Does Volvo sell a Diesel Car in North America?

My work truck has a 6.0L Cummins TDi and has great power on the open road,
but calling it sluggish at low speeds is being way too kind. Sluggish cars
leave it behind - I've actually had people honk at me when I was
accelerating full throttle and gradually building enough speed for the boost
to kick in.

The truly awful diesel engines that appeared here in the 1970s have very
effectively given diesels in passenger cars a bad name. The relatively
primitive diesel engines used in light trucks here only reinforce the image
of them being noisy, smelly, hard starting and sluggish. I understand the
modulated injection common rail engines overcome many of those defects but
the first of those to appear here will have to overcome the image problem
that already exists.

Hybrids are gaining ground rapidly and may starve out the market for diesel
passenger cars in NA. Even the relatively weakly hybridized cars available
today offer better fuel economy around town than comparable diesels (I get
upper 40s MPG in town average, 55 or more in good weather) and are
infinitely quieter and more responsive at low speeds.

Mike

 

Ford's US truck diesels come from Navistar and are based on an old
International Harvester V-8 gas engine design. Cummins makes diesel
engines for Dodge and GM get's theirs from Isuzu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Power_Stroke_engine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cummins_B_Series_engine

 

Pretty sure the owner's manual specifies Cummins, but sometimes my age gets
in the way of remembering things like that :-}

Mike

 

Well that's all fine and dandy, but the fact remains that the D5 was never
sold anywhere in North America. You simply can't get one, so anything else
is irrelevant.

 

That says a lot about the American consumer and diesel cars in general
and almost nothing about Volvo diesel cars. Last year I travelled a
couple of thousand miles in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. I never saw
a diesel passenger car. Ford light-trucks but no pax cars of any make.

During these long trips I wished I had my D5 with me. Huge fuel tank -
not these ridiculously small fuel tanks in American cars and a decent
consumption. Lately I drove from Switzerland to the Atlantic (600
miles with fuel for another 50 miles) at speeds on highways of about
90 to 95 miles whenever possible. The ride took less than 8 hours.

American consumers don't like that kind of economics? Can't be true!
Why is the American car industry sitting so deep in the s..t? and
losing market share globaly and nationaly?

I want to make one thing clear: I do not say Volvo is the only car
maker with such good engines: Look to the French manufacturers, the
Germans and even the Japanese recognised the need to produce diesel
engines for the global market. Only America is standing aside.

At least at the moment. But my contacts at European manufacturers of
engine components tell me that the large American producers are
sucking up all capacities of machine tools to manufacture diesel
injection systems and new equipment aluminium casting systems. It is a
fair guess that in about one to three years there will be a huge
avalanche of new modern diesel cars reaching the North American
markets.

And again: I'm strongly convinced that the conventional gasoline
engine has no future with its low efficiency and its high CO2 output
except for special purposes.

Joerg

 

I have to agree that the current crop of European diesel cars are not
sluggish.

I rented a brand new SAAB 95 diesel two years ago and drove all over
Devon and Corwall (driveway of rental cottage went right unto a B road
on a near-blind curve.)

I noticed no problems with acceleration (had to tone down some starts
because I started leaving rubber on the road.) and the mileage was
terrific compared to my V40 back home (1000KM city/highway on a full
48-liter tank, versus the 500-or-so on pure highway.)

If Volvo markets a diesel, I'll be seriously considering it. (local
Ikea store just put in parking spots for Hybrids.....)

Still looking for a guide to retro-fitting a Vokswagon diesel into my
V40.....

 

I fail to see what, they're not for sale, they can't be bought, what does
that say about the consumer?

Diesels got a bad reputation in cars because the domestic makers built so
many horrible ones, the new ones are much better, but VW is the only
manufacture I'm aware of in the US to offer a modern TDI and they sell
pretty well in some areas. If Volvo would offer the D5 here, people would
buy it but not everyone wants to drive a Volkswagen, and it will take a lot
to get the bulk of the population interested enough to give them a try. The
economy is simply not the same here, diesel fuel is more expensive than
gasoline, the cars that use it are more expensive, maintenance is more
expensive and harder to find, those things are not gonna change overnight.

 

My experience with diesel sedan is very positive.

About 10 yrs ago in Massachusetts I bought used Toyota Camry Turbo
Diesel from Toyota dealer and enjoyed it for over 5 years. It was a
great car, with over 40 miles/gallon and not a single problem. The only
minor drawback was not all stations carried diesel fuel. That car was
good performer, not noisier than gasoline cars, fare from being
sluggish. I'm sure today's diesel cars are better than my Camry diesel
designed in the last century.

Pollution is significantly lower at sedan diesel compared to bus and
truck diesel engines.

If available, I would seriously consider Volvo sedan diesel.

Mike
'98 S70