That is an urban legend that just won't die, I even remember hearing it when those cars were new. The fact remains that they designed crappy engines and gave small diesels a black eye for an entire generation.

Diesels are the perfect option for the american market. We love big vehicles, we have lots of traffic and low speeds, we love torque. A diesel that is sized correctly is perfect for all these SUV's and crossovers that we have now. The current crop of pickup diesels are way too big and thirsty.
As usual the big 3 are late to the party, Honda, Toyota, and Nissan are already moving in that direction. Once the emissions hurdles are overcome without pissing in the exhaust I think we will see many more diesels introduced.
Wait untill Honda and Toyota combine diesels and hybrid technology and start pushing 60mpg, the flood gates will open and we will be where europe is now with 50% of the cars sold being diesel.

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Karl B
95 E300 D
2006 Mazdaspeed 6
2001 GMC Yukon XL
1997 Contour SVT
Mazda RX-7 SCCA race car

I have a 6.2 Diesel in an old suburban that's got 250k and still runs fine. I talked with a guy at the GM dealership while waiting on an licensing inspection who told me he had 500xxx miles on his when it finally died of a blown headgasket.

So I would agree the Cady, Buick, Olds diesels were trash. But Detroit Diesel (big over the road truck engine mfg. with a very good reputation) designed the 6.2 in the GM Diesel trucks and vans of the early 80's to early 90's. It's not a bad engine. What it lacks in power at 150HP and non-turbo, it makes up for in fuel economy.

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-E300d '99 350k
-Suburban '93 220k
-TDI Jetta '03 350k
Sold
-F250 '96 7.3
-Dodge Ram 12V
-E320 '95 200k
-E320 Wagon 1994 155k
-300d Turbo '87 187k miles
-E320 1994 200k
-300d Turbo '84 245k (sold to Dan62)
-300d Turbo '84 180k
-300sd '80 300k
-7.3 Powerstroke Diesel 15P Van 500k+ miles
-190d '89 Non Turbo 2.5 5cyl 240k (my first MB)
Tom's Imports of Columbia MO Ruined the IP in changing leaky delivery valve O-Rings - Refused to stand behind his work. Mid-MO MB drivers-AVOID Tom's.

A lot of people simply don't want diesel. I tried to talk my uncle into a Bluetech but he went with the E350 because he wanted 4matic and simply doesn't care about fuel mileage.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

i, for one, would buy a tacoma or ranger type pickup with a tdi or common rail 4 in a minute- to have the reliability and economy of my tdi with the simplicity and utility of my b-series mazda would be perfect.

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84 300SD ODO broken at 277k
02 Jetta TDI
KHS roady, stumpy hardtail- powered by carbohydrates
OBK56

Many contractors have good money-management skills, and many don't. A contractor that drives a diesel-powered pick-up is showing signs of "positive mental-activity" in my opinion. The contractor-mentality of driving a high-priced work truck, especially gas-powered to a jobsite, shows one facet of poor choice in their money management skills.

My other diesel is a Ford PowerStroke diesel, and was a long-term purchase, with due-diligence of total-cost analysis done before purchasing. A self-employed person with any brains, can make a diesel-powered vehicle work in their favor........even in this day and age.

If the Bluetec came with AWD, the diesel would have been a slam-dunk, if you put a pencil to it for him.

Most people complain about fuel prices, being 100% clueless on how p*ss-poor their gas-powered vehicle gets on MPG!

If you don't believe it, look at your neighbors driving massive, 5,000+ pound gas-powered Tahoes, Suburbans, Expeditions --and the like, all with crappy MPG, to take an 80 lb. kid to school.

