Saw a nice 94 Mercedes s350 diesel for sale. Has 550k miles. Owner says it runs quite well.
They aren’t spending millions because they already spent those millions years ago, when they developed all those diesels for the European markets. In France diesels account for about 70% of passenger cars, but their governments have pushed diesel development with substantial tax breaks both on the fuel and on registration. The cars themselves work just fine, with great torque giving excellent pulling power at lower speeds. I don’t know which Passat the OP has, but most modern diesels have negligible apparent turbo lag because they have so much torque they can get going easily without waiting for the turbo to spool up. The turbos tend to be small ones that get spinning pretty easily, too.
I don’t see diesels making much economic sense in the US, except possibly for people with long commutes, but there is nothing much wrong with them, either. It makes sense for BMW and Mercedes to sell them here to help increase their CAFE. It’s either that or more turbo gas fours, which they’re also pushing in their small and mid-sized models. I’d take one of those over a diesel. They’re also finally developing some hybrids, though it took a lot of Europeans demanding them before they stopped dragging their feet. Sales are powerful motivational tools.
My wife has a diesel BMW X5. We didn’t have to do a cost-benefit analysis because there was a rebate and a tax credit at the time, making the price comparable to the gas version.
We’re generally happy with it so far. It has excellent power at passing and merging speeds, so I find myself rarely even needing to downshift. It’s a bit noisier than the gas engine when idling, but not enough to matter to us. The range of over 600 miles is convenient.
We’ve had very little trouble finding stations with diesel (and the proper nozzle size), especially now that we use GasBuddy, although sometimes we have to wait a few minutes for the diesel pump. I will warn you that you’ll want to carry disposable plastic gloves to use when filling up, as 90% of the pump handles you find will be covered in fuel.
“They aren’t spending millions because they already spent those millions years ago, when they developed all those diesels for the European markets.”
It still costs a lot to qualify these engines for use in the US market, even if they were qualified in Europe.
They aren't spending millions because they already spent those millions years ago, when they developed all those diesels for the European markets.
Oh sure they are…different markets…different vehicles…plus the US EPA and safety standards.
R&D is expensive.
While a car company might not offer a diesel powered car in its U.S. model lineup, you can be SURE they offer them in other parts of the world…Nobody has to spend millions reinventing the diesel engine…They may spend millions retooling for a new model that may have a diesel engine but they do that anyway…The diesel engine is just part of the package…Twenty years ago, Honda was developing a Civic Hybrid powered by a constant speed diesel engine…70 MPG. They never brought it to market…
Demand for gasoline in China is growing quickly, but diesel demand is flat. This led to increasing diesel exports. As this trend continues, it could mean a ready source for diesel fuel.
I drove a BMW 335d a while back, it was a very impressive car IMHO. Not as fast as the 335i, but it certainly did not lack for power, it was quiet, and the owner said that he gets 32 MPG overall, with thrift reaching as high as 40 MPG on highway road trips.
Qualifying an entirely new car is costly, but engines must not be. Car makers do that routinely for models they know won’t sell many. BMW knows perfectly well they aren’t going to sell many diesel versions of anything except the SUVs and maybe the 3-series, but they’re still selling them. At enough premium to pay for certifying them, but you can still do the math. Unit sales in the hundreds or low thousands.
Bring the Diesels on!(or the electrics) why cant we have torque? its a lot cheaper to fuel a diesel then a big cid gasser-Kevin
“Why do you think China has any extra diesel? They import the majority of their oil…”
Yes, they import the oil, refine it, and use as much of it as they can. Since gasoline usage is increasing quickly and diesel usage is stagnant, they have leftover diesel to export. I don’t know if it makes sense to sell in on the Left Coast, but it’s worth consideration. India uses mostly diesel, and export to India is a consideration, too. Given the big desert and exceptionally high mountains between them, I think tanker transport is more likely than a pipeline. Once it’s on the boat, going to the USA or India isn’t too much different in cost. It’s about 5000 miles from Shanghai to Calcutta by ship and 6000 to 7000 miles to Los Angeles from Shanghai.