Ford announces 54 MPG diesel car in "Europe"!

[Westfield 11]

but which washington politician is going to dare taking on the short sighted hard core tree huggers ?

Actually I think it was the car makers here in America that just colluded with the lobbyists to defeat the attempt to raise the avg. fuel economy (CAFE). It seems from my vantage point to be the US populace who are determined to hold on to their SUV's, pick-ups and other gashogs at any cost. And damn the economy, environment and national security as long as we keep fuel prices artificially low by getting in bed with carpetbagging multinational oil companies. Rather than pay the going rate for fuel @ the pump like the rest of the world, we pay less @ the pump, but make up the difference with increased taxes due to the tax breaks given to the oil companies. This way there is no incentive to drive less since you pay already every year on April 15.

[67hat34c]

the big 3 have invested heavily in the big v8 suv's and pu trucks, they made everyone believe this is what they need. big 3 have pitiful sales results lately as all have seen, sales way down, American Honda posted a 9% gain. you know they do not offer one v8 car. oh by the way my Acura MDX with 105k miles, full size suv with plenty of pick up and power, this morining running 65mph with no air on and using cruise i got 31mpg average from orlando to sarasota. It was 68 degrees this morning and very nice out so opened sun roof and shut off ac. All the honda products get exceptional MPG and are very very low emissions. Honda is also developing a diesel, cant waite for that because you know it will be state of the art and will be a good one. I read a business publication a few years ago that stated Honda could not survive due to its small size, the other corps are so much bigger and will be able to sustain. Guess Honda is proving them wrong again.

[SKYCHENEY]

Actually the diesel problem here was that those new european engines could only run on ULSD and we didn't mandate that until just recently. Now I think you will slowly see some of these new diesels trickle into the US. It will take some time, but I bet we won't be having this discussion in another 5 years.

[jim rosenthal]

I hope so. The only thing that I wish my late lamented Tacoma was missing was a diesel engine- and they sell them with diesels on every other continent. Ticks me off. I wanted a diesel LandCruiser a few years ago and couldn't get one of those either.

I had a diesel Rabbit (forerunner to the Golf)- got up to 50 mpg. Also a 240D that routinely bettered 30mpg on the highway. Even my 300CD will get nearly thirty if I don't go too fast. If I were looking at a new car, a new VW diesel would be on the list. The MBs are too complex and break too often.

The Europeans and Brits have small efficient diesel cars (and gas cars) because fuel has cost a mint there since Hector was a pup. Don't worry; we'll get there. We're getting there as we speak.