Higher prices of diesel, harder to find pumps and dirty pumps when you find them are some of the reasons diesel isn't that attractive here. Have you figured in cold weather and what it does to diesels? I have started gas cars at 20 below. I can't say the same for diesels unless you plug it in.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Those are pretty broad generalizations. Not always do you need a diesel especially when they are priced way above the gas engines. IIRC, a Powerstroke is at least $5000 above a gas model. If you don't need the towing capacity, is it such a good expense? I think not. You, like many diesel people, seem to think that diesel is the answer to any question. It isn't. In certain circumstances, it has the advantage. In others, not so.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

there is an excellent (but short) article in the january issue of popular mechanics referencing the upcoming onslaught of diesels on the american market. it includes an interesting comparison of the latest generation of diesels with the latest generation of hybrids, and comes to the conclusion that the new diesels (mostly german companies of course) are cleaner and more fuel efficient than the hybrids. one of the feature cars was a 75mpg diesel vw polo that beat out the prius in gg emissions. of course, most of them will suffer when they are cleaned up for our epa regulations, but it's cool nonetheless.

america's automotive entry into a lot of smaller european countries was through acquisition of or merging with local marques, many of which already had a proven diesel history in their respective countries. my guess is that the big 3 will be adapting those diesels to enter our market as opposed to engineering (or re-engineering) their own. this only applies to small cars of course, they (american car companies) do seem to have the big truck diesel thing already sorted out from what i understand.

also a good bit in the same magazine about leno testing out the bmw hydrogen powered 7-series.

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1983 300D classic white 196,xxx
2007 toyota yaris lb
2007 nissan versa (wife's)
2001 nissan frontier
2006 bmw r1150gs
2001 ducati monster 900
2003 zr7s
2007 klr650

I agree with the poster above that the big 2.5(lol) would do well to go diesel in the compact SUV/small truck market - we can have our cake an eat it too.

$5k to install a diesel in one of these things ? (Ford Escape for instance) - I don't belive it, unless they get raped when dickering with MBz when buying engines to slap in. Yes, the diesel is a $5k option in a fullsize truck, but halve the displacement, HP and tq numbers, that figure will be more manageable. You don't need a Colorado/Canyon with 450ft-lbf (It'd be cool though) An E320 motor or even a 2.0TDI motor would do the trick nicely.

If that legislation holds up - that just passed -- requiring US automakers to get corporate average economy ratings in the 30's -- then they are going to be forced to make and sell diesels, at whatever cost markup they can achieve (becuase their cash-cow suburbans and Expeditions are now limited in numbers). Weve seen big companies buy their way out of crap like this before, so this may be a stretch.

I've seen too many decent, new, American cars (new Chrysler Minivans, Pontiac G6, Chevy Malibu, argue their quality in another thread please) to automatically assume that Detroit is going to screw up the diesel thing...again. Combine the legislative pressure and anti-american car sentiment - they'll go diesel, and smart us buyers will snap them up.

IMHO
-John

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

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

The Olds 5.7 diesel wasnt a bad motor after they came out with the DX block, I have one that Im putting in a jeep cherokee, there are tricks to making them a good motor. I used .010 thicker and .030 oversize bore gaskets on a standard bore and deck height block and heads, ARP head bolts not studs, rebuilt the injector pump to make sure it was good and had the updated EID retainer, changed the fuel filter to one with a water separator, and installed a hardened oil pump drive shaft. All the guys on the olds-diesel.com board say with those updates I shouldnt have much if any problem, many of them have 5.7 with 200K plus on them so I wouldnt say its a bad engine just a little miss understood and was put in cars driven by people who had no clue how to drive or maintain a diesel

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82 240D (82 300D drive train)

Nah he still wouldn't have gone for it, he doesn't drive the car much and his wife would probably put gas in a CDI.

If you drive a car under 10k miles a year diesel makes little sense. Its when you start to drive a lot that it makes a lot of sense.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Thats a pretty big generalization there.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

trucks are a waste of money unless you're going to do something with it, like for example haul or tow. If you are going to haul or tow, then diesel is the only way to go. Therefore, every truck worth its salt should be diesel .

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1982 300TD 210K miles ("The Replacement" aka "The Anvil") - SOLD
1979 300SD 245K miles (never ending project)
2007 Pinarello F3:13
1995 Ducati 916 (SOLD, sniff)
1999 Ducati 900SSie (SOLD)