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We never get the full range of available engines, here (diesels, esp.). Unless they can sell them to the Americans (who have somewhat different tastes in vehicles than we do), it isn't worth importing them just for us.

One of the only exceptions that comes to mind is the Mercedes "Smart" car that came to Canada, not to the U.S. (at first) and sold out here. What that says about our relative "Smartness" is open to debate, though.[/quote]

Just means they used us as a test market.[/quote]


It didn't work, though as the Smart continues to sell well here but is a bust in the U.S.. The assumption that all North America is an homogenous culture probably comes easily to the German marketing people but it is and has always been incorrect. VW would probably sell every diesel that they could import, here but the Americans won't touch them with barge poles.

   

http://www.automobilemag.com/features/n ... ales-2013/

VW/Audi had a record breaking year with diesel engine sales in the States in 2013. They sold over 100,000 diesel engine autos last year. One in four cars sold by VW/Audi had a diesel engine. Not too shabby. What is hampering the sales of diesel engines is that the cost of diesel fuel is much higher than gasoline in the States. I'm paying $3.15 a gallon for gasoline. The same stations price for diesel is $3.69 a gallon.

   

What has caused the price of diesel to spike so much over the past 5 years?

   

Good question. The fuel industry wants to blame it on the intro of ultra low sulphur diesel. They say that it added over $8 billion in refining costs. That may be, but Canada also uses U.L.S.D as well. I know that the federal taxes on diesel fuel are 6 cents more a gallon than they are for gasoline. How that 6 cents can turn into over 50 cents at the pump is beyond me.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100943620

I think that link best sums up the problem. Refineries are making over $16 profit on every barrel of distilled diesel fuel they ship abroad, over twice what they are making on a barrel of gasoline. There is too much money to be made shipping diesel fuel abroad. No one wants to sell it cheap in the States, when there is so much more profit to be made offshore.

   

I'm betting insuring an aluminum truck will not be cheap. Not many auto body shops are equipped to handle aluminum... ...the stuff isn't easy (or cheap) to work with compared to steel panels.

That is the only downside I see here.

   

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