Is the US ready for a german diesel cop car?
 

I thought this was an interesting article.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aCO8Mt6m43HU
Apparently BMW has reached an agreement to supply diesel running gear for american police cruisers.

Too bad the U.S. can't come up with anything.

Ford is just now starting to make their own PowerStroke engines... it may take a while before they decide to get in to Diesel engines for cars.

Is the fuel savings ever going to payoff? Right now police cars are relatively cheap and they last maybe 3 years. How are cities and counties going to justify doubling the purchase price of this staple of our evergrowing police state? I am not a number cruncher but I dont see how this plan will be able to provide the ROI that will be required.........especially in the current financial climate. Just saying.

A cop car starts running at the beginning of the shift, and stops at the end of the shift, whether or not it's moving or the cop is in it. When the cops are done with it, it's sold off to as a taxi.

The car is made in the US. The engine is German.

This is fantastic. What ever it takes to expose the US market to the benefits of diesel power. I have to agree that the ROI should be considered as the current Ford/GM sedans are plentiful and are used after by many different organizations including one I work for.

If the car is made here in the US and there is a benefit to the US economy and municipalities then it may be a good plan.

Its tough to beat the 'disposable' nature of the low dollar, gas powered sedan.

An increase from 15 to 25 mpg would yield $8000 in fuel savings over 100k miles @ $3 per gallon. At $4 per gallon the savings would be $10664. I didn't see mentioned the price of this new cruiser.
I don't know about your municipality, but here locally our newest cruiser is now 3 years old and we are still using several that are over 10 years old. They will all stick around long after the 100k mark.

Cummins does make a V-8 deisel. So, its to bad our tax dollars are going overseas.
Tom

Here is the website for Carbon Motors.

http://carbonmotors.com/images/car14.jpg
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...id=23179417581

It was my understanding that some of the best diesel engines in the world were made in the Chrysler factory right next to the cars that were used in the U.S. Unfortunately, these engines went in exports to Europe, where you can get a diesel powered Chrysler "insert model here". They are not allowed for sale here due to draconian emissions standards, even if they are getting 25 mpg city and up to 30+ hwy. I'm no fan of Chrysler, but we need these here. We would be at the diesel forefront...if not close.

I would offer an example that is a bit off topic, but I think shows well the way things go. I was first exposed to "plastic" grocery bags in 1983 on a trip to Asia, I had never seen one before that. Now those same grocery bags are the norm here. Likewise I have seen many more diesel vehicles than gas ones in the past several years on subsequent trips to the East. I think that the US needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into every change that occurs and eventually we will follow the rest of the world when it comes to clean high mileage diesels. It almost like we are the backward country.....

Ain't No ALMOST about it
 

We're about 2 days out from rolling stone wheels down the Pasture.

A good friend of mine has done most of their photography work.

Yeah, why'd they drop the ball?
Were they asked?
Politics?