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Automotive News & Views What Would It Take for YOU to buy a diesel car?
1492 messages, Last post on Nov 04, 2009 at 7:37 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: yankabilly (Jan 04, 2009 11:15 am) Let's face it---American do not, nor have they ever, liked small cheap diesel cars. They barely tolerate diesel Benzes. Detroit doesn't build them because no one will buy them. That's been proven time and time again, at least to me. They are too expensive to build (not just the engines but meeting the emissions regs) and the market is too small to justify the capital costs. My opinion is that even if gas hit $10 a gallon, you will not get 99.5% of American car buyers into a diesel Daewoo with cardboard door panels and cloth seats, even if it got 75 mpg. You would get a few more into diesel Passats, but it would be a fractional market share gain, IMO. |
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Jan 04, 2009 11:25 am) I have read in passing VW will build a plant in Tenn which will build diesels models for the world wide markets including the "US " market. Given the recent bru ha ha, the big three and UAW did NOT testify in securing the permanent taxpayer bail out monies, what will take the place of pick up trucks and suv's !!! So that should be a fairly obvious signal they will continue to build them. Making them in turbo diesel to increase the mpg and torque, etc. is probably far too logical a leap.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Jan 04, 2009 11:25 am) Every year ford send out a flyer on ideas and every year putting diesel in cars is always #1 but it never happens. Just like putting the alison trans. in the super duty. The motor is turned down so not to brake trans. Putting the allison 6speed and put a splitter so you can increase mpg would be the best thing. People around here do that after the warrenty runs out and put the chip in it
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Replying to: yankabilly (Jan 04, 2009 11:49 am)  
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Replying to: ruking1 (Jan 04, 2009 11:44 am)
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Replying to: yankabilly (Jan 04, 2009 12:06 pm) The 2003 VW Jetta TDI can easily do that and still deliver 48 mpg. On a recent 3 state and 45 min CN border stop and go trip (965 miles one way) I ran a steady 75 mph with bursts to 80 mph and it returned 59 mpg. So in comparison to a Jetta gasser which would struggle to get 29 mpg, the diesel for logical purposes is an absolute no brainer. It is such a no brainer than when even close friends ask me what I get in a diesel, I don't even say anymore. If they press, I just say well it could be better.  
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Replying to: yankabilly (Jan 04, 2009 12:06 pm) Americans don't like diesel cars and won't buy them. That's why the Big Three will not built them for domestic market, at least not the domestic market *as it is now configured*. If one does not agree that the government *punish* people until they do buy diesels, then you have to let the market dictate what is built by what is bought. You could not currently give away at 1/2 price a $35000 Chevrolet diesel sedan. You could not get an American driver into a Peugeot turbo diesel hatchback or a VW Rabbit diesel. You CAN (and have) gotten them into diesel pickups for hauling gravel, etc.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Jan 04, 2009 4:20 pm) So for example while we get a pretty good 38-42 mph on a(gasser) Honda Civic for a commute, I would buy a turbo diesel Civc that got 56 mpg !!! The unacknowledged problem is it is simply not available on the US market.
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Replying to: ruking1 (Jan 04, 2009 4:31 pm) Diesel passenger cars have never had more than 6% of the market. Why would an automaker pour hundreds of millions into such a niche market? To develop it? Into what? A market for cars that burn very expensive fuel? A market for an unspecified future time when fuel costs might (or might not) double or triple in price? It's not like with other emerging markets, like computers or iPods, when there was nothing like it one could buy in the early days----right now you can buy gasoline cars that get outstanding gas mileage.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Jan 04, 2009 4:39 pm) Diesel passenger CARS are currently less than 1% of the passenger vehicle fleet. I read that 92.5% of the diesel passenger vehicle fleet (ie light trucks) are diesels. So the over all % diesel is  2%, down from less than 3%.
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