GM Ecotec Diesel in every country but the US..WHY?

Question

Built by GM, a company in the US that is drowning in red ink yet in Europe GM is building advanced, efficient cars and the US seems to get only the bathroom droppings.

They always blame it on not meeting US standards, I guess nobody can build to such low quality standards.

See Ecotec diesel here: http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/action/modeloverview?modelid=26008

Answer 1

There is no demand here.  Diesel costs about $0.50/gal more than regular gas.  It doesn't meet California's ridiculous emissions standards.  Since about 15 other states also use them its not worth the costs to make it legal to bring them to the US.

Answer 2

No market for small diesel cars...for now at least.

Consumers in the US still view diesel as stinky, black smoke belching truck motors.  Not to mention diesel costs 30-45 cents more per gallon here.

As far as US standards...you don't seem to have a grasp on the whole import/export concept.  Its not as simple as plucking the car out of Europe and dropping in into the US and expecting the DOT to be happy.  NO, NO, NO....every government department needs to justify itself by enforcing redundant regulations.   There are differences in Lighting, Noise levels, Emissions, Safety systems, Bumper heights (every change in model design requires a crash test).  To go through all that, you need to have rock solid market research to show you will eventually turn a profit.  Look at the 2004 Pontiac GTO....a rebumpered Holden Manaro.  It was a sales flop...$6000 rebates in 05!  Bad-*** car, well built...too expensive after satisfying US DOT regulations.

Sometimes it works out better to design/build the car in-house than to retrofit a car from the european division.

Answer 3

The environmentalist have already adjusted your car foe less efficiency. They lowered the temperature of combustion to reduce NO2 emissions.In doing that they cost u mileage . As the NO2 went down the Corbin monoxide went up. Now Corbin Monoxide is poisonous.

Answer 4

It could be very well the engine doesn’t meet US emission standards, or it could be that the engine was designed to use Ultra-low sulfur fuel and would suffer damage if high sulfur was used. Now that we have Ultra-low sulfur fuel in the US you’re going to see more diesels in the US. I know VW is thinking about it now that the fuel won’t harm the engine.

And don’t forget that the US many different “standards” that have to be followed, with California having the strictest standards, so an diesel engine in the UK may not meet our new standards, but most likely it was the fuel, I’m betting within a year or two those engines will be sold in the US, after they pass all the emission tests, something the engine manufactures didn’t do before because the engines couldn’t pass with the high sulfur fuel we used, or the engines would suffer damage from the fuel.

Answer 5

European diesel engines, while very efficient, cannot meet US emission standards, especially with respect to NOx and particulates.  Progress is being made, however, and US versions of some of these engines are beginning to show up.

Answer 6

The engine does not meet our standards in the US which are the most strict in the world. Most engines produced abroad don't meet our emissions. The government is re working a few of their standards in an effort to allow the use of those smaller foreign made diesel engines. In a few years you'll see clean diesels from Honda, Toyota, smaller diesels from Ford and GM, BMW will be marketing their performance diesels, as will Mercedes and VW. The automotive scene is changing quickly, asian and european makers are finally getting on to the ultra low sulfur bandwagon and producing diesels for export to the US.

Answer 7

We have soooo many regulations, both safety and emissions, that many cars built in other countries can't be sold here.

Good example, VW has a nice car called the POLO. It gets 60-70MPG. VW has a few here now just to see how they might fare with emissions testing and crash testing, etc. One of the problems is California I am told. To meet the "50 State" compliance, the car must be powered down and more pollution devices to meet just California's levels.

Blame our "Environmentalists", not the government. Environmentalists get it wrong, again. We just keep pumping out CO2 when there are many inexpensive diesel cars available right now (made by Ford, GM, Toyota, Peugeot, VW, etc.) that could cut our CO2 from cars in half.

They got it wrong on Nuclear, Global Freezing, Forest Fires, etc. I just hope they got it wrong on CO2 this time.