A(nother) GM Diesel Sedan? How Great is That?
In his fastlane blog, GM Car Czar Maximum Bob Lutz recently whipped-out his jargon generator and "it'll cost X thousand per car more to do this thing everybody wants us to do" excuse to explain why diesel engines ain'tgonnahappen in the American market. At the tail end of the something-less-than-riveting video clip, MB surprised us all, grabbing his lantern and proclaiming "The diesels are coming! The diesels are coming!" According to Bob (not the most reputable source), GM's developing a V6 diesel for passenger cars and a V8 diesel for its SUVs. Autoweek's done the right thing: asking if GM's last foray into diesel-powered passenger cars has killed the concept for all time. Alan Starling, a former chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, says he's not worried about GM's dire diesel history. "Those memories are painful for all of us," he says. "But I would rather have that discussion than not see customers at all."
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Also missing is mention that a 90hp 150 ft/lbs volkswagen can be made into a 140-150hp 230-250ft/lbs. volkswagen for the princely sum of $500. injectors and a chip are all you need. fuel consumption only increases under WOT, most drivers with these upgrades actually report increased mpg (likely due to the ecu reprogramming).
Diesel might go over well with a lot of my fellow echo boomers(roughly 18-24 year olds), seeing as diesel power kind of has an anti-establishment, underground vibe to it.
I’ve grown tired of GM bashing. I don’t mean permanently, but just for today I feel like something different. So, I’m going to assume the 6/8 cyl. diesels are a good choice for getting Americans to accept them. I mean, can you really imagine the average SUV buyer feeling comfy with a 4 cyl. ? I mean the buyers of big SUVs of course. I do agree they need to concentrate on quality build more than anything else, but hey, at least they’re trying something new. The alternative is to be 5 years behind the curve as other manufacturers offer diesel options - and I’m guessing that will be reality very soon.