Why, with a very few exceptions, can't we buy small diesel-powered vehicles in North America?
When I visited St.Pierre, a French possession just off Newfoundland's South coast several years ago, there was a slew of 1.2 -1.5 liter turbo-diesel cars, trucks, vans and what-have-you on the island's roads. Most of Europe manages to get around in this sort of vehicle, as does much of the rest of the world, while burning a lot less fuel.
The modern diesel is nothing like the noisy, sluggish, smelly, rough, high-emission engines of even a decade ago. With gas prices here right now at $1.20 Cdn a liter ($4.50+ a gallon), I'd dearly love to be able to pick up a good, used small diesel-engined van, wagon or small UTE.
As things stand now, only VW has any significant number of diesel cars/wagons available here, and used prices on those are accordingly very high. Both the North Amercian-based and Japanese automakers produce diesel versions of most of their vehicles for sale in Europe; why don't they make them available on this side of the Pond???
2 comments:
Is there is a pact between the big 3 and the gas producers to maintain the status quo? There's little or no guts in the system to force a change, it would seem. The result is we live as did the dinosaurs, watching the inevitable happen. I agree it's a sad state!
So THAT'S what happened to the dinosaurs - they did themselves in driving all those 5.7 liter Hemis!!!
Seriously, don't think there's a pact between the Big Three(now that's an ironic name for Ford, GM and Chrysler these days, isn't it?) and the Seven Sisters - more the fact that American pollution regulations were used to effectively exclude diesels, so that Detroit et al didn't have to make any changes, and their propaganda re the need for more and more power has produced consumers who believe they really need that Hemi under the hood...
Detroit does know best, you know - no one wants little tin cans like those Toyotas and Nissans, everyone needs a Hemi to be happy, this climate change stuff is a crock, and gas will always be dirt cheap, long as we've got the Marines...
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