Last summer I spent two very informative days with the good folks at Delphi Automotive as they showed off the fabulous technology they have developed to make diesel engines run better and cleaner.
They gave us a tour of their diesel fuel injection plant, they gave us a technical backgrounder and a test drive at a fun track, and the extremely able and articulate head of their European operations gave an excellent overview of the worldwide growth in the diesel market.
Delphi's was by far the best and most thorough presentation I have ever seen on the case for diesel engines (and I have seen a few lately) and I think they're on the cutting edge of that technology and will be successful in their endeavours.
If I thought it were a kosher thing for a guy in my job to do, I would probably even invest in Delphi stock on the strength of their diesel technology and, even more importantly, their QuadraSteer technology.
But while I and the other North American writers on the program found it all very interesting and compelling in a theoretical sense, we didn't try to pretend we were excited by the concept of diesels.
As much as it will pain them to hear this, Delphi and the rest of the automotive world should pretty much give up on trying to sell diesel-powered passenger cars or trucks to Canadians and Americans in any great numbers.
The auto companies will find this irritating, and for very good reason -- they need us to buy diesels.
It is staggeringly expensive for a car company and its suppliers to develop an engine of any sort, you see. The other day on the Jaguar S-Type launch, for example, I listened to the car's chief engineer talk about the work and cost associated with creating a diesel for that car and several other Ford products. By the look on his face and the tone of his voice, you'd have though he'd been asked to design a nuclear engine for the car.