Call me crazy

[turbovair]

Lately, Ive been thinking that the MAN may have sinister plan to discourage the use of Diesel trucks by the common man.

1.Initially more expensive to purchase
2.Oil changes more expensive
3.Maintenance/parts costs generally higher
4.No price break when buying fuel-diesel equal to or higher than gasoline
5.Emissions tests annually- stricter

Wheres the benefit?

Sure, you can tow more and get about 30% better mileage than a gas rig, but it just doesnt seem that the Feds are doing anything to encourage diesel use. Sure, we will always need them for HEAVY equipment, but I'm starting to think that they would be happy if diesel pickups would go away.Go Ahead-Call Me Crazy!
(probably should have posted on General Diesel!)

[NH2112]

Well it seems to me that the MAN isn't going out of his way to discourage diesel ownership (other than establishing too-strict emissions limits) but neither is he going out of his way to encourage ownership of vehicles that use less fuel per mile travelled/hour running.

What I don't understand is why the auto industry doesn't just go to scrubbers (exhaust purifiers) instead of all these high-tech and high-failure diesel EGR systems. Diesel forklifts running scrubbers can be used indoors, where you'd normally be stuck with electrics, because absolutely no particulates come out of the exhaust. The only caveat is that the engine has to be warmed to operating temperature before the scrubber is 100% effective, but that's not really a problem because it would still drastically reduce the amount of particulate emissions from diesel vehicles. The cost can't be any higher than current pollution-control systems, either, and performance is better.