I’d love to buy a non-UAW pickup, but nobody other than Chevy/Ford/Dodge makes a one ton diesel, so I have no real choice.
Meanwhile:
“(Reuters) - Volkswagen’s top labor representative threatened on Wednesday to try to block further investments by the German carmaker in the southern United States if its workers there are not unionized.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/19/us-vw-usplant-idUSBREA1I0S820140219
Guess I can add VW to the “never consider” list based on this.
What is the pay scale compared to workers at other plants in the region? Are the pay and benefits better or worse than at other companies?
I thought I read on this board a few months back, where Nissan was going to start putting Cummings diesel engines in their full sized pickups, I would think that would have to be a 3/4 ton truck at least, just to handle the weight of the engine… Something like that might work for you.
I read somewhere (…if I find the link…I will post it) that Toyota was experimenting with placing one of their tried and true diesel motors from their commercial Hino line into the Tundra and offering a 3/4 and 1 ton. They already have a nice reliable diesel in the Hi-Lux and there are rumblings of bringing it to the Tacoma for the US market (…since Chevy will bring a diesel Colorado in 2015).
They do this and nope…there is no reason to buy a UAW made pickup…ever.
I currently have 240k trouble free miles on an 06 4WD Tundra and love it.
-brickboy240
That’s something else I don’t understand… why hasn’t anybody (The big three, Toyota, Nissan, etc,) brought out say, a 4,maybe 5 cylinder turbo charged diesel, and put it into a 1/2 ton truck? With 4wd, you could possibly get 19-20mpg. I think the market could be there if the price was right, I know a few folks that would like a diesel truck, but don’t really want, or need a 3/4 or 1 ton truck…
Or the tax payer will bail them out [as mentioned] and keep on buying the brand. What also bothers me is the top managements and CEO’s pay packages that are way too high. They would work for less.
Simple: our friends the EPA.
Short version: the US is the only country in the world that makes diesels meet gas emission standards. And even though diesels overall pollute less, they have a hard time meeting one of the standards due to the higher combustion temps.
These came into effect in 2007 and was largely the death knell for small diesels in the US.
MB pioneered the urea method to work around that, but its problematic and expensive. And you loose much of the advantage. Navistar has been trying EGR, but not had much luck.
Its bad policy, bad economics, and ignorant US consumers suffer from it.
Drive some of the small euro diesels and the US perceptions would change. We have simple missed out.
Especially when you factor in the ethanol mess vs similar investment in biodiesel like France did.
As an aside to toyo/Nissan diesels are not that good relative to Cummins/MB/Isuzu/VM Motari… Japan has very little native diesel usage. Their hilux markets are mostly gas outside of Oz/NZ.
I will be looking hard at any Cummins Nissan. The VM Motari Ram is a good engine, but as the proved with the diesel Liberty’s, EPA can ruin a good engine! (I have one, 30 mpg real 4x4, but with emission addon related problems)
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Well the pres solved that problem with Chrysler… Essentially gave it to Fiat when it was all said and done. Forced them to sell majority share cheap, and then sold the rest later even cheaper. Fiat did not even have to pay out of pocket, Chrysler recovered and had enough cash to buy the remaining share, and pay for the initial one.
IE: fiat made a down payment, took delivery, then used Chrysler free cash to pay it off.
Where past “bailouts” all they did was guarantee loans, taxpayers paid nothing.
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Liberals want green energy not more fossil fuels. So they’ve combated diesels which can get great gas mileage. The US is perhaps the worst in the western world when it comes to diesels.
On the urea systems…they are far, far and away better than EGR systems…I don’t have any experience with small diesel engines but I’m a truck driver and have been driving a 2013 Freightliner for a little over a year now and not one single time have I had trouble with the DEF system (Detroit DD15 engine)…before this truck, EGR problems were almost constant, robbing power, robbing fuel mileage, etc.
I’m a heavy haul driver…hauling mostly oversize/overweight loads…12+’ wide, over 14+’ tall, up to 96,000 lbs. gross weight…and my average fuel mileage for last year was 6.7 mpg…for those that don’t know, that is awesome fuel mileage for a big truck.
I’m no scientist…but if the DEF system controls emissions like they say it does, I can’t find a reason not to like it…at least not compared to EGR systems.
On the Nissan diesel…I’m watching that closely myself, I bought a 2014 Frontier just this past November…and knew they offered diesels in these trucks in other countries, but if I had known they might release one here in the next couple of years…I would have waited…the 4.0 V6 is nice, but I like diesel engines.
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