The single reason early 80's Olds 88 diesel. Total sh!tbox. The question wasn't if it would breakdown, it was when. Knocking, pinging, rattlin' POS. In a "luxury" car, that's not going to fly.
Diesels make sick amounts of torque. They just don't rev with the heavier reciprocating parts. That's what makes them a great OTR power source for a real efficient hybrid elec. They just lend themselves to a statioary engine design perfectly. The US would embrace newer diesel technology, but now diesel fuel is almost a dollar a gallon higher than reg gas.
And the real worry (to me and others) is #2 heating oil IS diesel. People in the older houses are normally older persons on a very tight fixed income. Most of those houses have oil heat. 35 years ago a furnace was the only way to have central heat. Then after the heat pumps started to roll out, oil heat was still cheaper by alot. Until about the last 5 or 6 years it was still alot cheaper.
Not now. It would have cost me probably $1000 last winter. And out came the space heaters. Heat pump this year until it gets really cold.
For a long time we had a similar issue over here - back in the 80's diesels were extremely slow and very noisy although they did go on forever. With tax on diesel being the same as tax on petrol, that was enough to put most people off. However, in France (and I think in much of continental Europe) the tax on diesel was much less, so the cars were popular despite their shortcomings. As such, many of the French manufacturers put their R&D budget into diesels and things moved on. Turbocharging dove-tailed well with the diesel torque curve, and performance improved so by the late 90's diesels performed as well as a similar petrol car, albeit with a larger engine capacity. With the advent of common-rail injection, power output and torque improved dramatically as we moved into the new miilenium. We are now at the stage where I am actually considering buying a diesel for my next car, not because of the economy, but because of the performance. The march of diesels has spread to Japan (traditionally not great diesel producers) and now most manufacturers produce diesel alternatives. In fact, in the larger executive car segment, diesel may even be more popular than petrol due to the higher torque giving smoother performance. Now, even American manufacturers are selling diesels in large volumes. For me, the classic example is the Chrysler 300C. When it came to Britain 2 1/2 years ago, you could get the 5.8l V8, 3.5 litre V6 or 3litre diesel. That diesel produced similar power to the V6, and only slightly less torque than the V8 (and more than a Ferrari F50!), yet returns 35mpg (UK) on the official figures. Small wonder that the V6 just didn't sell and is now discontinued, with about 90% of 300C's in Britain being the diesel. And yet, at the time of launch the diesel wasn't available in the US - I don't know if this is still the case.
However, there may be a couple of clouds on the diesel horizon. Firstly, most recent diesels were fitted with dual-mass flywheels to increase refinement. Many of these are now failing denting the previous image of diesel reliability.
The second cloud has been alluded to by bimmer. Crude oil only produces a certain proportion of diesel (I think it's about 10% maximum). While this can be increased by cracking, this can only produce an extra 2-3% diesel (and the same applies to petrol). It may not be the availability of oil which kills the diesel goose, but the increase in demand relative to petrol which makes it uneconomic. We;re not there yet, even though the price gap between petrol and diesel is typically about 55p/gallon (~91c/US gallon) as the extra economy of the diesel more than offsets the difference. But, if the gap keeps increasing (it was only about 20p/gallon at the start of the year), that economy gain will be wiped out.
Finally, I'd just like to say that I think Pete is right about people looking at the headline, not the facts. Hybrids can be better than standard cars in towns, but out on the open roads a good diesel will generally be more economic (although i appreciate that a diesel is not necessarily an option in the States). But sadly in this part of the world it does seem as if there are people who buy the car as a fashion accessory (the advertising actually invites you to "join the bandwagon") - how else to explain the Prii multitudes I see on the M25 driving past at 85mph?
