Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.......
If you want on or off the DIESEL "KNOCK" LIST just FReepmail me........
This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days......
Posted on 11/16/2006 11:02:54 AM PST by Red Badger
Whenever Toyota makes a move, the world takes notice. Japan’s #1 automaker (which looks poised to be the world’s largest) has been a leader on hybrid development, but has been a little behind the curve when it comes to diesel development. It especially lost face when archrival Honda boasted it would have clean diesel models on sale in the U.S. within 3 years. Toyota’s only response at the time was, “We’re working on it.”
Although Toyota owns Hino, a maker of medium and heavy-duty trucks, the company’s experience with smaller-displacement diesels is limited. So it figured its time (and money) might be best spent partnering with a company whose primary expertise is compression-ignition engines. Naturally, Toyota chose Isuzu, one of the oldest carmakers in Japan and with a history of developing and manufacturing diesel engines of more than 60 years.
Isuzu’s expertise with diesels is so renowned that, when General Motors was developing its next-generation ¾ and 1-ton diesel engine for its full-size pickups, it chose Isuzu to do the bulk of the research and development work. Today, we know that engine as the Duramax.
With the General spinning off its stake in Isuzu early this year, Toyota saw it as the perfect opportunity to purchase 5.6 percent of the company, as well as tap its deep well of expertise with diesel engines. Granted, it looks like the automaker got some ground to catch up on with diesel development compared to Honda, Volkswagen, and DaimlerChrysler, but with its seemingly bottomless financial resources and steely determination, don’t count Toyota out from bringing clean diesels to the U.S. market right behind everyone else. Perhaps even the first production passenger-car diesel hybrid? If a 100-mpg Prius seemed a little far-fetched about a year ago, with the addition of a possible turbodiesel, it’s a very likely reality.
Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.......
If you want on or off the DIESEL "KNOCK" LIST just FReepmail me........
This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days......
Think again. The diesel leader will soon be Honda who is pioneering a new self contained method to clean up diesel at the engine instead of at the exhaust like mercedes is doing that calls for the owner to fill up a secondary tank with a urea based fluid.
Isn't competition a wonderful thing?.......
Six speed manual transmission, sat five comfortably and had great accelleration.
I'd buy a car like that if it was available here.
Absolutely, competition is a good thing. But Toyota isn't engineering their own diesel or adding anything new, that we know of. Both Merc and Honda have re-engineered the diesel engine and added new technology to make it cleaner burning. It's not clear what Toyota will have Isuzu do.
Here in CALI, you can't buy a diesel car. Merc's Bluetech isn't clean enough to satisfy 5 states including CA. As far as I know, Honda is still working on their Plasma technology but they have claimed it will meet the strict California requirements.
If Honda can perfect their at the engine plasma technique, they will have produced a clean burning diesel engine that is quiet and will get as good if not better mileage than hybrids while offering great low end torque (that's missing in honda's today).
It will be interesting to see what Toyota does with Isuzu. I am guessing we won't see a Toyota with diesel until 2010 at the earliest.
My father commented in the early 1980's that GM and Ford absolutely blew it after WW2 by not getting into pre-fabs. Their experience with manufacturing, their reputations and their money would have made it a success (and would likely have made a real house affordable to many more people).
I keep saying... "It's the diesel stupid!!!"
Every modern locomotive in the world is a diesel-electric hybrid. I wondered when the automakers would notice that little fact...
GM makes diesel locomotives..........
"Here in CALI, you can't buy a diesel car."
VW is looking to reintroduce their diesel soon. 50 mph, and 150 mph if you change the computer chip. However, I haven't heard a definitive word on whether they'll be back in those 5 states.
I had a VW Rabbit diesel in the mid-70s until 1981 when it became roadkill. It was an outstanding car. I used to drive to college about 800 miles and make it on one tank of diesel in my Rabbit - about 57 or so miles per gallon.
The Audi 4000 was equally good and had a few more luxuries, like A/C. :)
My sister and husband just bout a Honda Accord. Always bought Camrys but the 2007 has bad rep on transmissions. Mucho complaints at Yahoo auto.
I hope an American company leads in consumer level diesel engines. Would be interesting to see Honda and Toyota duke it out on diesels. The (obvious?) key to better diesels is very good computer controls on the engine
When ever you can come up with the money.
1.)Buy a ford f250 diesel.
2) hook up a generator to it's more than powerful enough engine.
3) plug your house in.
Or, just buy a diesel powerplant large enough to power your house. (a much cheaper and more practical option)
I heard that they will be available again this year ('07) yes, a new revamped VW rabbit!
Those were grweat engines. there are still a lot of those engines kicking around in junkyards. The only problem with those rabbits was that the body dissapeared from around the engine! LoL! (terible rust problems)
Hopefully the new rabbit will be a little more corrosion resistant.
LOL "grweat"
I had mine for 7 years and 199K miles and would have kept it for more; unfortnately a school bus driver ran a red light and displaced the engine a couple of feet. I was just lucky it didn't displace me...
I didn't have a speck of rust on mine after 7 years, and at the time it spend a few months a year in salt air. The only maintenance I ever had to do was a new head gasket once. At 199k miles I still had the original clutch.
I'll be in the market for another if it's anywhere as good as its predecessor.
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