Comment Re:What took it all so long?? (Score 1) 269
Diesel fuel standards in the U.S. have improved starting in 2006 with the introduction of ULSD (ultra low sulfur diesel). ULSD will become mandatory in 2010. It is common now to see at large gas stations "truck" diesel for sale at the semi pumps and "car" diesel for sale at the car pumps. I believe the difference is the sulfur content. The US standards for emissions on diesel passenger cars are a bit more stringent than Europe (probably due to lobbyists). This makes many of the cars sold in Europe not eligible for import.
Its also a bit of a chicken and egg problem in that most people know of diesel either from semi trucks or early 80's Mercedes that had poor acceleration, and took forever to warm up. In the late 70's GM made a line of diesel engines based on the famous Chevy 350 gas engine, and they were notoriously bad. Recently, Chrysler sold their "Common Rail Diesel" in Jeep Liberty's here. It had about the same horsepower, significantly more torque, and better fuel consumption compared with their V6, but it sold poorly and was discontinued. VW cars are becoming pretty popular here with younger, more affluent, environmentally aware people, so I think they have a chance with their new Jetta TDI. Unfortunately, people resist change, even in the face of logic.