Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
As much as I'd like to believe you, I'm pretty skeptical. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that diesel will never be viable here in the US, with much of the blame laying at the feet of the EPA. All the new emissions requirements, and resulting complex emissions technology, has added a layer of cost and maintenance to new diesels that just doesn't add up. The other issue is that the differential between gas and diesel prices here is a lot less than overseas. You can't make up the cost difference as fast. Gas cars will easily go to 200K these days, so the diesel engine longevity advantage is also getting smaller.
GM didn't help the cause either, introducing the POS diesels back in the early 80's that were lemons from the get go. That pretty much killed mainstream acceptance of diesel technology for a long time.
I'd love to buy a small efficient diesel. My family had a diesel Nissan Sentra while I was growing up. Two door, manual everything, and that thing got 60mpg. No joke. I drive a Nissan Frontier, and Nissan keeps playing with me and showing glimpses of the diesels they might bring to the US. We'll wait and see.
Yes I agree. The longevity isn't as much of a issue. We had a old GMC that we bought and was passed around the circle of family. It's at about 390-395k on the original motor which still runs strong. Had a pic somewhere. I'll post it when I find it. My work vehicles routinely get 200-250k on them.
And you're absolutely right GM killed the diesel revolution with the pos 80s diesel cars. I think diesels are just not going to be popular because young kids don't want a engine that revs to 3k. They want a engine that revs to 6-7k. And a lot of people have the impression that diesels are old stinky noisy engines.
I have a 1998 Isuzu Trooper that I absolutely adore. Very few problems. It helps it also only gets about 5K miles per year. If I ever had to replace it, it would probably be with either another Trooper, or, I don't know.
Difficult to find newer SUVs like the Trooper. I like having the off-road capabilities. It sees some rocky trails that I've watched crossovers scrape their bottoms on. I also never had to modify it or lift it. It's also spacious and comfy.
Downsides, gas mileage isn't that great and it consumes about 1qt of oil per 1,000 miles. Always has since I've owned it, and from what I've read, always will and isn't that easy to fix.
As an SUV owner, probably another SUV. It just suits my needs so well. I need lots of space, ground clearance, power, and comfort. The SUV gives me all that. I don't plan on buying the same model I have now though, I do not like the looks of the newest edition.
If you currently own an SUV do you expect to eventually replace it with a car or another truck type vehicle?
As much as I hate paying for gas, I can't imagine myself going back to a car and definately not a van.
I might be willing to consider a small 4x4 pickup truck though.
Inspite of all SUV bashing that goes on they are really quite practical for some lifestyles.
I drive to somewhat remote offroad areas fairly often and its nice to drive something that can easily handle that.
The only real downside I have encountered is the fuel consumption.
I get around 28mpg highway and 22 to 24 around town. Takes 87 octane. Not all awd suv types get bad mileage. Love my cx5. That said, I'll keep it indefinitely and get into another corvette when I pay it off. It will be a snow vehicle.
Definitely buy another SUV. They suit our lifestyle perfectly. The only difference I will be making is buying a much older one than I currently have. I want something with a little more character, something that is more truck like.
Now that my wife stopped working, I want to ditch one of our SUVs and get a sport sedan of some kind. I posted a thread awhile back asking for ideas about "interesting" cars to buy that weren't sports cars.
Ended up getting a BMW 840ci, sold locally for a good deal. It was a lot more fun than our MDX, and definitely unique, but the backseat was worthless for our purposes, couldn't fit a rear facing car seat, and of course, it only had two doors. Enjoyed it for 6 months, sold it for what I paid. Now we're thinking about an M5 to replace the MDX. Reliability is scaring me away though.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
