Well, that's one way to look at it. I like the more positive outlook:
1. It was a republican president (typically not the first choice of the Green party) who recognized diesels are becoming more popular...and he likes them. He saw they're not just out on the farms or remote highways (construction equipment) any more (trains are affected, too). As a result, the right-leaning, pro-business president personally crusaded for clean-burning diesel to stimulate that. More diesels, less pollution. And you see this as a bad thing?
2. As gas becomes more expensive, diesel and bio-diesel become more and more attractive. There are even
turbo-diesel hybrids out there now, in both commercial, military, and potentially full-production civilian applications (take the ground based rader and machine gun off the military DuraMax model). And more bio-diesel helps the American farmers as well as they grow the crops for it. Again, I don't see this as a negative.
3. If it wasn't for soccer moms, we wouldn't have so many models to choose (and get spare parts) from. Of course, if you want to make it full 4WD, you have to swap a front axle. How bad is that? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/drunk.gif" alt="" /> But if it wasn't for soccer mom's, the only 4x4 off-road vehicle you would have a choice on would be which model of bleet(*)...I mean Jeep....is your favorite!
[color:"#666666"](*) Sheep noise, for those who don't get it.[/color]4. Uh...factory lockers do happen. The Jeep Rubicon. The Jeep Scrambler...ur, I mean Unlimited Rubicon. Hummer, I believe, and I think there's one or two more doing it (American) but I can't remember where I read it. Some help here?
5. Every year we have more passenger vehicles with standard/optional diesel engines over here in the USA as the Big 3 (domestic) and Big 3 (foreign) recognize the potential once the clean diesel hits America and jockey for position.
6. Yeah, those greenies are shutting us down. That explains the explosion for just a few to over 50 SUV's in the last decade, including the new class of "over 6k" that are so big, they aren't SUV's, they classed as farm or construction equipment. Let greenies convince half the population to ride their bikes, it keeps gas cheaper for the rest of us. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" />
Pop over to the
Isuzu Diesel Board and look over some of the last year's posts. More and more
good news coming out on diesels every year. There's a great post (see TD-hybrid link above) on city buses that get
50% more gas mileage than standard bus engines and, with clean burning diesel, would emit almost zero pollution. How's that for a great payoff?
