Dodge Caliber and Avenger. Ford also produce a range of diesels (and very good ones) for the Fiesta, Focus, and Mondeo not to mention the Transit and Ranger (Euro version, which is a lot smaller than the US version). GM are also in on the act producing diesel versions of the Vectra (now replaced by the all new Insignia) and Astra (which is a sub-compact and nothing to do with the US Astra).
It doesn't stop there. Everyone knows VW sell diesel cars, but what about Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Volvo, Land Rover and all the Japanese makers? They might not in the US, but in Europe they certainly do sell diesels. In fact, in the UK the Discovery 3 (LR3) diesel outsells the gas version by about 10 to 1, and even the Range Rover Sport sells more diesels than gas versions. As for the Freelander (LR2) I've seen hundreds of diesels, but only 1 or 2 with a gas engine. And if that's not enough, in the UK you can even buy a diesel version of the latest Mini!
Our fuel prices might give you an idea why diesel is so popular in the UK. As of today the prices are £0.95/litre for unleaded ($5.76/USgallon) and diesel is £1.07/litre ($6.50/USgallon). And those prices have come down. At their peak a couple of months back unleaded was £1.20/litre ($7.28/USgallon) and diesel was £1.35/litre ($8.19/USgallon). Anything that will keep costs down has to be considered, and even though diesel is more expensive than gas here at the moment, the prices are still close enough to make going diesel a no brainer. Go into France or Germany and there are even more diesels on the road because over there diesel is still cheaper than gas.
Going back to the original subject, GM and Ford don't have to work too hard to bring diesels into the US. They just need to use the European cars as a starting point. If Audi or Mercedes decided to bring diesels into the US they would wipe the floor with the current American offerings. Both have a range of engines available to them going from a fairly small 2 litre I4 through V6 and V8 version to V12 (Mercedes) and V10 or V12 (Audi). In both cases the top engines are 6 litre units with enough power to give a Corvette or Mustang a run for their money on the drag strip. And Land Rover have effectively made their stock 4.2 & 4.4 V8 gas engines redundant in the UK by introducing an advanced 3.6 litre V8 diesel that not only uses a lot less fuel, but drives and sounds much better than the gas V8! US car makers need to stop messing about because sooner or later European car makers (and that could include the Euro branhces of Ford & GM) will realise there is actually a market for diesels in the US and will start importing them.
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