[thackney]

Thanks for the info. I recognize the popularity in Europe; they have import diesel and export gasoline due to the demand is greater than the ratio output from the refineries. I think the US government did us significant harm with the way ULSD was implemented combined with the approval process for getting technology approved for use here in the States. The first step should have been to match the Europe standard instead of going beyond it. Staged in would have kept the manufactures able to readily bring working products to our market.

I recognize increased demand will bring product price down, but it needs to come down significantly from the delta it exists today, especially with the price adder ULSD has added to diesel fuel. I personally favor diesel technology over ethanol.

A surprising thing from the link I have above for the fuel economy guide. The six speed has worse MPG than the five, same result in the auto and manual.

[NVDave]

Yea, I know on the six vs. five speeds.

That's a result of someone trying to put a gasoline tranny behind a diesel engine. That's another thing automakers do that frustrates the informed diesel consumer: they use a transmission design for gasoline engine power curves behind a diesel engine.

The situation was at its worst when diesel pickups started becoming popular; the US manufactures would put a automatic tranny in there that was designed for, say, a big-block V-8 gas engine. Same sort of HP? Sure, but at much higher input RPM's. The much higher torque at lower RPM's would tear the guts out of these gas engine trannies in short order, especially when towing a load.