Has there been any serious consideration given to bringing diesel powered Discoveries to the US? It seems given the popularity of this model and the remarkably poor mileage of the gasoline powerplant that a turbo diesel (as offered eslewhare in the world) would be well recieved by the American market. Does anyone have specific information why importation hasn't occurred?
Diesel potential in the US
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My guess is that Diesel is still looked down upon in the US. Even at $2 a gallon we have still not seen the gas prices that our friends in Europe do. As gas prices rise, I am willing to bet that more and more companies will start to bring in diesel powered cars and trucks.
It's only a matter of time.
Serg
It's only a matter of time.
Serg
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251 Posts
Diesels Rule
I live in Ireland and diesel engines rule.
More than 95% of all SUV's use diesel engines for a number of reasons,they are more reliable, they last much longer and the fuel is cheaper. Petrol here is equivalent to $5.15 per US gallon and $4.60 for diesel.
I own a 04 discovery and the mpg works out at an average of 28/30.
Diesel engines have become very technicaly advanced and are no longer loud, smelly and slow. All of the european car manufacturers are investing heavily in diesel engine design as they will soon be the engine option of choice.
I live in Ireland and diesel engines rule.
More than 95% of all SUV's use diesel engines for a number of reasons,they are more reliable, they last much longer and the fuel is cheaper. Petrol here is equivalent to $5.15 per US gallon and $4.60 for diesel.
I own a 04 discovery and the mpg works out at an average of 28/30.
Diesel engines have become very technicaly advanced and are no longer loud, smelly and slow. All of the european car manufacturers are investing heavily in diesel engine design as they will soon be the engine option of choice.
Last January I took a vacation to the Caribeean,to the Dominican Republic,to be more specific.While I was there,since they have a lot of euro. specs. cars and marques not available in U.S. (i.e.citroen,peugeot,etc.) I took a chance to go to the LR dealership and test drive a Discovery ll TD5.I really loved it,and it felt way a rugged vehicle!When I looked at the used Discovery ll models that they had there,I also noticed a big variance among models that we don't have here in the states.I saw various used models without the digital air conditioning,just two or three circular controllers(don't remember well),and also I saw manual models and even without the black fender flares.
Carlos
Carlos
think another problem is emissions... i heard somewhere that if a manufacturer sells a diesel engine the emission is tighter than if you did the swap yourself... not sure if this is true but heard it somewhere... on that note... i do know of ppl who have converted their gas for diesel engines... plan on doing this when my engine craps out and is cheaper for me to buy and swap it out rather than fixing it thing
... Apart from farmers/ranchers. Of course, all of them would rather have their F2-or-350's with V8 diesels, and I don't think Ford is going to market a utility pickup extended cab Defender (that's weaker and smaller) when it's doing just fine with the F-series.Pugsly said:
JEEP Believes the market will support diesel vehicles - the new 2005 Jeep Liberty arrives in showrooms this Fall as a DIESEL option and claims a 30% increase in fuel efficiency (best case scenario). Maybe Land Rover can let a domestic vehicle break the ground for them in the SUV market and move forward in 2006-7 (new 2007 diesel Defender on anyone's list of must have's ?)...
Over here in the UK, Honda sell a diesel Accord. I have personally driven it back to back with the petrol version. It was quite an eye opener. The diesel Accord had the petrol version seriously licked when it came to real world roll-on acceleration, was just as smooth and quiet and had a similar top speed but got at least 40% more mpg.Veneficus said:
A motoring TV show over here pitted a Mini Cooper S against a Skoda Fabia VRS on a test track. The supercharged mini was no slouch but the Turbo diesel powered Skoda left it for dead on the straights. It actually won the race. The margin would have been much greater if the Skoda had the handling of the Mini.
The potential for performance diesels is being realised more and more over here. There are an increasing number of performance saloons powered by diesels on the market, one of the best being BMWs 3 Litre unit. When fitted to a 3 series it’s just as fast and accelerates just as hard as the petrol powered equivalent, but is obviously more economical. Audi even do a V8 twin turbo diesel version of the A8 that is restricted
to 155mph!!
Over recent years, diesels have closed the performance gap on petrols significantly. Ask yourself this question: How would you like a Discovery that is as fast as a V8 variant, accelerates almost as quickly but has nearly twice the torque and does nearly double the mpg and thus costs less to keep?
Dave
Diesel emissions are lower than petrol engines. Those smoky lorries and buses that you see are just badly set up, or just old.dent said:
Check this link
www.disco2.com/tech/td5engine/
In fact, the Discovery 2 exceeds all emission regulations world wide, without a catalytic converter. If you read the link, they also claim to have enough "reserve" on the system to meet or exceed regulations for many more years.
Biodiesel is available in many countries, with even cleaner emissions and is a renewable energy source. Better than the 30,000,000 barrels of oil consumed every day on this poor planet.
Also, deisel engines do more miles-per-gallon than petrol.
PS - Poor Rudolph Diesel, the German inventor of the engine, died in poverty before seing his invention take off.
PPS - Henry Ford did NOT invent the motor car, this was Gottleib Daimler, a German, later involved in the founding of Mercedes
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The big problem right now in the US is now the engines, but the fuel itself.
US diesel has a far higher sulphur (sulfur over here) content than the European counterpart, and since the EPA particulate emission standards would apply in the same way as for a gasoline / petrol engine, there are significant problems with making a powerplant that runs on the 'dirty' US diesel that can still cope with the emissions criteria.
Right now the fuel standards for diesel aren't set to change for around another 4-5 years to better quality / lower particulate fuel, so it might be a while before we start seeing serious change over here.
When you see F-150s etc with Diesel powerplants, they are generally on a truck registration, where the emssion standards don't apply.
US diesel has a far higher sulphur (sulfur over here) content than the European counterpart, and since the EPA particulate emission standards would apply in the same way as for a gasoline / petrol engine, there are significant problems with making a powerplant that runs on the 'dirty' US diesel that can still cope with the emissions criteria.
Right now the fuel standards for diesel aren't set to change for around another 4-5 years to better quality / lower particulate fuel, so it might be a while before we start seeing serious change over here.
When you see F-150s etc with Diesel powerplants, they are generally on a truck registration, where the emssion standards don't apply.
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U.S. Diesel emissions are too stringent, and I can't remember what it was but there was another reason was that "green" politicians didn't want any more diesel dust in their cities. I say let the market decide. VW diesels are popular here in New England.
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