will diesels ever take hold here in the states??

Question

with all of their advantages over gasoline engines and with low sulfur fuel coming soon. will diesels ever become widely used as they are in most of the rest of the world?? or are we just too ignorant to realize that they offer more hope than hydrogen to cut our dependence on foreign oil! are the big there and crooked polititians married to the oil giants keeping them out of the u.s.?? your thoughts please!!!!!!!

Answer 1

it's not the big 3 and our politicians...GM has tried to sell cars with diesel engines...so has mercedes, VW, and some others...the problem is the PEOPLE, no one wants them...they're loud and stinky. it's not the companies, it's the consumer. american automakers have tried, the diesel powered cars sat on the lots. the diesel powered pickup trucks, however, fly off the lots. they've sold more Duramax diesels and Cummins diesels than toyota camrys and honda accords combined.

Answer 2

The problems in the past have been that when the US tried diesels the egnines were no good, after that the US gave up but the rest of the world kept working on it. The US also allowed really filthy diesel with a very high sulfur content which wasn't allowed in Europe and Japan. So other countries developed high output diesels with excellent torque, power and fuel economy which also had great emissions. These engines could not be run in the US because they use catalytic converters which are unable to handle the massive amount of sulfur in US diesel.

The Peugot turbo diesel I had in the UK last summer was getting near 50mpg and delivered around 250 ft.lbs of torque. It was much nicer to drive than most gas engined cars, tremendous torque translates into relaxed driving.

Now the US is bringing in cleaner diesel, when the whole country has been using it for long enough the foreign car makers will be able to import the high output and very economical diesels. At that point we may well see a great increase in diesel usage. Right now the US is about 10-15 years behind Europe.

Answer 3

I have been a Diesel mechanic for 12 years and i believe there will be more diesels in the future the technology is getting much better and the noise and emissions are getting much better. I still believe we are probably 10 to 15 years away from seeing a great deal of diesels in smaller pickups and cars.

Answer 4

I think that you are partially correct. Probably the largest seller of diesel powered cars here in the US is Volkswagen. You can get diesel in all of their car line and is popular in my area (NC) Mercedes Benz is popular with diesel cars in Europe and they are just introducing a couple of models here in the states. Daimler Chrysler which is Mercedes Benz and Chrysler joined at the hip are becoming more aware with diesel in their Jeep line giving the Jeep Liberty and the Grand Cherokee a diesel choice. I think you will see more diesel options made available here in the very near future because of the cleaner/quieter line of diesel engines available now. I hope that this shed a lil more light.

Answer 5

yes