response 122 of 184:

Mar 2 03:39 UTC 2002

The first generation of american diesels ended up with a bad reputation.
The GM V8 diesel of ca. 1980 was basically a gasoline V8 turned into a
diesel, and it turned out to be under-engineered for what it was
supposed to do.  A properly designed diesel engine really has to be
designed from the ground up to be more robust, because due to the higher
compression ratio it's under quite a bit more stress.  Diesel engines
also have a narrower power band; which means they really need more
speeds than the equivalent gasoline car.  That's one of the reasons
trucks typically have 18 speeds or more.  That's overkill for a car, but
a 6 speed gearbox would not be out of line.

The reasons diesels have gone out of favour in cars is more than that.
Firstly, diesel fuel used to be much cheaper than gasoline.  That
changed a few years after diesel cars came out.  Secondly, diesel fuel
is more dirty when it burns than gasoline.  This produces problems with
pollution requirements, and is also an aesthetic issue as drivers
contend with nasty black sooty deposits on their cars.  I think these
are the main reasons why diesels went out of favour.  Diesels
traditionally are harder to start in cold weather than gasoline --
supposedly the newer automotive units have fixed this, but I wonder how
well they age.  Diesel fuel is also harder to get -- it's easy to get
along expressways, but it's not necessarily at the corner gas pump in
town.