The diesel option on my truck was an extra $6000 bucks. And as to why, I don't know. Americans don't like diesel for some reason. People think they're stinky, (they are), people think they're noisy, (old ones are). Stinky is a state of mind I guess. Both my girlfriend and I grew up on farms so we get all nostalgic when we smell a diesel engine on a cold morning. New diesel engine are creepy quiet, the current generation stuff is actually quieter than the a gas engine of the same displacement. Diesel engines uses less fuel, get better fuel economy, and make more power. Plus diesel is really easy to refine. Bio diesel is a long ways off from being a viable fuel source. There have been many issues with a lack of lubricity which is hard on the injection pumps that rely on the "oily-ness" to keep things working smooth. Another down side is the gell temp is much higher than that of convention diesel fuel. If you live somewhere that stays semi warm, gelling isn't an issue, but it gets flipping cold up here come january. I think somewhere around 6% of non-commercial vehicles in the U.S. are diesel, where as europe I think it is above 70% is diesel powered. My pickup weighs 7500 pounds and gets 21mpg in the summer, on winter fuel I'm down around 19mpg. To me that is very impressive. Especially when a Honda civic that weighs less than a quarter of what my pickup does, has a third of the displacement, and a quarter of the power only gets twice the milage.

If you want to go on a bender about CO2. You can lock yourself in the garage with a diesel engine running and not kill yourself. The enviromentalist types don't like diesel because of sulpher emission and acid rain. But that isn't much of an issue any longer with the new crappy fuel that we get. The old fuel, (pre 2007) was 1500 ppm sulpher, the new stuff is 15 ppm. I dropped 2mpg instantly when we switched to the "improved" diesel. Another marvelous thing to come out of the Clinton administration. Thanks Bill <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />