No diesel

[LIVEABOARD]

GM postpones diesel pickup engine General Motors Corp.'s cash problems have snuffed out plans for a small diesel engine that would have improved the fuel efficiency of the company's light-duty pickup trucks. Citing the poor economy, the struggling automaker announced Wednesday that it is indefinitely postponing its plan to put a 4.5-liter Duramax V-8 diesel engine in the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups next year.

 

[eugene]

Saw this on another forum, it was supposed to have made the economy of a full size truck in the mid to hgh 20's which is in the cross over suv range and the cross over suv's are what took a lot of sales from the full size trucks when gas prices went up so if they kept up with it it would have brough a lot of those sales back. Sounds like it may have helped save them if they had made it into production.

 

[ujoint]

Yea, it's sad. That engine is really innovative. Maybe they'll green light it again soon.

 

[RocKrawler]

Same thing happened with Ford, the "silent steel" they used in the F150 firewalls to quiet the passenger compartment highlighted in the commercials back around 2004 was originally designed for the introduction of a smaller IH turbodiesel, but the epic fail of the new 6.0 with all its issues & failures caused Ford to scrap the plan, cancel the contract with IH and leave them stuck with massive R&D and pre-production losses. Though they later got the bugs worked out the damage was done, and although there were rumors of bringing the project back to life the economy has so far prevented the situation from happening. As much as I love the F2/350 platform, it would also be great to see a 1/2T TD offering for those who dont need the extra capacity

 

[milo12]

Yea it is a bummer. The financial situation of the big 3 along with low oil prices has pretty much killed their light diesel plans. Given the big 3's track record of lack of foresight and incompetence I will not be surprised if, in 1 or 2 years from now, when diesel is back up over $5.00 a gallon, Toyota and Nissan are the only ones that have light duty diesel trucks. I drove Toyota diesels 15 yrs ago overseas and they are awesome. It is a crime that politics have kept them out of this country.

 

[FlexdXJ]

Yea it is a bummer. The financial situation of the big 3 along with low oil prices has pretty much killed their light diesel plans. Given the big 3's track record of lack of foresight and incompetence I will not be surprised if, in 1 or 2 years from now, when diesel is back up over $5.00 a gallon, Toyota and Nissan are the only ones that have light duty diesel trucks. I drove Toyota diesels 15 yrs ago overseas and they are awesome. It is a crime that politics have kept them out of this country.

Cummins has the 5.0L LDD engine coming out soon! I wouldn't be surprised if that ended up in the Yota as well as the Dodge.