[dav]

I hope MiniUSA decides to import the Mini with the 1.4L Toyota Diesel engine soon. I am envious of the Mini One D available in Europe. 45-65 mpg, great torque, and minimal engine maintenance are strong selling points for me. Here is a photo for fellow Americans of the Toyota built Mini diesel under the hood ( excuse me, bonnet!).....



Fitted with a 1.4-litre four-cylinder common-rail turbodiesel developed in cooperation with Toyota, the One D manages 58.9mpg / 4.79L/100km on the official combined cycle. What's more, it gets the six-speed manual transmission from the racy Cooper S, adapted to suit the diesel engine’s characteristics and aid economy even further.

[obehave]

Well as soon as they learn how to distribute decent diesel fuel here in the States it'll be more likely.
Our stuff is crap compared to what they get in Europe.

[ScottyB]

Quote: Originally Posted by obehave

Well as soon as they learn how to distribute decent diesel fuel here in the States it'll be more likely.
Our stuff is crap compared to what they get in Europe.

Same deal in Oz I think.

Im sure it'd be a massive buy point for alot of people here too.

[dav]

Low sulfur fuel will be mandatory here in the USA starting in 2006...

[milliethemini]

Okay, someone explain this to me: Volkswagen already has diesel variants of the Beetle, Jetta and Golf in North America. What makes those cars so different from the other diesel cars out there that they are pretty much the only vehicles you can buy here?

If MINI Canada introduced the MINI D, I would get one in a heartbeat to use as my daily driver instead of our MCS. Instead, I'm seriously considering a Smart Car as a 2nd car to use for my daily driving when they finally come into our marketplace later this year. 80mpg is just too tempting, in light of the current gas prices!!!

[stryder]

VWs diesels are designed to run on our sulphury diesel. They make much better versions of the TDI Golf in Europe for the better diesel. Go look at www.vw.co.uk and see all the exciting stuff like a 140 hp 2.0 TDI new golf.

I don't know specifics about what they need to change to make the engine run on high sulphur diesel, if that's really what you were wondering, but clearly stuff needs to be done.

Its not worth it for MINI to design (or Toyota, whatever) an engine that works in the US - because previously gas was really cheap, and now, as obe has said, '06 is the year for better Diesel, so they can just wait until there.

Its pretty much out of our control, but I'm sure MINI will start thinking about it when its feasible.

[dav]

Stryder is correct. Europe gets a better VW diesel than we get here in the States. But we do get the Ultimate diesel here soon;

The Touareg SUV option- The awesome V-10 5.0 L TDI with 313 hp/560 ft pnds of torque! WOW !!!!!!! Sign me up....

[Humourl3ss]

Don't forget that up untuil recently VW also sold a GTI Golf with a 150hp diesel 4-cylinder, six-speed and more torque than a most big cube sixes. I would love to have a chance to test drive that.

-CW

[EBMCS03]

The Tourage disel is comming to the states??

[Ibb]

the New Turbo Diesels are awesome.

My dad has 2.0 VW Sport Bora(Jetta) its crazy how torquey it is, 150Bhp and 290Nm of Torque IIRC

its midrange (40-75mph) is breathtaking, what even crazier is it only drinks 57mpg on a combined cycle. Truly economocal.

Theres a European company here called Vauxhall aka Opel (dunno if you've heard of them) they currently undergoing a project, there current project car is only a 1litre and this puppy does 0-60 in 5.9 secs a max speed of 170mph and 200mpg!!!!!!!. For the moment this car is way to expensive for mass production.

That is just a taste for us for the future, we're looking at 2006 for something similar in performance and economy.

Just imagine, you will only need like a 2gallon tank!!! Mega weight saving and mega performance

I personally cannot wait.

Here in the UK, Turbo Diesel sales are really growing rapidly, with VAG (Volkswagen Audi Group) dominating. I will not be surprised one bit if in the next few yrs Diesels will the cars to own.

[dukesantos]

The VW Touareg V-10 diesel is on sale now in the US in limited quantities. Because of tighter state emission standards it is not for sale in CA, NY, MA, ME or VT. They are all loaded with a MSRP around $64k!