[Dougal]

Originally Posted by FirstToy

AutoblogGreen has reason to be happy, having found evidence that Toyota's recent purchase of a 5.9% stake in Isuzu will bear fruit in 2010 when the Japanese juggernaut marries its Synergy hybrid drive system with a diesel engine. Presumably such a hook up was made possible, or at least hastened, by the expertise in diesels that Isuzu brings to the table. Toyota knows its way around an oil burner too, but its Hino commercial truck division usually deals with diesels meant for trucks and buses.

Heck, even we have to admit that we're excited for such a combo, as diesel engines excel in efficiency when cruising at highway speeds, much more so than a gasoline engine, which to this point has always been the electric motor's dance partner in modern hybrids. JapanToday is reporting that a Toyota subcompact with this diesel hybrid drivetrain will be available as soon as 2010. Assuming we're not all driving EVs by then, such a car should easily grab the mpg crown in the U.S.
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In other parts of the world, Toyota sells their big Land Cruiser SUV with an optional diesel engine. In the latest redesign that debuted in 2007, the diesel is an all-new 4.5L V-8 engine that replaced a long-running inline six cylinder diesel. Recently, German magazine Auto Motor und Sport put the new Land Cruiser diesel through its paces and it apparently didn't fare too well. While the interior panel fits left much to be desired, the real problem was the mechanical performance. The 286hp diesel engine, which would be expected to yield some improved fuel economy for the 5,800lb truck, was unable to match the rated 23 mpg (U.S.) numbers and only managed to eke out 15.3 miles from each U.S.-size gallon of diesel. Since the full article doesn't appear to be online at the moment, it's hard to know what kind of driving they did or whether this is consistent with the way Auto Motor und Sport does their testing. It's certainly possible they were particularly hard on the go pedal. Hopefully that is the case because that same engine is expected to be the one that Toyota installs in the U.S. Tundra and Sequioa in 2010. Another troubling result was the braking performance. With cold brakes the Land Cruiser took 144ft to halt from 62mph. Among modern vehicles that a mediocre result with most vehicles these days getting closer to 130ft or less. When the brakes warmed up things got really scary as the stopping distance climbed to 184ft. If you're driving one of these you might want to pay close attention and anticipate when you need to slow
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There have been some Aussie reports that were scathing of the fuel economy too. But if you want to use 286hp like the testers are then you end up burning 286hp worth of diesel.

Brakes didn't feel poor on the one I drove. 43m (144ft) is only 13m more than the hardest stopping cars acheive and kind of expected in a 4wd that weighs twice as much.