Way are you down on competion so much. Some of those foreign diesels
are as good or better especailly the smaller ones because they come
from countries that have long paided a lot more for fuel and have a
lot more experiance with them too. While a Cummins is a good motor, I
for one would be far more impressed with them if they did not take a
1300lb motor from a 2 ton truck and put it in a 3/4 or 1 ton P/U and
claim a to have a high tech solution. (nothing high tech here at all)
IH is the same and the new 6.0 PS has but loaded with problem and it
remains to be seen what the new one coming out will do. What would
impress me would be if they could get the weight down a good bit
because in a pickup, your engine and transmision should not equal 20
to 25 percent of its total weight. Deisel became popular because of
lower fuel prices and no serious emisson requiremtns. Well, that has
all changed and starting in 2008 it it is going to put it on a lot
tighter leash and cheap fuel is gone forever and lower sulpher
processing with add 8 to 15 cent a gallon more too. Factor all on this
and they will likely loss a lot of luster in coming years as it will
be easy to make a Gas engine run on gas, alchol, propane, natural gas,
hydrogen or the soon to be marketed P fuels while a diesel can only
run on diesel or biodesel basically and biodiesel increase NOX
emissons even more when they are going to take drastic measures to
reduce NOX starting in 2008 and we do not need a fuel  to make it
worse (or engine because diesels are VERY big NOX producers that have
escaped regulation for years). The diesels best days in light duty
trucks are behind it, not ahead of it.
-----------------
The SnoMan
www.thesnoman.com

I love diesels.  But here's the rip of it, why cant GM, Ford and Chrysler
come out with a small diesel?  The little Isuzu diesel used in the Pup
truck, I-Mark sedans, and Chevy Chevette was a decent engine except for the
rocker shaft set up for the valves.  As long as you didn't break a timing
belt you were fine.  VW had a decent little diesel in the Rabbits, and
Audis, and most everything they built in Germany.  Corn binders had injector
pump issues that made an Olds 5.7 look dependable.  Cats cost too damn much
to buy and to fix when they break, which happens more often they like to let
on.  Cummins is just Cummins.  While the beast in the Dodge is a good
engine, I can remember a time when you couldn't keep head gaskets on a
Cummins and you could take a nap waiting for the rpm to drop so you could
shift. Detroits leaked, but they ran, and with the advent of the Series 60
engine the leaks went away, so alas did the two stroke, and Mack, I still
see B series Macks earning a living, the last one rolled out of the factory
in '65.  Speaking on Isuzu, I figure ThermoKing has at least twice and close
to three times as many reefer units on the road as the next closest
competitor, which is Carrier. Every one of those ThermoKing units has an
Isuzu diesel engine.  There is no worse duty cycle I can think of than those
of  a reefer's power plant.  20-40 starts a day,short idle then wide open,
short idle and shut down if its in cycle sentry  mode, otherwise its loping
just above idle and then wide open, back to idle, back to wide open.  Why
the hell cant/wont Ford and GM build an engine that can take that?  Why wont
they come out with a small 4 cylinder diesel suitable for the
Ranger/Colorado?  The buyer is some of the problem.  Its got to have 500 hp
and its got to tow 12,000 lbs at 85 mph and he wants 30 mpg doing it.  The
public wanted a small diesel back in the early 70's.  I did more than a few
3V-92 installs into just about every light truck you can think of.  Damn
thing ran well, but still weighed too much.
Whitelightning

Prolly so he can pass on antidotal (anecdotal) information as fact.