Diesel Powered Cars: Coming At You!
The number of diesel powered cars on North American highways has been dropping steadily ever since their peak in the mid 1980s. For many motorists, diesel engines conjure up images of pollution, poor power, and 
unreliability. However, one generation later and all that is about to change. New diesel powered vehicles will soon be arriving, in fact one is already here and receiving critical acclaim from auto enthusiasts.
Who can forget those diesel powered Chevrolet Caprices and Oldsmobile 98s that suddenly became very popular 25 years ago? If you are like many car owners, you want to forget those cars. What GM did back then was to take existing gasoline engines and convert them to diesel engines. These converted engines were loud, smoky, and very unreliable. They were unreliable to the point where GM had to pay tens of millions of dollars to replace failed engines with gasoline engines.
The memory of GM’s diesel fiasco was never lost on drivers who have spurned diesels to the point where many automakers are no longer producing diesel engines. Mercedes, a strong seller of diesel powered cars in Europe, no longer sells a diesel powered car in North America. VW is the lone importer of diesel engines while the U.S. manufacturers only place high performance diesel engines in their larger vehicles such as pick up trucks.
Another area that has stopped diesel engines cold is air pollution. Very stringent emission regulations have all but wiped out the possibility that many of the smaller diesel engines could be sold in the U.S. However, a change is in the wind as new technology is now in place that will make diesel powered cars cleaner. In addition, with the high cost of gasoline now prevailing, a diesel powered car has much more of an appeal to it especially since fuel savings of 20-30% are possible.
DaimlerChrysler recently introduced a Jeep Liberty with an optionally equipped diesel engine and this compact SUV is selling well with the optional engine. Its new 2.8L diesel delivers fuel improvements as high as 32% over a comparable gas 4×4 model and pollution is kept to a minimum. In addition, the added torque is a favorite with some, especially those who need to pull a boat or a camper with the Jeep.
Volkswagen will be bringing additional diesel powered cars to the North American market over the next few years. Diesel powered Golfs, Jettas, and possibly several larger model VWs will soon be traversing the highways and byways of Canada and the U.S.
BMW and Mercedes are both likely to be importing diesel cars over the next few years. Both automakers are studying the market to see if compact models could sell in North America. Each proposed model line is currently sold in Europe and diesel engines are a popular option with these cars.
GM is also considering tapping its relationship with Isuzu to import engines to be placed in several compact models. Long a producer of diesel powered vehicles, Isuzu has pretty much exited the North American market, but could return in the form of Isuzu powered cars sold by GM.
Chrysler will likely take its favorable experience with its Jeep division and begin to offer diesel engines on other trucks and SUVs. At the same time the all new Dodge Caliber, a replacement for the Neon, may eventually offer a diesel engine too.
Ford seems to be content with expanding its hybrid offerings and no other Japanese or Korean manufacturers appear ready to jump into the diesel movement…yet. Regardless, within five years the number of diesel cars on American and Canadian roads will likely triple. This can be a good thing for people wanting better fuel mileage, more torque, and a highly reliable engine.
For older diesel powered cars, they will continue to serve their purpose as owners discover how to extend their lives through useful aftermarket parts such as Bully Dog and competing products. With their rugged durability and well known reliability, a diesel powered car can easily reach a half of million miles or more before quitting.
Copyright 2006 - Matt Keegan, is The Auto Writer, who covers a variety of automotive topics including Bully Dog Diesel products and other handy aftermarket parts and accessories.
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February 21st, 2006 at 6:46 pm
As a huge proponent of diesel-powered cars in America to help solve our oil dependency, I really appreciate the ositive publiciy, however, their are a few points that could also be added.
In Europe, Volkswagen markets a car called the Lupo, which is a 1.2 Liter, 3 Cylinder, diesel which gets over 80 mpg on the hwy (3 liters per 100 KM). No hybrid in the world can match this.
You state that diesels can get 20% to 30% more fuel economy than a comparable gas engine, when in fact, the average is more like 35%. My VW, TDI with a 1.9 Liter, 4 cylinder has 177 lbs of torque and gets 40% better fuel economy than VWs standard gasoline version (36/41 versus 22/30). A Ford PSD will reportedly get around 18 mpg in mixed driving which is better than the small V8 gassers that go in their 1/2 ton trucks that are thousands of pounds lighter and produce hundreds less lbs of torque. It also blows away its gasoline counterpart, which reportedly gets around 11 mpg with less horsepower and less torque than the PSD. The examples go on and on, although the Jeep Liberty, with its 26 mpg rating, is an exception to the diesel advantage rule. This engine was sourced by Daimler Chrysler from some Italian engine manufacturer, and gets horrible fuel economy for a 4 cylinder diesel.
Unlike gas burners that must be specially designed to accept ethanol (FFVs), diesel engines can accept biodiesel as a fuel alternative with little or no engine modifications. Biodiesel can be derived from literally dozens of plants that can be grown in virtually any climate or region of our country, animal fats, or waste vegetable oil; is renewable; reduces green house emissions by 78% over petro-diesel; nonhazardous; nontoxic; reduces tailpipe emissions an average of 50% for all major pollutants; reduces imported petroleum; has a positive energy balance in its production, according to the EPA; lubricates engines better than petroleum-based diesel; can be blended with petro-diesel in any combination, which makes it a “drop-in” technology; and it is currently cost competitive with petroleum-based diesel. I usually fill up with B20 (20% biodiesel/80% diesel, and pay about the same price per gallon as 100% diesel fuel.
You state that MB no longer offers a diesel car, but MB has the best example of diesel advantage in our country with their E320 CDI. This car outperforms its gasoline counter part with approx 218 horsepower and a whopping 369 lbs of torque. It goes from 0-60 in less than 7 seconds which beats the gasser, and it gets an EPA est. 37 mpg hwy. The gasser gets around 25.
Greg Faulkner
Rickman, TN