On Monday, February 16, 2015 at 10:57:23 AM UTC-5, Mike the Strike wrote:
It's a shame that the auto makers have been slow to introduce turbo-diesel engines into the USA, although the reasons are pretty obvious. Gasoline is a lot cheaper than diesel (in my home town right now, gasoline is $2 per US gallon and diesel is around $2.60) and diesel engines are also more expensive.

IMHO, the power and especially torque curves of the typical turbo diesel are absolutely superb for towing. I am now towing with a camper van based on the Mercedes Sprinter and find its towing and hill-climbing abilities to be superb. Fuel consumption is also not far shy of 20 mpg (that's 24 mpg for the Brits!) My other tow vehicle (Lexus with 5 liter gasoline V-8) is also superb, but it's a lot bigger, heavier and thirstier than most would like to drive around, especially in Europe.

Mike

The issue with Diesels in the US are mostly related to emissions/EPA. It's expensive to certify diesels here (additional hardware required to pass EPA testing), thus not as common. Couple that with gas being cheaper (compared to other parts of the world) than diesel fuel and automakers have little incentive to bring diesels to the US market.

In the '70's, I towed a pilot's trailer with a diesel Rabbit/Golf, 0-60 was measured using a calendar.... Sigh.....