DOwn here it is used to keep cool
Good point!
No offence was ever taken. You might enjoy hand parties while watching Borat. Naked hairy men does nothing for me. ;p
LOL... You got to admit he's outrageous!
Diesel didn't pan out in the past and left soem bad feelings towards it. I grew up with diesels (old slow pickups that tended to be very reliable for the service they had to endure). The new generation diesels have not been on the market very long though (common rail variable vane turbos), and we had some failures with a number of them at high altitude due to turbos overspooling (BMWs mostly). But things improve and get better.
Good point; but as you probably already know since you are a Toyota fan, a LOT of this has to do with the dismal standards and reliability of the North American auto industry. As a matter of fact, I read recently that the most reliable NA vehicles are those produced... Right here in Canada
. Besides, we all know about the problem domestic manufacturers face trying to produce something as good as the competition, I guess they could but are strapped with financial obligations to the old unions and the old workforce with steel clad contracts. I know, a client of mine had one and retired with
full benefits at MY age (50!), can you believe it!
As for Toyota reliability, it is definitely there in their diesel engines. Look into what Toyota has offered in the past, and look at the results: the 24 year old 3B can easily reach 500,000 km, is thrifty and works very well in winter. Plus, even when old, although it does puff a luittle when changing gears and the like (newer diesels have a much 'fatter' power band, like Dougal said, the 1HD-T is quite useable on the highway between 1,600 and 2,800 RPM and probbaly even more [haven't tried] while the older generation needed many gears to keep tyhe engine within that usable power band...), and even after 23 years it doesn't pump tons of smoke like the old american diesels did.
I honestly think it is just a fact that most people have not experienced modern diesels and like with any new technology there will have to be an adoption cycle. And it will go through the normal ups and downs like any other technology. My understandign is 2008 will see a number of new diesel models in the NA, pending there commercial success there will be more. NA loves their diesels in the big pickup trucks, so I don't see why it won't be adopted. But I also don't see it solving the world energy crisis, world hunger, make all women beautiful and easy, get Borat laid with Pam, etc, etc. It is just an engine technology with pros and cons. I just see people going gaga over the pros, but nobody looking at the cons.
I have had both types of engines in my vehicles. OK maybe I can't give an unbiased opuinion, because I am comparing how poor the gas engines were in the late 70s - early 80s as compared to the indestructible 3B (which is after all not that much more recent), and also as I had to repair quite a few chevys and fords that crapped out after just 100,000 km... Comparatively, the 3B has been such an OX that I NEVER had to open the valve cover, I NEVER had to replace injectors and I only had to replace glow plus twice in the more than 400,000 km I drove them. And in the end, although it is noiser now and could probably greatly benefit from new injectors and a good valve adjustment, and possibly new rings, that thing still runs using no more than 1 litre of oil per 4,000km and and uses no more fuel than the day I first drove it more than 15 years ago.
In comparison, both my 2F engines in my old FJ40s had engine problems. One seized and could not be repaired, the other burnt valves and required an overhaul. Even as Toyotas, they didn't last as long as the diesels that replaced them in the next LCs I got and consumed much more fuel that the diesels ever did. I remember a 3 hour expedition used to be a major budgetary drain with the FJ40, while I can do the same trip in the HDJ81 15 years later for not much more. On top of that the engine is actually much quieter than the 2F ever was, has much more grunt to move along, to keep up and even to lead the traffic. And I say that comparing it to the 2F powered FJ60 my buddy Pierre had at a time.
If you were nearby, I'd be happy to let you test drive the HDJ81. No one is left indifferent trying the "Beast". Compare it with an FJ80 of the same year and you too, will be demanding diesels...
You wish, BTW I'm a transplant as well.
Sort of proofs my point above doesn't it. People critizing the US, doesn't know it well enoguh. Or just like to make fun of the Texans like the rest of us
Yeah yeah, I will get Ann Coulter to kick your ass canuck
Time to get back to topic anyway.
Do you think they will introduce the TD immediately or wait a year or 2 like most models to bring in new options? Gives them time to sort out the bugs in the engine somewhere else anyway
I see no reason why they won't bring the engine in apart from the support infrastructure and associated costs (which is why leverage with other models will be required). Tooling up and training techs will cost big bucks.
Yes, I can see the problem with that, to which you have to add the public image of Diesls in general. However, it's mostly a matter of pure and simple ingnorance. Pepole simply don't know, in the US, how great recent diesels are. Not later than last night, when I was ready to leave for Canada, a lady accosts me in the parking lot in Sanford, surprised I was driving on the right side of the car... She liked what she saw, and didn't even realize it was a diesel until I told her! OTOH, you put that beside a big Powertroke Ford (I can see why they have a loyal following, not only do they impress by size, but also by noise
, and it's pretty much like any other SUV... Except that it sips fuel like a mid-size car or a minivan...
So... Yes it will get sorted out eventually and we will end up with true high tech and robust diesels in NA. But it will probably not become a truly afordable and common option before 2010, at the least. Unfortunatley, we're behind everyone else in that matter and it's quite possible that we will never, as an industry, recover lost ground. I can see the time fairly soon, when truly world vehicle standards will come to pass, that America will leave Auto manufacturing to foreigners, like they did for cameras and electronics.
take a handkerchief, go watch Borat instead 
