my desire to drive a diesel increases.
I’d love to have one in a little truck but I’m also trying to downgrade the amount of BS I carry withme on a daily basis. So a car would be OK, and I’m SO over changing spark plugs. Trouble is I’m pretty well limited to the offerings of VW, and I am utterly invisible to VW sales staff.
I went to three dealers last night, and in each one there were clearly salesmen, many of them could be seen walking around talking to tye-dyed patchouli scented dirtbags, but despite my size I was apparently impossible to see.
Oh, there was the time in the one dealership that a manager came out and said “Is there something I can help you with?” in the general tone of “The tradesman’s entrance is out back” with a soupçon of “Why do you smell like deodorant?”. When I asked about Jetta and Passat diesels he said “We don’t have any used ones in stock and we usually carry newer cars anyway” like I could somehow not afford a new one, then hurried off. Wasn’t like I was dressed like a bum, or anything. Maybe only well dressed wealthy parents buy them for their trustafarian kids, I dunno. Anyway, I may get one, if I can get a salesman to talk to me.
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Reminds me of of an old guy I knew once who wanted a Mercedes. He went to where he could get one and after being ignored for a time he collared one of the sales critters.
He pointed out one he liked and the sales person sniffed how will we be paying for this and he pulled out 25k in cash and said will this do?
This was in 74 or 75 and the old guy used his got to town truck to visit the dealer ship, which was a mid 60’s chevy beat to the curb. He was wearing overalls and most likely had some residue on his boots.
He did take pretty good care of his mercedes, as I recall.
Like that Duck Dynasty guy getting the boot from the hotel he was staying in.
I am amazed at how many car companies only offer their diesel cars overseas, while they offer their hybrid crap in the states. There’s got to be some legislative reason behind it, because I know a lot of people who would jump on a diesel car like me on a bottle of single malt scotch if they were available.
When I was stationed in Korea, we used to drive a little thing we called a “Bongo Truck”. It was a Kia vehicle, with a mostly flat bed, and a two-person cab that was flat-faced. As I recall, it got around 40mpg, carried whatever you needed, and maneuvered through traffic just fine. I’d snatch one of those up if I could, but…. of course…. they’re not sold in the USA. Hell, even Ford makes diesel cars for sale overseas, while giving us more of that same-old same-old crap here at home.
It’s emissions (the EPA, DonChaKnow) that prevents cars and small trucks from being equipped with diesels in the US.
That’s why you only see ’em in 250 or larger trucks. That size and bigger comes under other rules.
All on account of NOX and other “pollutants” which are a consequence of the high compression.
My Cummins is cleaner driving down the road than a for Taurus, except for that.
It’s not just that; it’s also GM and its bean-counter diesels of the 1970s, the ones where the accountants said, “We can make diesels cheaper just by putting diesel internals into a gasoline block” and then ignored the screams from the powertrain engineers. Yeah. When they worked, they worked fine, but frequently they did not, and that soured a lot of people on diesel.
But besides emissions (I never thought I’d see “exhaust fluid” for sale at the parts stores, but it exists now) and the problem with starting in cold weather, the biggest issue is that most diesel vehicles sold abroad simply don’t meet US safety standards. That’s why the Ford Focus diesel that gets 65 MPG and performs rather nicely in the bargain is not available here.
…and yes, I would love to have a Suzuki Carry (one of the small pickup trucks Dave mentioned) but–again–they don’t meet US safety standards. You can have one for off-roading if you like. *sigh*
The cold weather starting issue is pretty much non existent any more.
Most modern elecronically controlled injection diesels will start reliably at well below -20 F without being plugged in overnight.
They do take a bit of time to warm up, but that is true of any diesel.
THe safety issue has nothing to do with the engine cycle, but rather with the construction of the rest of the car.
Now you know how poor Oprah felt in that handbag shop.
Lol. Except ill never be the worlds biggest welfare queen.
Nope. Oprah showed up 1 half hour after closing and the store was getting ready for something so it was tore up.
