Sharing A Response From Toyota

a slick reply it was. diesel fumes prove to be carcinogenic in tests with lab animals plus here in the united states we have enough burden with fuming semis and school busses and we do not really need to add few millions of friggen diesel -powered passenger cars to get a final asphyxia ..............

They could have just said NO it will not be released.

I used to have to send those kinds of letters. Back in the days before everyone had a word processor on their desk, we would open a binder and choose from several hundred form letters, fill in the blank, and have the secretary type it up.

I've tried the simple "no, it will not be released" approach, and it almost always results in having to write another response. Almost all customers fancy themselves to be either automotive or marketing experts, so they write back to explain why they know more about what Toyota should do than Toyota does. Sooo, in my experience, a more complete explanation up front will save time later. ;-)

The things is that the modern diesels (the ones that meet the news standards) are as clean as gas cars.

Jeff

I agree with you, however, the toyota statement of diesel and its environmental effects is misleading. less talk less errors. Diesel engines have been improved so many times there has been more advancements there compared to petrol. Toyota could have said USA have stricter standards in diesel or toyota has yet to design the clean burning low emmission diesel engine. The impact then is many are afraid of those diesel engines. Somebody has to established a new paradigm for our understanding of diesel and emmisions.

I remember the old view (I wouldn't say paradigm). The old Olds V8 diesel. Great engine, sometimes. Usually a dog. Peugeot, Mercedes (that was before they had a merger of equals with Chrysler), VW, Audi and a few other cars had diesels, too.

I don't think anyone sells diesel cars in the US, but Mercedes and VW sell diesel SUVs. I think Jeep is planning on selling a diesel SUV too.

Jeff

bio diesel can burn cleaner. less soot and crap.

I should have added that most of the CR Associates have little or no technical background so the ones who take the easy way out pull a letter out of a stack of forms that most closely matches the situation, and the others do some research with the engineering or service department.

Toyota had Diesel Corollas, turbo Camrys, and pickups in the U.S. in the early 1980's, and while they didn't fail catastrophically, they were pretty hard starting and were not commercial successes. I'm sure Toyota's Diesel technology has come a long ways since then, since Toyota sells Diesels in Europe and Asia. Even Toyota does not have unlimited R&D funds, so they put their eggs in the hybrid basket, while other automakers have put their R&D eggs in the Diesel basket. So far, it seems like hybrids have been a commercial success; we'll have to see how they do compared to Diesels in the North American market.

Toyota is working with a Japanese automaker (I think Isuzu) to get diesels. I think they own a portion of the automaker.

Actually, the smart move is to put the eggs in several baskets. Like toyota is doing with their big trucks, suvs, big cars, little cars and hybrids. And diesels too.

Jeff

I'd read that Toyota bought a portion of Isuzu from GM, and the speculation was that Toyota did so to get some of Isuzu's medium-duty diesel technology. That speculation did not make much sense to me because Toyota already has its own medium-truck division, Hino, with Diesel engines. AFAIK, Toyota does not need Isuzu's technology or sales and distribution points so my guess is that Toyota invested in Isuzu to gain production capacity. For example, the SIA (Subaru-Isuzu America) plant in LaFayette, IN will be producing Camrys.