So Long Compact Truck, In the US At Least

[bbsam]

Diesel medium duty trucks and diesel passenger cars are two different animals. Most diesel trucks liked what you described get 17-20 mpg and cost north of $50k brand new. I am referring to passenger vehicles that cost around $25k or less and get near 50 mpg.

Exactly. And I believe that such a "passenger vehicle" in pickup guise with the added cost of diesel ownership would be attractive to so few customers as to make it a niche vehicle at best and hardly profitable. That's how the larger pickups survive, they have commercial as well as personal appeal. Consider Volkswagen's diesels. They exist but sell to a very select few. More players wouldn't bring more customers, they would compete for the same buyers.

 

[brett636]

Exactly. And I believe that such a "passenger vehicle" in pickup guise with the added cost of diesel ownership would be attractive to so few customers as to make it a niche vehicle at best and hardly profitable. That's how the larger pickups survive, they have commercial as well as personal appeal. Consider Volkswagen's diesels. They exist but sell to a very select few. More players wouldn't bring more customers, they would compete for the same buyers.

Apparently we are discussing two different topics here. You seem to think I am referring to only 2500 series trucks to be used a normal passenger vehicles. I am speaking about regular passenger cars having a diesel engine option instead of a hybrid because diesels are so much more efficient in that scenario.

 

[bbsam]

But the diesel VW Jetta doesn't outsell the gasoline powered VW Jetta. Never has, never will. I think we are discussing the same thing.

 

[rod]

A few points:

diesel fuel cost more per gallon
diesel fuel is dirty---look around any diesel pump for the oily puddle you don't want to track into your vehical
diesel fuel smells bad
diesel engines for the most part are noisy and smokey
just mentioning the word "diesel" makes most people think of those "dirty old truckers"

I don't picture most Americans (especially the ladies) falling in love with diesel anytime soon.

 

[Babagounj]

the old diesels emitted black soot, the newer ones only water vapor is emitted. Soon most newer heavy duty diesel trucks will all be equipped as such and the sight of a trucker flooring his rig and blowing out all that black smoke will be a distant memory.
All I want is a small pickup truck with a 4 cylinder diesel, not one of the massive V8's currently on the market. A real work truck with plenty of torque to haul boat trailers up very slippery launching ramps. Also for use in heavy snow conditions. A good diesel engine is hardly broken in after 100, 000 miles , so this maybe the second to last vehicle I will ever need.

 

[wkmac]

I'd love to have a VW Lupo 3L and it beats the hybrids in fuel economy too!

 

[brett636]

But the diesel VW Jetta doesn't outsell the gasoline powered VW Jetta. Never has, never will. I think we are discussing the same thing.

Now your changing the subject. Typical liberal.

Your statement is also false. Diesel Economics: Sales Up 39% for First Half of 2011 | The Diesel Driver

The past six months saw several diesel-powered cars consistently outsell their gasoline equivalents, including the Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI (81% diesel), Volkswagen Golf TDI (56%), and the Audi A3 TDI (54%). Strikingly, BMW 335d sales are neck and neck with the gasoline version this year, with the diesel 335 claiming a significantly larger market share than during the first half of 2010.

 

[Lue C Fur]

I wonder whatever happened to that Indian company that was supposed to bring in a compact pickup truck with a diesel engine? There was a lot of talk about it a couple of years ago, but today I have heard little if anything about it. Perhaps the EPA along with the emissions requirements of states like California scared them away? Either way our government is very perplexing with how it handles high efficiency vehicles. First off it mandates that vehicles hit some pie in the sky numbers for fuel efficiency, but then make it difficult for manufacturers to bring in the diesel engines that would easily exceed some of these mpg figures. Manufacturers respond by building cars like the Chevy Volt that nobody wants, or other hybrid models, but then the government complains that because of these vehicles they are not getting enough money in gas taxes to pay for the roads so they want a per-mile tax and want to track us all via GPS all because of the mpg figures they forced the manufacturers to hit. Its obvious the bureaucrats who come up with this nonsense simply does not think through their decisions and the consequences therein. Let the market decide who drives what and as fuel gets more expensive people will switch to more fuel efficient vehicles. It really is not rocket science.

Is this the company that you were talking about? If so, this is the latest news:

Mahindra pickups to be assembled in Alabama beginning next year