New diesels

[Sludgy]

I bought a diesel magazine over the weekend. It said that GM, Ford and Dodge are all bringing light duty diesel engines to market in about a year and a half:

GM 4.5 liter V8
Ford 4.4 liter V8
Dodge (Cummins) 4.2 liter V6 and 5.6 liter V8

The new diesels are going into 1/2 ton pickups. All I can say is "What took them so long?"

A full size truck that can get 25 mpg highway......... Still letting that sink in.

The Dodge V6 should be best for FE, unless they pur some ridiculous gear ratio in the rear end.

I've been waiting for a hybid, but the diesels should be more reliable for off road driving. I can't wait to trade the Blue Beast!

[Telco]

Low sulfur diesel is the main thing that took so long. They have to meet a certain cleanliness standard to bring them out, and the high sulfur diesel in the US was bad for the methods for cleaning the emissions. Not an issue on heavier, exempt vehicles. I'm really looking forward to this, going to be grabbing one from salvage just as soon as some joker rolls his truck over. With any luck, should be able to get 45-50MPG out of my little truck with a modern diesel, and still be able to give sports cars a run for their money.

Incidentally, the full size Chevy trucks are already getting 25MPG already with a little tweaking, and the full size SUVs are rated over 20MPG. I'm betting that these new diesels will be able to get somewhere around 35MPG or better in a full size halfton truck. And, smaller car diesels won't be far behind. The domestics make most of their cash off trucks and SUVs so that will be the first target for them, smaller diesels for the cars won't be far behind. Dodge tends to be the worst of the domestic trucks, with Ford in the middle.

The imports are also looking good. I read an article in one of the magazines about the 2009 Toyota Camry diesel, in testing at Nuremberg they were able to go 150MPH average on the 24hr endurance testing, and the same car pulled down 75MPG on the drive to the track. Sorry, I don't remember the name of the mag or how long ago I read it. If Toyota builds it, Nissan, Honda and Subaru won't be far behind.

I think we are on the verge of a new golden era for the automobile, where mileage doubles or triples over a short time, emissions drop drastically and power is the same or better. Course, I'm also a bit of an optimist .

[ffvben]

I'd like to see that diesel on the Chevy volt. lots of torque to charge the batteries and if they burn cleaner than gas motors that would be a plus.

[2TonJellyBean]

Hyundai's new 3L V6 turbo diesel is what I'd rather have in my Santa Fe. It's going into the Veracruz soon for the euro market. Once the diesel fuel itself gets cleaned up, I expect these new mid-sized diesels to become very common in NA.

[halfish]

i would not buy a US diesel for a while. Plus you will have typical Detroit "quality".

[DarbyWalters]

My 2006 Jeep Liberty CRD with the 2.8L Intercooled Turbo Diesel gets 21mpg city stop-n-go and 26+ highway @ 65mph. I had a 2002 Jeep Liberty with the 3.7L and could barely get 16 city and 20 hwy.

[DieselJetta]

Originally Posted by halfish

i would not buy a US diesel for a while. Plus you will have typical Detroit "quality".

Detroit has never had much quality, especially in their bigger engines. We have to work on the counties trucks every now and then, they have a bunch of Detroit's that are actually gas engines that detroit rebuilt to be diesels, they are worthless

[91CavGT]

Originally Posted by DieselJetta

Detroit has never had much quality, especially in their bigger engines. We have to work on the counties trucks every now and then, they have a bunch of Detroit's that are actually gas engines that detroit rebuilt to be diesels, they are worthless

I think the referance was about the "big 3" being in/around the Detroit area.


Keep in mind that Cummins builds the diesels for Dodge, International builds them for Ford, and Duramx (it was a joint effort between GM and Isuzu) built them for GM.

It has been 20+ years since any big company has tried to convert a gas motor over to a diesel for mass use. Every one that I have seen has been a failure, but as I said, this was 20+ years ago. Technology, even here in the states, has came a LONG way since then.

[ILAveo]

Unfortunately, some of the most highly regarded light duty US diesel engines are for off-road use only. Maybe sometime an automaker will work with John Deere to bring some of its engines to the road.