Lets just say you are better off buying a diesel car than retrofitting.

The reason MOST people in the US don't buy diesel engine vehicle's has a direct relationship back to GM and their crappy gas-to-diesel conversions.

GM, in wanting to make a quick buck, saw a trend of diesel's being put in small car's by the japanese & german's (toyota, nissan, & isuzu all sold several diesel engine vehicles in the early 80's on US shores--I still drive one).

Instead of making a diesel engine the right way (from scratch, with heavy components--ok, ok, yeah, I know, but Sonex didn't tell GM about their idea back then) they decided to just convert gas engines--BAD IDEA!!!

Anyway, so GM offer's most of their car's with the option of a diesel in the early 80's with these engines. I remember Chevy Celebrities, Oldmobile Cutlass Sierra's, all sorts of them...

And it worked!!! GM sold lot's of these things & made a quick buck.

...and now for the rest of the story.

Not only did they sell a lot of them, but the law's of physics kicked in & the engines fell apart. Most of these car's never saw 80,000 miles on the original engine (in fact, most never even made it to 50,000) because of blown heads, warped heads, and all sorts of engine problems--well, DUH!!!

So, anyway, now you've got a ton of American's who've plunked down good, hard-earned money for these car's and they end up stranding folks. GM ended up replacing lot's of diesel engines (mainly with gas replacements and in some cases w/ a REAL diesel engine--they made a nice 6.2 & 6.5 REAL diesel engine).

Now, because Joe Public didn't really realize that his "diesel" car was having a problem because of a screw-up at GM, he just blamed it on the fact that it was a diesel, and thereby the image of "diesel's being stinky, good for nothing, piles of crap" in the US began. All those people that didn't know it wasn't a problem with a DIESEL but with how their diesel engines were built now turned away from them in droves...they told their friends too.."Don't buy a diesel, they're crap! They'll leave you stranded!!"

Almost overnight, demand for diesel engine vehicles in the US went from somewhat decent to hardly anything at all. GM single-handedly had succeeded in literally turning "the masses of the US" off to diesel engine's.

Diesel engine vehicles just sat on the lot's. People wouldn't go near them. They'd heard, seen, or had experience with a GM diesel and "wanted no part of that!". Slowly Toyota, Isuzu, Nissan, Volvo, Peaugot, and other diesel engine manufacturer's pulled their diesel engine vehicles out of the US market. Why? Because they couldn't sell enough of them to be profitable at it.

A few die-hard's stuck it out (VW, Mercedes) and kept on selling through the hard times. That's why there's so many older VW diesel's still out there. They were practically the only game in town (besides a Mercedes) when it came to diesel engine passenger vehicles. If you had a bit more money you went for a Mercedes.

Then the EPA decided to chime in and in '93 played w/ the diesel regulations (they lowered sulphur levels) and dealt a slow death to all the older diesel engine vehicles that relied heavily on the sulphur levels being high to regulate fuel injector pumps (that's one of the reason's older diesels--pre-93--have so many injector pumps go out, the fuel is leaving them less-than-adequately lubricated).

So, before most of us diesel nuts driving older diesels knew about Biodiesel we were adding things like automatic transmission fluid to our fuel to keep the pumps lubed.

Then the EPA for the past few years went wishy-washy and just recently has FINALLY made up it's mind on the regulations (the 2006 Ultra-Low Sulphur Diesel ruling). The wishy-washyness of it all scared all of the automaker's across the pond (as well as those here--Ford makes a really nice diesel engine for their Focus, but doesn't sell it here) from bringing their cool diesel-engine vehicles to US shores.

I still to this day run into people who still think "All diesel's are crap and will just strand ya somewhere" because they've either heard it from someone that owned one of GM's crappy diesels or remember's owning one themself.

So, next time you drool over all the cool diesel engine vehicles across the pond (made by both American and Non-American auto makers), thank GM. They dealt us one heck of a blow---and all for a crummy buck! Capitalism in action!

-Graydon
Die-hard diesel nut &
Biodiesel Enthusiast