Geneva 2009: Top ten diesels you can't get in America!
by Sam Abuelsamid on Mar 4th 2009 at 8:19PM 
One of the first things you notice when you start wandering around the Geneva Motor Show is that virtually every major automaker offers diesel engines. Lots of them. Many of them are even in cars that we can get in the U.S. market but only with gasoline engines. As our regular readers know, I'm a fan of modern diesel engines. Being in Geneva gives me a chance to present, in no particular order, 10 examples of cars available in the U.S. (or available soon) that could really benefit from having a diesel option. All the mileage figures have been converted to U.S. mpg. No need to use glowplugs, let's just get started.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Toshi 8:50PM (3/04/2009)
I think highlighting the diesels available in Europe and converting Imperial gallons to US gallons is a worthy cause, and I'd like to see more of them on the road here (with proper emissions controls). That said, I feel it necessary to point out that European fuel economy testing standards are markedly different from those in the US, and the numbers in Europe are often quite a bit higher than those published by the EPA.
Case in point, 2nd gen Toyota Prius. It's rated here as 48/45/46 city/hwy/combined mpg in US gallons, and per wikipedia is rated in the UK as 54.7 mpg combined in US gallons. That's almost a 19% difference purely due to testing methodology, which is non-negligible, to say the least.
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bpe 9:37PM (3/04/2009)
is it possible to buy one of these cars in Europe and bring it Stateside?
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Nick 12:50AM (3/05/2009)
What's the reason why they don't sell those here?
There's got to be a logical, cartesian reason.
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Herm 2:12AM (3/05/2009)
They dont meet pollution standards, I guess equivalent to a '70s gas car.. also the cost of diesel is not subsidized in the US and at the moment it costs more than gasoline, and the cars themselves are more expensive. Not too many people will buy them.
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Brandon 8:29AM (3/05/2009)
Actually European diesels are about as dirty as pre-2006 gas engines, not 70's gas engines. These misconceptions are why we don't get diesels in the US. Plus they have 100X less evaporative emissions than even the best gas engine car today.
wxman 11:22AM (3/05/2009)
Brandon, I agree, and evaporative VOC emissions are often overlooked as far as emissions associated with vehicles are concerned.
I’ve seen comments insisting that evaporative emissions have been essentially eliminated from many vehicles (e.g., PZEV classification). However, there are evaporative VOC emissions that aren’t directly emitted by vehicles – those from the storage and distribution of gasoline. VOC emissions not only are a major precursor to ground-level ozone production (i.e., “smog”) in metropolitan areas, they contain hazardous components like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX). Diesel fuel (and biodiesel) has extremely low vapor pressure and thus near zero VOC and HAP emissions.
This should be taken into account when emission regulations are promulgated since “tailpipe” emission mandates favoring one technology (e.g., gasoline) over another (e.g., diesel) has the potential to actually increase emissions, and thus pollution and poorer air quality, overall.
At any rate, I am also displeased that many vehicles that are offered with both gas and diesel engines in Europe are only offered with gas engines in the U.S., at least partly because of our arcane emission regs apparently.
-M.Dub 2:18PM (3/05/2009)
@Herm
Actually diesel is taxed more than gasoline. As far as I know, diesel never had subsidies to keep costs down. IMHO people would be more inclined to buy diesels if the prices were about the same because of diesels better efficiency.
Someone correct me if I am wrong about the subsidies bit.
Imee 4:33AM (3/05/2009)
I like those cars, especially the Mini Cooper! If those had diesel or any other green fuel, or could be converted to a hybrid, then I'm all for it.
Imee - http://cash-for-clunkers.com
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BlackbirdHighway 7:50AM (3/05/2009)
My neighbor has a diesel truck and he likes to let it warm up for about 20 minutes every morning. I know exactly when that happens because you can hear it several blocks away.
I think US automakers do that on purpose, Americans who buy diesel trucks want them to sound like diesels, so everyone will know that they are driving a diesel.
The side effect is that the American perception of diesels is that they are big and loud and dirty and only suited to big trucks. Those perceptions have been reinforced for many years and are difficult to overcome. So that pretty much dooms the prospects of any major success with diesel cars, outside a few niche products like the old Mercedes that had a small but faithful following.
It's too bad really, diesels have come a long way since the days you could spot one of those 80's era Mercs by the cloud of black smoke and the rattling valves long before you got close enough to read the model number.
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JSacharuk 3:15PM (3/05/2009)
Your neighbour is several kinds of idiot. Diesel engines don't warm up if they're not under load. (They do, I suppose, but very slowly.)
The best thing to do with a diesel after it's started is drive away. 20 minutes may as well be 20 seconds.
I love my diesel Jetta, but I'd buy a diesel 1-series in a heartbeat. The 123d is an impressive piece of engineering, but I could make due with a 120d. :D
maethu 9:43AM (3/05/2009)
the new vw polo is missing
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CA Guy 8:16PM (3/05/2009)
American's are diesel stupid. Shoot they are even Gas car stupid. I have neighbors who start up their fuel injected 2yr old car and race the engine for 5 minutes to "warm it up" before they drive to work. We live in San Francisco! It's 50 degrees people just start it up and go stop wasting fuel - making a racket in the neighborhood and poluting your own front yard.
As for the new Diesels 99% of US drivers would never know they were driving a new diesel unless you told them.
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Yikes 8:50AM (3/06/2009)
I have been saying for years that I want that Accord Diesel.
Americans still have a bad image of diesels based on GM diesels in the 80s, and the current nasty diesels used in heavy duty trucks.
That engine set 19 world speed records.
http://www.testdriven.co.uk/honda-accord-diesel-sets-new-world-records/
quote from article "The same two cars were then driven 419 miles from Papenburg test track to Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt in order to complete the fuel economy run. The route comprised of a mixture of motorway and non-motorway driving, during which one of the Accords achieved a staggering 92 mpg average."
That 92 mpg translates to 76.6 USA mpg.
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Vince 2:24PM (3/07/2009)
Diesel would be a great way to help the US get to a point where sustainable and renewable energy is the biggest part of how we get energy. I think nuclear is another resource we can use until we can get to that point. This is a really great top ten list, you can post this to our site http://www.toptentopten.com/ and then link back to your site. We are looking for top ten lists and our users can track back to your site. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list.
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