Mahindra Diesel Pickups Comming to America!

[Armati]

I have long sought a fuel efficient light duty diesel pickup. While we have some great trucks from the big three, they don't make anything smaller than a 6L diesel. I hear Ford might make a 4.4L F150 but I won't hold my breath from the big three. Jeep owners are still waiting for the export only diesel Jeeps to be sold here.

I pretty much fell in love with diesel Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger crew cabs they have in Afghanistan.

So, I am happy to report that we may actually get something like this in the US. The Indian company Mahindra plans to sell their trucks here in the US. Check it out:

http://www.mahindrana.com/

You can also sign up for a test drive when they become available in your area.

However, many diesel enthusiasts have been down this road before. The Romanian company AOR has been trying to bring the Cross Lander to America since 2006 http://www.nolimits4x4.com/options.html

[Nathan_Bell]

Not to be a buzzkill, but they have been working on that for two+ years and they keep pushing back the date they will begin bringing them in.

[just a scout]

Ugly, but I'd get a 4 door truck. Specs look good, you know they'll have aftermarkert accessories a year after they sell for a year.

[Bulldog7972]

What is a "common rail diesel"? How many different kind of diesel's are there and is this one of the good ones? I don't think the truck is really all that ugly as some have stated. I would buy one depending on the price. Is this a vehicle that I can expect to last ten years at a minimum with minimal repair costs?

[Mjolnir]

I drove the Ford F150 turbodiesel - the powerplant is a Peugeot-Ford of
EUrope collaboration with increased stroke and is also found in Jag turbodiesels - and I genuinely liked the performance feel and the refinement of the prototype.

I don't recall why we/they chose to abort; probably cost if had to guess.

One thing I always botched about was that we had no turbodiesel vehicles (like the EUropean Focus and use that same powerplant in the Ranger. "Wiser" heads prevailed and later did not protest EPA, CAFE, et ALS, when the current diesel emission regulations were proposed back in the late 90s/early 2000...

"Common Rail" refers to the fuel rail system where there is no fuel return system on the engine.

[Armati]

Not to be a buzzkill, but they have been working on that for two+ years and they keep pushing back the date they will begin bringing them in.

Yep, that is the problem all diesel enthusiasts face. All of these great products get pushed back for one reason or a another. Most major manufactures sell all sorts of great diesel products in Europe, but in our 'capitalist' society we can seem to be able to buy them no matter how much we beg.

Most diesel guys are use to this sort of thing.

[SHIVAN]

Interesting, but I would prefer to see the diesel Hilux come here. They import them for retrofit by DoD and DoS, then export them to foreign service, but they will not import them for sale to consumers.

[EChryst]

+1 to the Hilux. I don't know about these other ugly looking things.

[rob_s]

As we've discussed in the Gear Heads thread in the past, the US govt appears hell bent on destroying whatever benefit diesel may have had with regulation and corn subsidies, and frankly I don't see the attraction to them I once did. If somebody proves me wrong I might be interested again.

[Armati]

Oh yes, there are many co-conspirators in trying to kill American diesel.

Bottom line, bio-diesel is the fuel of patriots.

The US could be the Saudi Arabia of soybean oil. Ethanol is a horrible fuel. On the energy conversion side, you have to put one unit of energy into it's production to get two units out. And even with massive corn subsidies, we still have to import most of our ethanol from Brazil - who are cutting down the Amazon to grow sugar cane for ethanol so we can save the planet by using a renewable fuel. Thank you AlGore!

Bio-diesel (FAME - Fatty-acid Methyl Ester) returns 1:8. Of course, good old fashion petroleum returns 1:30 which is why we still use it!

Never the less, the US will not do a phase shift from the liquid motor fuel paradigm. We will still pump something into our cars for some time to come. For my money that should be diesel with gasoline being a more boutique fuel. We could go to B2 (2% bio-diesel mixed with petroleum diesel) tomorrow in the exact same way we went to ULSD (Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel). In five years we could go to B20 and so on with increases every five years or so to give the market time to adjust.