Originally Posted by nthach
Originally Posted by MNgopher
I read this thread and I am reminded of why diesels in much of anything besides 3/4 ton and up trucks have a bad reputation. And even then, we don't buy diesels in our fleet unless the unit tows heavy consistently...
The fact that a modern vehicle can't survive running in what are normal everyday winter temps for some of us just screams lousy cold weather testing - the suggested list of modifications to a new vehicle to get it to work is ridiculous.
Meantime, my gas powered engine runs like a top in below zero temps... go figure..
Small on-road diesels are hard to get right - and even so are saddled down with emissions regulations. Renault and VW initially didn't want to use Bluetec(SCR), they wanted to use NOx adsorption cats and EGR to reduce NOx. The smaller Japanese diesels offered by Toyota, Honda, Mazda and Subaru also eschewed SCR instead sticking with EGR, VVT and DPF to reduce emissions.
Yanmar and Kubota makes an outstanding small diesel engine... but it's only for boats and off-road power.
Europeans have more or less squared out diesels, but SCR in the beginning was big problem, like for everyone since technology was introduced in vehicles not originally made for it, which required a lot of plumbing etc. Japanese were generally late into diesel race when diesels were name of the game in Europe, and Toyota probably there had biggest issues with their D-4D engines, never mind SCR issues they introduced later like everyone else. Their 2.2ltr were absolute disaster which prompted them to start buying from BMW, and 3.0 D-4D is not some happiness too (I have Prado their without SCR, with DPF and it is of mediocre reliability, far behind my BMW's diesels I had). Mazda has interesting diesels there that generally performed OK. Honda and Mitsubishi are OK.
IMO, anything below 3.0ltr or smaller Europeans are ruling that in performance and reliability. They are longest in that game and some Japanese manufacturers had some really, really horrible engines (Isuzu sourced engines in Opel: 1.6ltr, 1.7ltr and to certain extent DTI engines).