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After the debacle of GM's diesels in the late 70s & early 80s, it will be a cold day in hell before most Americans would consider buying another diesel car from General Motors. Sometimes using the public as guinea pigs comes back to haunt you.
I honestly don't think this will be that big of a factor, GM (like most companies) has had many other problems and we all know that most have been fixed as technology advances.
When people will start noticing that any diesel offers a lot more torque while also offering about 50% higher economy, diesel will be popular in no time.
There is a reason people who had driven diesel tend to stick with it.
I remember one of our family friends had a 84' Olds Cutlass Ciera Diesel. That car was awful! Not only did it have zero power and torque, but for some reason it was filthy. The whole car inside and out ranked of diesel fumes and soot was always all over the place. I bet these are fairly rare cars as his is the only one I think I've ever actually seen in person.
But today's modern diesels are light years ahead of the engines from back then. Here's another thing I really wish someone would bring to the USA: SMALL diesel pickups. All we have available are these huge monster-truck type diesel trucks, which for me are totally useless for what I need.
I honestly don't think this will be that big of a factor, GM (like most companies) has had many other problems and we all know that most have been fixed as technology advances.
When people will start noticing that any diesel offers a lot more torque while also offering about 50% higher economy, diesel will be popular in no time.
There is a reason people who had driven diesel tend to stick with it.
While it's true that there are diesel lovers (me being one of them), those people are almost certainly going to steer away from GM diesels.
To note... Diesels do not offer 50% better fuel economy than today's gassers. 25%-30% is more likely. Unfortunately, diesel fuel generally costs 25-50 cents per gallon more than gas, so that eats away at the economy. Then you throw in the higher purchase price of the diesel car (usually at least $5,000 more) and it makes diesels a tough sell.
To be sure, diesels aren't for everybody. People with short commutes should not own one. Others might.
Why would supposed diesel lovers steer away from diesels from GM? The company has a higher reliability track record than current other diesel cars in the US from other manufactures and the engines we would get have been in the EU for years, hence its got a an established track record.
I remember one of our family friends had a 84' Olds Cutlass Ciera Diesel. That car was awful! Not only did it have zero power and torque, but for some reason it was filthy. The whole car inside and out ranked of diesel fumes and soot was always all over the place. I bet these are fairly rare cars as his is the only one I think I've ever actually seen in person.
But today's modern diesels are light years ahead of the engines from back then. Here's another thing I really wish someone would bring to the USA: SMALL diesel pickups. All we have available are these huge monster-truck type diesel trucks, which for me are totally useless for what I need.
There's rumors that the new Colorado and Canyon will get diesels.
Something I simply don't get is from what I can find, we are probably not going to get the Chevy Cruze diesel wagon which is sold in other countries. We will get the diesel itself, but it will be only for the current four door model sold now. To me, a small diesel wagon is something a whole ton of us want. The only thing close to that is the VW Jetta TDI wagon, which has infamously bad reliability problems. Yet they sell a LOT of them and clearly seeing as how I see a lot of Jetta TDI wagons on my way to work indicates that a chevy cruze wagon would sell rather well. If GM were to announce a wagon variant, it would stand a really great chance of being my next car.
The only reason America doesn't get some models , or complete car lines, to sell here is........ federal emission testing and certification.
This process is long , costly and very involved for each and every car that is sold in America. Because it is so costly to get a EPA approval for each car model they make manufactures can't afford to make all the cars they build worldwide available in America. Sad, but very true.............
After the debacle of GM's diesels in the late 70s & early 80s, it will be a cold day in hell before most Americans would consider buying another diesel car from General Motors. Sometimes using the public as guinea pigs comes back to haunt you.
agreed the Oldsmobile 350 CID diesel V-8 gave the domestic diesel outside of full-size trucks a bad name
I cant tell you how many people I personally know who have had horrible experiences with VW, my mother in law as well, who owns a Jetta TDI that is routinely in the shop for whatever repairs. That alone is reason why I'll never buy a VW product. Latest reliability rankings more or less confirms this, as VW is close to the bottom of the list overall. Hence why it would be nice if someone else would offer a Diesel wagon variant.
I can't tell you how many people I know who drive VW's and love them, and have had nothing but good things to say about the brand. I know at least 10 people from work who've purchased VW's several times over, I'm currently on my 2nd, one friend is on his 3rd, several are still driving their older late 90's early 00's Jetta's, one Supervisor had both a GTI and a Tiguan, and the head of my department drove a TDI Jetta. None have ever complained of any problems, I've mentioned the issues I've had on this board before, and they were few and far between, but can recite them again if you'd like.
I have had one friend who swore off VW's after having tons of issues with his CC, but he seems to be the anomaly. His issues stemmed from the DSG transmission, which the dealership was never able to properly address.
I guess I just find your posts humorous. The car's your most interested in are being built by a company you're not a fan of, then question why other companies don't make the car you want. Don't hold out waiting for a Chevy Cruze diesel wagon, i doubt you'll see it on these shores anytime in the near future. Another thing to note, driving styles are very different here in the US vs Europe. As such, the way the diesel engines will remove the diesel particulates will have to be adapted for the US marketplace...I'm not going to say that the American Diesels will be less reliable than their European counterparts, but they're not as "tested" as you might suggest...the Volkswagen models however, are, and they've been proven for generation after generation to be reliable for 250k+ miles!
This thread has gone totally sideways with bad or irrelevant information:
1. GM diesels from the 80's were bad but then again so were their performance cars from the late 70's-early 80's so when did everyone write off the Camaro/Corvette due to a few poor performing models?
2. VW TDI cars have been overall a huge success. I think the TDI Sportwagen is great if you need a cheap wagon that gets 40+ mpg. They might have a few injector issues but "clean diesel" was not an easy task. Also keep in mind their TDI engines are used in Porsche/Audi lineups as well......obviously the reliability/performance is there.
3. US buyers like SUVs which are certainly not hot sellers in Europe vs. wagons. SUVs (essentially tall wagons) sell in the US so there is no need for the small wagons if the buyers don't want them.
Why would supposed diesel lovers steer away from diesels from GM? The company has a higher reliability track record than current other diesel cars in the US from other manufactures and the engines we would get have been in the EU for years, hence its got a an established track record.
In your tiny little miopic view of the world, VW's are terrible cars. Meanwhile, Volkswagen/Audi group is neck and neck with Toyota for the largest auto mfg in the world... probably because they sell a lot of cars. Cars that consumers aren't afraid to buy/own/live with. GM is in Distant third ~ they don't make any products (currently) that I'd buy because of A) styling and B) quality ~ they're getting better and that may change in the next design iteration or two, but not right now.
Anyway, Mazda is also bringing in a new diesel for their Mazda 3 and *NOT* bring the Mazda 3 wagon at all, in ANY engine configuration. Audi is dropping the A3 wagon in TDI for the 2014 model year.. apparently they aren't a platform that sell well in the US. Takes a certain number to make it profitable enough to justify the EPA testing, and they just don't think they will sell that number. Sucks, but it is what it is... whining doesn't really change anything.
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