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What Happened To Diesel Cars?
Recent reports that GM and the government have spent as much as $200,000 apiece on research and tax credits to get the electric-powered Chevy Volt on the market prompted FARM SHOW reader Gary Brown to contact us with a question: “Why can’t we buy the turbo diesels sold by Ford and Chevy over in Europe? The Ford Focus
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What Happened To Diesel Cars? FARM HOME Cars Recent reports that GM and the government have spent as much as $200 000 apiece on research and tax credits to get the electric-powered Chevy Volt on the market prompted FARM SHOW reader Gary Brown to contact us with a question: “Why can’t we buy the turbo diesels sold by Ford and Chevy over in Europe? The Ford Focus sold in Europe gets 67 mpg and the Chevy Cruze gets 52 mpg Diesel engines also run well on biodiesel which our farmers can produce So why aren’t those diesel-powered cars marketed here?” Brown thinks the reason is that our congressmen and senators are addicted to oil company money and would only support the idea if millions of Americans demanded it However others think the reason is simply due to the checkered past of diesel-powered cars in North America GM developed V-6 and V-8 diesel engines in the late 1970’s More than 1 million diesel cars were sold from 1978 to 1985 and there were lots of problems Some were due to the design and some to mechanics who were not used to working on diesel engines In addition diesel fuel at the time was often contaminated Today’s newer diesels are a different matter Chevy recently announced that it would be the first of the big three U S auto makers to reintroduce a diesel car The Chevy Cruze will go on the market in 2013 And Ford announced last fall that it is considering bringing its diesel-powered Ford Focus to the U S The turbo-charged vehicles not only get great mileage but they also handle a lot better than the diesel auto engines folks remember from the past One example already on the market here is Volkswagen’s diesel Jetta which sets high standards in the European market Many experts in the auto world think the new clean-burning powerful diesel autos will provide tough competition for the more expensive and complicated hybrid vehicles that have been gathering all the headlines in recent years Stay tuned
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