Ford, GM have discussed merger, alliance

They've already canceled it.

Getting back to the thread, I agree that a small truck with a deisel would be a good thing to market in the states. Right now that would sell. They don't really make small trucks at all any more. I get autoweek, and they had a long-term Nissan Frontier (not a Titan) and that was getting 14 mpg, about half what Nissan pickups used to get 15 years ago.

Obviously there's an opportunity there.

The big problem is diesel perceptions, some of which are true, One their noisy, no doubt about that at all. The duramax is a lot quieter than the power stroke and the cummins, but its still noisy, especially' when its cold and first started. The mercedes were noisy, the little Isuzu diesel used in the pup trucks, I-Mark, Chevette was a clattering beast, which a lousy valve train. VW was noisy, and if the timing belt broke trashed the engine(The Isuzu trashed the cylinder head) They are expensive to repair. again true, however given proper maintenance they don't need repairs often. They smell, cant argue that one at all, diesels stink. On the repair front, they hard to get fixed, in that not every garage is going to be able to work on one that wont start. That's true only in the shade tree arena

while the general public has gotten better about oil changes, things like air filters and with a diesel, fuel filters have not gotten better. We all know the fastest way to shut a diesel down is feed it some dirty or water contaminated fuel.

Whitelightning

OK, explain what the sulfer content of the fuel has to do with these Euro diesels. Just curious to know as most of the old diesels would run on almost anything.

I had an 83 Nissan King Cab with the 2.4 L 4-cyl that was a blast to drive. The bolt pattern was the same as a Chevy 6-lug, so I went out and got a set of 4 and put 205/60R15 tires on it. It cornered like it was on rails, and gave me 24 mpg back and forth to work, semi-city type driving. I wish I could find another small pickup like that. I had 2 Toyota Tacomas and they were junk.

catalyst survival as I recall. Here:

"The new ULSD standards finalized by the EPA are crucial to the successful development of emission control equipment for heavy-duty diesel engines. The catalysts to be used in meeting the emission standards can be severely damaged by sulfur contamination. For example, catalyst-based particulate filters for diesel engines have shown significant losses of conversion efficiency with fuel containing 30 ppm sulfur, particularly in colder climates. With respect to NOx adsorbers, researchers have found that at fuel sulfur levels above 10 ppm, the heavy truck emission standard may not be attainable."

Happy now?