Why America doesn't invest in small diesel technology like Europe?

dolphin · Mar 26, 2012

Just curious about your opinions.

1) Is it more Political (big oil) or maybe technical reason?

Example is new Fiat 2.3 liter multijet diesel. Listed as 38mpg city/highway 5 speed manual for Ducato Van. This is a truck I would really want for long distance travel-expediting.

I would think a educated consumer would prefer new technology diesel for fuel savings. If people could see the savings and how good these engines work I think they would do very well in America.

With Gasoline at 10.50 gallon (2.00Euro/liter) here in Greece many people want to switch to diesel engines.

cableguymn · Mar 26, 2012

Simple. The epa has made it cost prohibitive to certify small cheap engines.

It's that simple. Plus where would you put the scrubber and who would fill the def?

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

chefdennis · Mar 26, 2012

What Cableguymn said...Thank the Fed Gov and the worthless EPA Admin...

xmudman · Mar 26, 2012

Also, vans are an afterthought for the manufacturers. Consider this: there hasn't been a ground-up redesign of the Express/Savana since 1996, and of the Econoline since 1992. Pickups, OTOH, are updated at least every 5 years or so.

I'll be very interested to see how bold Ford is with the Transit; will it be available as a one-ton from day one, or will it be sold only as a T150 for a couple years until they get comfortable with the idea of shedding the E-Series entirely? Seeing how the only engine available at intro will be the V6 out of the F150, I'd be willing to bet that for the first year or so, it'll be strictly a half-ton truck.

Next question is, what will GM do with their van?

OntarioVanMan · Mar 26, 2012

Cuzz America has outdated technology and still has dirty diesel....Europes standard is 50 cetane...

American is behind the times in most categories of technology these days...except of course, weapons of mass destruction...which we are the leaders....go figure

layoutshooter · Mar 26, 2012

OntarioVanMan said:
Cuzz America has outdated technology and still has dirty diesel....Europes standard is 50 cetane...

American is behind the times in most categories of technology these days...except of course, weapons of mass destruction...which we are the leaders....go figure

We are behind because of politics. Just look a the tax structure. It is stacked against diesel.

Ahead on WMD's? Better look again. We are NOT modernizing ours, Russia is. We are ever PAYING them to do it!

The ONLY things we lead the world in are, lawsuits, government regulation and the corporate tax rate.

cableguymn · Mar 27, 2012

layoutshooter said:
We are behind because of politics. Just look a the tax structure. It is stacked against diesel.

Ahead on WMD's? Better look again. We are NOT modernizing ours, Russia is. We are ever PAYING them to do it!

The ONLY things we lead the world in are, lawsuits, government regulation and the corporate tax rate.

I disagree..

We lead the world in debit too.

We have the smartest and brightest here. We will over come our government. Obama and co pulled crap like they have here in other countries and those places would have collapsed by now.

We are the best.. Despite our government.

dolphin · Mar 27, 2012

Thanks for all the answers on Diesel tech. Its a shame we can use our own existing technology on diesels to be more efficient as a bridge to electrical, natural gas engines etc.

I know when I ran my business my fuel costs were a big part of expenses. That was when fuel was much less! If I had small van/truck with 30-40MPG it would have been much, much easier. I could have used that extra money for new employees etc.

layoutshooter · Mar 27, 2012

I too wish we would switch to diesel. I had a Rabbit diesel several years ago. It got 60MPG.

We have plenty of coal. Make diesel out of coal. There are two plants out there now. Nothing new, they have been making diesel out of coal for decades. More American jobs too. Building the plants. Running the plants. Mining the coal. etc etc. It would be cheaper fuel as well.

ts675 · Mar 27, 2012

I think a lot of the problems besides the ones already pointed out, are that the American consumer is scared of the diesel sound. What I mean is you have cars now that run so quiet you cane hear them. Then you outcast diesel out there you can hear it a block away. I believe vanity is a roadblock in this issue.

layoutshooter · Mar 27, 2012

Have you heard the newer diesel cars? They sound nothing like they did 20 years ago. If and when I buy a new pick up truck it will be a diesel.

zorry · Mar 27, 2012

My daughter bought a VW New Beetle, diesel. 54 mpg. Upgraded to a diesel Jetta. 57 mpg. You wouldn't know they are diesel unless she told you. I was selling cars in 1986 and we had a vendor with 400,000 miles on his diesel Ranger . He visited our store daily. Always smiled when talking about his truck.

xmudman · Mar 27, 2012

layoutshooter said:
Have you heard the newer diesel cars? They sound nothing like they did 20 years ago. If and when I buy a new pick up truck it will be a diesel.

One of my coworkers has an '09 Sprinter; the dang thing is quieter than almost any gasser in the warehouse

moose · Mar 27, 2012

layoutshooter said:
. I had a Rabbit diesel several years ago.

Crazy drunk hunter,
you where supposed to dip it in a beer.

LDB · Mar 27, 2012

We don't do this because we have dumber than dirt liberal moron tree huggers buoyed by the crackhead in chief who panders to their ridiculous notions.

FlyingVan · Mar 30, 2012

I would venture to say that beside the government and epa, etc, it is because of the american consumer that we don't see those small european diesel engines here.
Americans want more power than they need at the expense of fuel economy, and not many will buy one if offered.

When I bought my 2.7 liter sprinter back in '04 (sprinters were relatively new then) and I would talk with different expediters on the road, most of them would ask me if it had enough power when they heard that it was only a 2.7 liter engine. In America power=cubic inches, so, unless you have a 5 or 6 litter engine you have no power. Well, I am happy to say that after all these years, my 2.7 litter served me well, and there was no time that I thought 'Man, I wished I had more power.'

I am not talking about most of people on EO since I think we are a bit more educated than other expediters. But , think about it, how many expediters know how much it costs them to run their business? Many don't. Most expediters that I met are somewhat shortsighted in the fact that they do not look at the big picture, like taking in consideration all aspects of this business, not only the initial cost of the vehicle and the price of diesel vs gas. If they would consider especially the fuel economy, they would realize that even though the small diesel engine is more money in the beginning, costs a little more to maintain, and diesel is more expensive than gas, when you calculate the fuel economy you are better off with the small diesel. I know I more than made up for the higher initial cost.

I bet all of this will change when the fuel prices here get close to the prices in Europe, and it looks like this is what the people in DC want to do.