For years, diesel powered vehicles got a bad rap as being too noisy and smelly for the average consumer. But now, with the advent of cleaner burning biodiesel (compared to the smell of french fries), Americans are buying more diesel burners.
This story on the Driving.ca web site has more details:
Americans generally have regarded diesels as too noisy and polluting, and have tended to avoid them except in some special cases, such as large pickups, where diesel engines rule.
But those perceptions are changing as the era of the “clean diesel” arrives.
Annual registration of diesel passenger vehicles in the United States reached nearly 550,000 vehicles in 2005, up from just 301,000 in 2000, according to figures from R.L. Polk and Co. reported by the Diesel Technology Forum (www.dieselforum.org), a non-profit consortium of companies that are developing diesel engine technology. The group says “31 per cent of this growth came in the past year alone.”
Besides the diesel pickups offered by Dodge, Chevy, and Ford, Volkswagen, Mercedes, and Jeep are offering diesel, make that BIO-diesel, powered vehicles for the average consumer market.