In some cases that windbag may just be the owner, who can forget the early Prius adopters?

You may not care, but the people behind you probably would.

So long as the collective unconscious in the epa is that diesels are evil, not a whole lot is going to change. And I'd bet the lack of a stick in the Cruze is more related to emissions, with the on-and-off throttle and deceleration, etc. VW has had the time and resulting expertise to know how to do it, GM is really just learning.

I grew up a Chevy (and GM) guy and I applaud their efforts, but this is like calling up a kid from triple A with a 4.5 ERA and sending him in against Rafael Soriano.

this might be the opel engine used in vectras etc over in EU, pretty good engines. The problem lies that the average american consumer loves his/her mighty powerful american built relaxo-cruiser with a big lazy engine. It also doesnt help that the average customer thinks of filling diesel at the pump as "I cant be seen doing that" or the tree guys that come up to me like Jehovas witnesses to speak of keeping the environment clean by driving a Prius etc.

Lets wait and see.

__________________
2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

Interesting.
I know at least a few hybrid owners - and none of them bought the hybrid becuase they wanted to look smug, or lord their economy over others - each of them (5 that i can count right off) just wanted a basic car with the best MPG's that they could find. None of these people are what I'd call "car enthusiasts" so their market research was minimal beforehand - the best might have included "Consumer Reports"
and thats cool - they are all retired people and librarians (and others) and they all seem happy with their purchase (becuase I keep asking them

I should note that I'm hard pressed to find a hybrid with a manual transmission (Honda CRZ?) and none of my small sample population owns one - they must not care too much about it.

so IMHO - Chevy is doing it right.

These same people can now add a Diesel to their list of potential cars. even better an "American Made" diesel (no idea if its really american, made, but I'll bet that you all know at least one retiree that would rather buy an American brand than a foriegn one). So now the "buy economy" crowd has an american diesel choice.

Personally I also would also rather my money go to an American who makes cars, but we all know that cars are complex machines and the market is not that simple (spoken by a Subaru and Kia owning guy on a Mercedes forum This can be debated in another thread if that dead horse needs another beating

Us car guys can argue BHP, real world MPG's and ergonomics all we want, but for all of the non-car people that dont put a lot of thought into buying a car (because really - are any of them them bad cars anymore?) -the Cruze Diesel is great to have as an option.

(sorry for the run on sentance)


Keep it up GM - this is furthering diesel acceptance in this country - and that is a good thing.

-John

__________________
2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

I always thought the Cruze and Focus are two of the nicest little cars you can get. Much nicer than their Japanese or Korean equivalents.

The Focus in sporty trim isn't a terrible drive either for a FWD car.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

The new Focus is pretty decent, the previous (pre-2010?) was crappy. At least the one I rented sucked. Crappy interior user interface combined with stalling a few times on curvy mountain roads north of Phoenix. The kind of roads where locals do 60, and don't expect to find a stalled car around a bend

Come on Ford, give us a blue oval option!

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

The best little car I've been in in the recent past was a Nissan Versa. I didn't think much of it before spending a week with one, but I came away solidly impressed, at least considering this market segment. I can't recall what they named it in Europe, but over there it's available with a diesel and, you guessed it, a stick. I saw 36-37 on the highway with the automatic, 2-3 people, luggage and running 70-75, so I can only imagine how much better that would be with the "European" option.

It's incidental, DEF is cheaper than fuel.

__________________
'83 300D, 126K miles.

That's exactly how I feel about the brand. Ever hear of the late '70s disaster diesels GM manufactured and put in their cars??

Test driving the Corvette was as close to buying one as I've wanted to get since the last new Chevrolet I bought in 1976.

"42 mpg?"" Reallly?? Heck a 2005/06 E320 CDI for waay less money gets a bonafide 41 mpg @ 75-80 mph......and it's a real car, and not an econobox.

I was going to mention the same thing about the E320 CDI or even the 124 300D with the 2.5 turbo. The 124 300D's seem to be going for around $3,500 and get between 34 and 36 mpg at 70 mph.

And like Joe said.... You get a real car in the deal!

did you ever hear of the ford 6.0's they came out with in 04.some of em didn't even make it off the transport.at least olds had the balls to give it a try.BUT from day one i always said they needed more head bolts.even a gas big block chevy has 6 bolts per cylinder.twice the comp in the diesel and 2/3 the head bolts ain't gonna fly.BUT they did add more bolts to the 4.3 v6 engines and they were awesome engines that rarely had headgasket problems.i had one in an 84 celebrity wagon.35 mpg all day long.body fell apart along time ago but i still have that engine waiting for something to put it in.

We almost bought my sister a new one when we couldn't find a decent used car. Not a bad vehicle for the money, I'd never buy one but for a single girl who could car less about cars its perfect.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

They already did........the 7.3 PSD.

Not even close - Ford fixed every 6.0 that needed it. Apples and orangutans......

You can Google the '70s GM passenger car V8 diesels, and read-up on what a disaster they were. If in fact this was all news to you....
.
GM couldn't fix the disaster of their diesel engine fail - was how bad it was.

whats up with that?? deleting your post saying i thought the 5.7 was the greatest thing since sliced cheese.which by the way i never said or implied.AND you need to look back in the 70's just what kind of technology there was in THIS country for diesels.not much other then the ag industry and even at that IH used german diesels in alot of their tractors in the late 60's early 70's because they couldn't build a decent diesel.so to go out on a limb and market a diesel car when how many other manu's had them(vw,and mercedes).they had the fortitude to try.
go ask most any diesel pickup driver about the 6.0 and they will cringe.the reputation is there they were junk out of the box.and WHY.because ford couldn't keep their hands off the injection system because......they needed MORE H.P. then the d-max and cummins.
If they just would have left it like IH designed it they wouldn't have had near the problems.IH sure didn't with their 6.0.heck even the glorious benz had diesel issues with the #14 heads on the 86 sdl's and they had issues again 4 yrs later with the 350sdl's yeah you know the one"the rodbender".AND mercedes had been building diesels for what 50 years???
and the 5.7 is not news to me i bought my first one in 1987.a 1979 toronado.drove it for 2 years and sold it to a buddy of mine's dad,who is still driving it to this day.and the heads have never been off since i've known the car,AND if you know anything about the 5.7 which i doubt you do it STILL has the D block,research that!i have also had 4 other 5.7's and only had the heads off one of em.2 of em are still on the road that i know of so they evidently aren't the disaster you portray.