For my job I drove a VW Rabbit diesel in the early 1990s and loved it. Diesel engines have been so improved by VW for years. Then the US EPA comes along and screws VW out of about 18 billion in fines over air pollution testing. No wonder VW is making the move to bullshit EVs.
Also Honda was doing lots of R&D on diesel engines
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Engineering timelines are longer than those of media scandals, which has given Honda a predicament with its all-new i-DTEC diesel engine. The company’s decision to develop a next-generation ultra-clean turbo-diesel was made well before Volkswagen was caught getting its cheat on, but the finished 1.6-liter inline-four reviewed here in the Honda Civic is reaching its target market in Europe just as demand slumps for compression-ignition engines, thanks in large part to the Dieselgate scandal.
Too bad for Honda, which has been suffering in Europe for years. Sales on the Continent fell to just 140,000 last year, more than 50 percent below the peak reached in 2007 and less than a tenth of what the brand manages in the similarly sized U.S. market. But it’s also a shame because the new engine could well be seen by historians of late-era internal combustion, looking back decades from now, as representing the pinnacle of diesel technology.
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a18642943/honda-civic-i-dtec-diesel-first-drive-review/