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Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
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When I came across this I went from being merely unhappy with Ford and GM to being enraged at Ford! I mean, here is the US car maker with its hands out for billions of dollars in US taxpayer backed loans and it is denying US citizens the choice to buy a car that gets 65 miles to the gallon?? WTF kind of crap is this?? Europe is good enough but we are not?? Quit using the lame excuse about "we don't want to buy diesel" and put the damn car on sale HERE in the USA instead of trying to cram big trucks and SUVs down our throats! The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can't Have
It's because its diesel.. they said.. BS! They're releasing a new line of diesel powered cars such as the new 2010 Diesel f-150. http://www.fordf150.net/diesel/
Well KevK just maybe it will come here..they (GM & Ford) are asking Congress for $50 billion in low cost loans (to help them fix their costly mistakes I guess).
I'd buy diesel in a heartbeat. Enough diesels get sold then maybe the price of diesel fuel comes down don't you think ?
if you've been to europe, you'll quickly realize that ford's european car portfolio destroys its domestic portfolio. Cars like the new mondeo, euro-focus, fiesta, ka, etc are top vehicles in their respective segments. Ford America is lightyears behind its brother.
Then you're part of the vast minority. Americans don't like diesels and don't understand them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyTexan
Enough diesels get sold then maybe the price of diesel fuel comes down don't you think ?
No. It's a supply and demand issue.
The price of diesel would sky-rocket. You could build new refineries and in about 15 years the price would finally drop, but you'd have filed bankruptcy by then.
It would be faster to modify the existing refineries to handle heavy and intermediate grade oils to make diesel, but that would decrease the quantity of "American Way of Life Chemical Goo Stuff" and prices of all the products you "need" would rise.
I noted the same thing in Mexico. Very, very large numbers of tiny cars, in fact entire taxi fleets, that I have never seen in the US. Whether they are models that are available here or not, I do not know (models are often marketed under different names in different countries). But it looked like there was an abundance of High-MPG cars available to Mexicans. In spite of the fact that their gas is about 70-80 cents cheaper per gallon than in the US.
Don't blame the auto manufacturer for the habits and preferences of the American consumers. If it was financially viable and the car passed all the safety requirements*, they would be doing it.
* There's a LOT of cars that are sold in Europe that can't be sold here due to them not meeting our safety standards. Safety equipment adds weight, which brings down mileage. Ironically, a lot of the same people who are complaining about not having efficient cars are the same people who pushed for those safety requirements in the first place.
>They're releasing a new line of diesel powered cars such as the new 2010 Diesel f-150. http://www.fordf150.net/diesel/<
sigh. That diesel is for a truck. They already do those because there is a built in demand, especially from commercial buyers of F150s.
This is a NEW engine and a totally different animal from what is powering the F150.
Yes, I would like to see them try it. I smell a hit. US automakers already got burned on diesel in the past and are apparently gun shy. It does not help that Im betting at least one goes bye bye in the next 18 mos.
Simple question/ comment. Have you bought a new car in the past 5 years? If so, was a domestic car even in the running? (Note an import could have been purchased, but did you even give a domestic car a shot?) If you answered Yes then no. go away, you are not part of the equation anyway. If you answered any other combo... keep posting.
I'd buy diesel in a heartbeat. Enough diesels get sold then maybe the price of diesel fuel comes down don't you think ?
Actually, not likely......A 55 gallon barrell of oil breaks down something along the lines of 20+ gallons of gasoline, and 8-9 gallons of diesel, the rest is used as "by product" to produce almost everything else we consume, solvents, plastics, rubbers, etc. etc. etc.
The other consideration is the recent (oct 2007) switch to ULSD(Ultra Low Sulpher Diesel), which makes the refining process a couple of steps longer, which obviously increases cost.(Decreases mileage, and increases maintenance concerns at the same time)
The more diesel vehicles that come along will drive the price to new highs, as the demand for a scarcer product becomes higher. The biggest advantage diesel has, is the ability to burn a wider array of bio fuels, vs. a gasoline engine. So using "blended" fuels, combinations of "dino" diesel and "bio" diesel is the future forecast...
I sold my last gasoline burner a couple of months ago, it's all diesel for me now.
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