Ford's US truck diesels come from Navistar and are based on an old
International Harvester V-8 gas engine design.  Cummins makes diesel
engines for Dodge and GM get's theirs from Isuzu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Power_Stroke_engine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cummins_B_Series_engine

That says a lot about the American consumer and diesel cars in general
and almost nothing about Volvo diesel cars. Last year I travelled a
couple of thousand miles in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. I never saw
a diesel passenger car. Ford light-trucks but no pax cars of any make.

During these long trips I wished I had my D5 with me. Huge fuel tank -
not these ridiculously small fuel tanks in American cars and a decent
consumption. Lately I drove from Switzerland to the Atlantic (600
miles with fuel for another 50 miles) at speeds on highways of about
90 to 95 miles whenever possible. The ride took less than 8 hours.

American consumers don't like that kind of economics? Can't be true!
Why is the American car industry sitting so deep in the s..t? and
losing market share globaly and nationaly?

I want to make one thing clear: I do not say Volvo is the only car
maker with such good engines: Look to the French manufacturers, the
Germans and even the Japanese recognised the need to produce diesel
engines for the global market. Only America is standing aside.

At least at the moment. But my contacts at European manufacturers of
engine components tell me that the large American producers are
sucking up all capacities of machine tools to manufacture diesel
injection systems and new equipment aluminium casting systems. It is a
fair guess that in about one to three years there will be a huge
avalanche of new modern diesel cars reaching the North American
markets.

And again: I'm strongly convinced that the conventional gasoline
engine has no future with its low efficiency and its high CO2 output
except for special purposes.

Joerg