Diesel cars in America, or the lack there of.

The entire goal of car manufacturers over the last decade has been trying to make cars that are much more fuel efficient. Everything from alternative methods like electric cars, or hybrids, to simply putting their nose to the grindstone and making standard gasoline engines even better. All of the car manufacturers have done a great job improving fuel economy, a perfect example being the 315hp Ford Mustang V-6 capable of 31mpg.

Electric Chevy Volt

Hybrid Toyota Prius (45mpg)

Ford Mustang V-6 (31mpg)

But after watching an episode of Top Gear (Series 12, Episode 4), where the presenters pick diesel cars for a economic race across Europe and used a VW Bluemotion Golf capable of 80mpg and a twin turbo V-8 diesel Jaguar sedan with a range of 1200 miles per tank, I have been researching to try and figure out why the diesel market has not taken off here in the US yet. After sifting through countless articles that seemed to present more of an opinion rather than a real answer, I came across this article from Popular Mechanics. While you may read the article for yourselves, its not that long and I encourage you to do so, I will go ahead and sum it up here. 

The first reason the article gives for the lack of diesel in the US is the difference in gas prices between the US and Europe. The taxes that are placed on the two different types of gas in the different areas lead to regular gas being cheaper here in the US by about 10 cents per gallon, while diesel in Europe runs, on average, an entire dollar cheaper then regular gasoline. 

The second reason listed by the article is the fact that making a diesel engine cost more in parts and labor, and therefore will make the car more expensive to buy. According to an example given in the article, it would take an average of 4 years for a standard diesel car to start saving you money. Another factor that plays into the price of the engines are the environmental regulations that are in place concerning vehicle emissions. The emission laws in the US are much more strict than the laws in Europe, meaning that less time and money need to be spent on making sure the diesel engines, which are typically much more pollutant than their regular gas counterparts, are clean enough to make regulations. 

While there are no plans to bring the insanely efficient cars featured in Top Gear to the US, there are a few diesel vehicle available, like the VW Jetta TDI and the Audi A3 TDI.

VW Jetta TDI (50+ mpg)

Audi A3 TDI (45mpg)

 I would love to see more of these vehicles here in the US, but the major companies that sell their vehicles here are putting much more effort into the hybrid and electric paths and will continue to do so.

I head to the St. Louis Auto Show tomorrow and am sure to take all kinds of pictures and gather info on the new cars for the year so check back in a couple days and Ill have a post about it I'm sure.