Quote:
Originally posted by cegerer
"and it is amazing to me that those engines are so little implemented in the USA."
Why is it amazing? The green libs in this country won't let us buy them because they 'pollute too much'. VWofA quit importing TDI's at the end of last year because it had to meet EPA fleet emission standards and couldn't do it by adding more diesels to the tally for 2005. The greenies would rather promote overcomplicated hybrid Toyotas that claim to get 55 MPG but only attain 35 in the real world ....
I drive a TDI. 44MPG real world, 50MPG if I keep my foot out of it. 
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I agree, the TDI's are wonderful cars. I spent a couple of weeks with one in Germany last summer and it was a hoot. A couple of weeks ago I was driving our Mazda6 (V6) which is no slouch and had a TDI Jetta walk away from me on the 0-60 sprint onto the highway near here. I suspect it was chipped given the smoke though. Unfortunately MA is one of the states that follows CA's lead and doesn't allow new diesel cars to be registered since they apparently just miss the pollution standards. The ironic thing is that it's not the car which is failing the standard, but the higher sulfer content in the US Diesel fuel which is the real culprit. Apparently this is due to the refining process (and the vast infrastructure supporting that process) used in the US versus Europe (cracking versus splitting -- I'll leave it up to the petro-chemists to describe the difference). As I understand it, the use of Bio-Diesel or "Synthetic"-Diesel resolves that problem.
A question for you diesel types out there. If the controlling factor in increasing the rev's of a diesel is the speed at which the fuel can be combusted, wouldn't having 2 injectors per cylinder improve that situation -- much like having 2 spark-plugs in an spark ignited engine allows a reduction in the ignition advance?