Well I am new to the forum, but an old hand at MB driving.

For every MB model, there are at leat 2 o3 diesel engines sold in Europe and Latin America. Mercedes big investment in research for the last 15 years has been in diesel, and the TD engines are equal or better than gasoline in power and deliver about 40 % more mileage.
However MB is not bringing ANY diesels to the US in 2010.

Are we considered a stupid market by MB, a customer base that only looks at price and forgets about YEARLY OPERATING COST or is it a marketing failure by MB?

I would appreciate opinions on this subject. Does anybody understan MB thinking on this?

Leonel

 

Random thoughts:
While it has been a long time since I have been out of the US; in the few countries I have been too the cost of Diesel Fuel cost less than Gasoline; more so in less developed countries. At least here in Southern CA Diesel cost slightly more than the least expensive regular Gasoline.

So while the same sized vehicle with a Diesel Engine may get slightly better mileage than a Gas Car the slightly more expensive Fuel cost offsets that. With out a substantial savings in Fuel costs there is a Fear of a high repair bill.

Another cost issue is that when a Diesel Car needs fixing it has the potential to cost more and there are less qualified shops to get the repair work done at.

A fear factor; People in the US are more experienced with the types of problems a Gas Car might have but a Diesel Engine might as well be a "Black Box" as far as most are concerned.

As an example of repair costs. If you could not pull off the Road fast enough due to a Water Pump Drive Belt breaking and you toasted your Engine; you could get a complete rebuilt Gas Engine what the Diesel Pistons alone might cost.

An other issue is strictly a mental one. People in the US are conditioned to think of Diesels as being noisy, dirty (smog) and smelly.

 

Blame the EPA- Diesels in the US have to meet much more stringent emissions regulations than European ones, especially NOx. Also, the "Ultra-low sulfur diesel" they pushed out in 2007 is about the same level as what Europe used in the early 2000s. What we have now isn't legal for road use over there anymore, so the euro emissions equipment doesn't survive as well here.

 

It's a pity. New diesels are clean, some cleaner than the cleaner gas engines. Also, the mileage improvement is significant, almost 40 Percent. I.E the same GLK that will need 11 liters of gasoline per 100 kms will only need 6 liters of diesel. That is not a slight advantage.
If 85 per cent of all vehicles in the US were diesel we would not need to import oil from Venezuela, a savings of about 300 million USD PER DAY. That would help our BoT.

In South Florida for the last 8 months to a year diesel has been from 25 to 40 cents cheaper than gas.

L.A.