Everyone I know who has been turned down by snob have shown up during normal show hours.
Some of the women where I work have a group photo of them and Oprah. I have to control my gag reflex everytime I see that face.
And, no I am not racist. Hillary makes be barf everytime I see here picture as well.
I had a deisel Jetta. Loved the car, regret selling it, but I needed a truck, and didn’t want two vehicles.
As to the dealerships, I had to take the truck in for a small warranty issue after pulling a 19 hour (all night) shift. I just threw on sweats and put my hair in a ponytail and dropped it off at 9 am when I got home. After 7 hours of sleep, a shower, makeup and some fresh jeans, I went back to get it. The manager said “oh, hi, your truck is ready and wasn’t it nice of your Mom to drop it off this morning for you!”
And you kicked their asses up past their shoilderblades?
Couple of years back, while stationed in Germany, son got to drive a Ford Ranger with a 3rd-gen turbo-diesel; fast, clean and strong.
And yeah, it’s emissions bullshit that’s why we can’t get them here.
A friend had a well used VW Rabbit pickup. The engine died so he kludged a 4 cyl. diesel Isuzu engine from a marine generator set into it.
That was twenty years and 350,000 miles ago and it still runs just fine. Cost him about $2200 in 1993 dollars for the conversion. He still licenses the vehicle as gasoline powered figuring that what the State doesn’t know is none of their damn business anyway.
Being ignored is why I ended up with a Dodge diesel dually instead of a Ford. Went to the Ford dealer first and they just weren’t interested in selling anything to me. The Dodge salesman cornered me while I was looking at the trucks, he left the dealership building at a run to get to me. In Anchorage, in January. Found one I liked at a price I liked and wrote a check that day.
Been there, Done that.
I shopped a truck some decades ago. Had the title to my trade in one hand, and a checkbook in the other to pay in full.
The sales manager wanted nothing but to lock up and go home, and I was shooed from the premises after a test drive, and told to ‘come back another time’. The salesman I was talking to was clearly frustrated, and apologized, trying to save the sale.
It happened I knew the dealer principle (Owner), and gave him a call about the situation the next day. Two hours later the sales manager showed up at my work with the truck I wanted, an apology of his own, and no ride back to the store.
I talked to the salesman a week later to make sure he got credit, and he near giggled while telling me the manager had moved on to other pastures.
The funny thing is, if I walk into a dealership I get talked to almost immediately even if I’m just there to hit the parts counter or the can. And most of the time it happens when I don’t look anything like respectable.
I could probably finagle test drives of all sorts of nifty cars based on that, but that’s something I grew out of doing after my early twenties.
(Might be different for a BMW or Porsche dealership; never tried that.)
There will be more diesel brand choices later this year and next year. European emission limits are now within spittin’ distance of ours, so there’s much less work to bring them here now.
The Mazda 6 will have a nice diesel. Rumor is that Mazda will also have it for their CX-5 too.
Ram is introducing a V6 diesel in their 1500 (w/an 8 speed auto). It’s the same V6 diesel that’s will be on the Grand Cherokee later this year (3.0L V6 240 hp/420 lb-ft). The GC will get about 30 mpg highway with the diesel; I figure the Ram 1500 will get 28-29 mpg (it might match GC w/30 mpg).
The Ford Transit van is supposed to get a five cylinder diesel engine later this year.
the biggest issue is that most diesel vehicles sold abroad simply don’t meet US safety standards. That’s why the Ford Focus diesel that gets 65 MPG and performs rather nicely in the bargain is not available here.
Since 2010, the Focus sold in the ROW market and the US Focus are the same car.
(The “65 mpg” Focus ECOnetic (1.6L) gets 11.8 seconds to 60 with 100 hp – nobody but a hippie is willing to be that slow to save a few mpg at that price point.
The normal Focus diesel 2L gets about 40mpg, just like any other C-segment small diesel, such as the Golf. Which you can get in the US with a Diesel, but not in the Euro-spec BlueMotion underpowered version, for the same reason.)