I believe that there are several reasons that Americans have, in general, been so much slower to accept diesel cars here.
-The general higher cost of diesel at the pump over gas in some areas (even if higher MPG and less fill-ups would offset that I think some Americans don't think about that)
-The fact that here diesels are usually equated with noisy, smoke-spewing trucks, semis and things of that nature
-In American autos, there have been few family sedan diesels that were any good. In the 70s/80s some American car makers tried to do diesels but they simply converted gas engines and that led to diesels that were unreliable and not very good.
Is there still issues about the sulpher content in US diesel being too high for many Euro diesel engines?
Life's too short to drive bad cars.
Maybe in the near future America will see more Diesal cars, maybe when they realy start to wory about oil, even Americal will have to start buying eco cars.
Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you."
— Jeremy Clarkson
Diesel cars aren't exactly "eco" cars. Co2 isn't the only pollutant agent.
The way for American cars to be greener is much longer than just using smaller or more efficient engines. Especially because some of those "boats" would move with anything smaller than a 3 liters V6.
See my post about the Ram pickup VS the Panda in the "I just saw" thread.
And of all the pickups I've seen in the states, 99% of them had their bed completely empty, except for the smaller ones which were indeed used as a work car. Well, California may not be the best comparison, still.
KFL Racing Enterprises - Kicking your ass since 2008
*cough* http://theitalianjunkyard.blogspot.com/ *cough*
I know Diesel car aren't exactly eco car and CO2 isn't the only pollutant gas, but as people in the future really start to worry about running out of oil they will put the petrol prices up and want us to travel further using the same amount of fuel, and because you get more mpg out of a Diesel car they will get more popular in the US because they travel further for the same amount of fuel. Yes electric car are eco and i know it's not all about mpg theirs C02, but when oil get spares we will need to travel a far as we can and use as little fuel as we can and that when Diesel car come in with their great mpg. So that’s why i expect to see more Diesel car in the US.
And yes you right, first they need to stop having normal cars with huge engine, like a 7 seater car with a huge V6 or even a V8.
Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you."
— Jeremy Clarkson
Diesel engines won't have a large advantage for long when it comes to mileage, and they are still more expensive to build/design so it will take even more time/miles to recover the initial higher price. That's already happening now compared to a few years ago.
Also, new emission laws will force diesel engines into more stricter parameters, and that will in turn force both their price and performance, being both power and mileage.
So even if oil would last more centuries, it is a common opinion in the "technical community" diesel engines will not bu the way of the future.
The evolution petrol engines are having is on the other hand pretty promising on just about all areas, except they are going to be more expensive to design and built as well. You can expect them to have similar mileage to diesels while also being better when it comes to pollution.
This are the predictions, so it may turn out differently but in 3 years they never changed them.
Now considering "eco" the various hybrids and EVs is a bit obvious at a first glance, and more tricky when considering the whole pictures.
Yes batteries are not exactly eco-friendly stuff, then again they already exceeded their intended life with no problems in the various mk1 Prius still driving around more than 10 years later their introduction, without suffering a significant drop in range.
I'm also among those who are willing to trade exhaust emissions for batteries, as the latter are something you can actually handle and store even at the end of their life cycle, and reconvert for lower power applications. Co2 and the other pollutants are a bit more problematic to handle once they are out.
Producing batteries is not cheap or green either, but there just isn't enough data, especially third parties data, to say if it's better or worse. As far as I could see and read, it's better than many people think, but not as good as some crazy green hippie may think.
KFL Racing Enterprises - Kicking your ass since 2008
*cough* http://theitalianjunkyard.blogspot.com/ *cough*
I'm not talking about price of Diesel cars and that battres are bad for the enviroment i'm talking about oil running out, and yes i'm not a expert in eco and stuff like that. But on thing we agree on is that the US needs to stop making normal car with hunge engines and thay can just as much power out of smaller engines.
Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you."
— Jeremy Clarkson
Company: Volkswagen of America
Medium: TV
Ad Agency: Deutsch/LA
Product: 2011 Jetta TDI
Campaign: "Can I Drive"
What We Like: That VW is putting some money behind marketing its clean diesel models. VW's sister company, Audi, has long been pushing its diesel offerings, while VW seemed to be mostly letting its enthusiast audience do word-of-mouth for the TDI line. The focus of this ad is on the fuel economy, 42 mpg on highway, which is simple, told through a brief story about a teenager who wants to take his turn driving.
What We Don't Like: Not much at all. We see the data point on 42 mpg, which is an eye-catcher. But maybe ad agency Deutsch could have dialed in an extra graphic or data point that shows how far one can drive on a full tank.
Strategy: Clean diesel is much misunderstood by the general consuming public, as well as 99 out of 100 legislators who, it seems, would rather be caught in a New Orleans hotel room with an escort than photographed promoting diesel cars. Hybrids, electrics and even hydrogen cars we will never drive? Members of Congress flock to those photo ops faster than they do a Wall Street hedge fund manager with his checkbook open. But diesel, their campaign managers, tell them doesn't sell. To hell with them. TDI vehicles rock, and get much better mpg than a Camry Hybrid.
This ad is squeaky clean and is as sparkly and wholesome as a hybrid ad. The 42-mpg figure is meant to get TV viewers to search on the car when they see it on TV. There, they will see several links to VW-created content before they get to a Car and Driver review of the car. They'll have to go a lot further into Google to find carping from anti-diesel bloggers or belly-aching from the uninformed who think if they gave a diesel car they will find themselves stranded in the middle of Idaho with no way to fuel up. Good job on the search-engine-optimization VW!
Autoblog
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niVc2CVARoM&feature=player_embedded"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niVc2CVARoM&feature=player_embedded[/ame]
25 thousand for a mid size 140bhp diesel saloon sounds like a lot...
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
I do not want to start another thread and since this one more or less fits...
Downsizing does not work.
Any thoughts?
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
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