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Originally Posted by TerryH
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Great article, Terry. I was actually hopeful to see a return of the Fiesta, but I guess it's now a moot point. This stood out to me:
Yet while half of all cars sold in Europe last year ran on diesel, the U.S. market remains relatively unfriendly to the fuel. Taxes aimed at commercial trucks mean diesel costs anywhere from 40 cents to $1 more per gallon than gasoline. Add to this the success of the Toyota Prius, and you can see why only 3% of cars in the U.S. use diesel. "Americans see hybrids as the darling," says Global Insight auto analyst Philip Gott, "and diesel as old-tech."
If Americans had a taste of diesel, I guarantee the Prius would go under within a year. Zero emissions by 2009, and enough torque in most mid-sized cars to pull a jet airplane, while (for example, the BMW 335d) 0-60 speeds of less than 6 seconds, all while getting (in the case of the Mercedes E-series diesel) 39 mpg in a city/highway cycle, Prius cars would pop up everywhere on used car lots.
However...
First of all, the engines are built in Britain, so labor costs are high. Plus the pound remains stronger than the greenback. At prevailing exchange rates, the Fiesta ECOnetic would sell for about $25,700 in the U.S. By contrast, the Prius typically goes for about $24,000. A $1,300 tax deduction available to buyers of new diesel cars could bring the price of the Fiesta to around $24,400. But Ford doesn't believe it could charge enough to make money on an imported ECOnetic.
...true as this may be, it's extremely short sighted. Because of the benefits of diesel inasmuch as power, economy and overall speed, those qualities far outweigh the initial cost of buying a diesel. Even in Europe diesels are more expensive than their gasoline counterparts by an average of $1,500. Nonetheless, diesels still account for 70 percent of new car sales because of their overall value, performance, government tax breaks in some countries (like Croatia), and diesel fuel is about half that of gas.
A side note, yes, the Fiesta diesel engine is built in Britain. The Honda Civic R-Type, which revs to something like 9,000 RPM, is also built in Britain, but not imported to the U.S., mostly because of the weak dollar. If the Civic R were brought here, I think it'd cost almost $50K.
