chadhargis wrote:
There are two places that American auto makers are missing the boat. The first is a diesel powered full sized pickup like the F-150, Silverado, or Ram. They already do the bigger "heavy duty" trucks, but I'm betting macho men would line up for a six cylinder turbo diesel truck in the $25k range. The other area is the small pickup, like the Ranger, Colorado, and Dakota. Put a 4 cylinder turbo diesel in those trucks and you'd have a hell of a sales success.
It would also make sense to do a diesel minivan, but soccer moms wouldn't like the oil diesel hoses and having to search for diesel pumps.
At present, pickup truck owners fit the diesel demographic, and if the US auto makers would realize that, they'd sell a crap load of diesels.
Yes, but they would likely cannibalize sales of the larger 3/4ton and 1 ton pickups. I'll bet if 75% plus of the people who have 1tons could meet all their needs with a smaller diesel. You would get some of the macho goofs that need a big pick-up to haul their egos..but I suspect that you would also get some of the Biodiesel/WVO crowd and some people who just want the lower costs and longevity that a diesel offers.
A compact pickup would be a better fit as they largely appeal to a different group that full size buyers.
I agree that a minivan would be a much harder sell. Finding clean service stations that sell diesel is only an issue on some areas. Here in Reno there are 2 nice new stations that offer diesel at competitive prices within a mile of my house.