Cadillac Announces ATS Diesel

my parents had a cadillac diesel in the 70's. gas engine converted to diesel. biggest piece of c&@% ever made. and the rest of the car was too. his first and last gm product.

 

Now GM adds Cadillac ATS Diesel to the list. The Cruze diesel was announced last year for 2013. I can see them advertising highway mileage with a manual transmission.

 

If I went by my dad's '71 Corona, I never would have purchased a Prius.

 

I'd let this one play out for at least two model years before making a purchase.

 

Opel has a 192hp 2 liter diesel available in the Insignia. That would be good in the 3400 lb ATS.

 

They won't be so stupid as to trying to design a diesel from the ground up I reckon?

So if they simply use the constant evolving diesel technology of Europe and Asian companies supplying the European market, then it should be a powerfull and economical engine.

As mentioned, diesels are very often close to the 100hp per liter ratio nowadays for 'smaller' engines.
So knowing Cadillac, it will undoubtedly be a 4 liter 250hp thing? (Or a 3L 200hp if for the European market).

But before they compete with a BMW diesel, they have to step up a notch. Or two. Or three.

BMW335d

 

American diesels were one of the reasons why Americans don't buy diesels.

However, it should be pointed out that European diesels were necessarily great either, it's just that higher fuel prices gave them more incentive to put up with issues. Also, gasoline engines weren't as durable which made the diesel engine seem solid in comparison.

Since it's not going to have a pick-up engine, Cadillac will use an existing European diesel engine so the engine itself won't be new. If it's comfortably Euro 6 compliant they may only have to add an SCR system to meet Tier 2 Bin 5 and that would mean less of a mileage hit.

 

Cadillac already has experience in this area with the BLS (Rebadged Saab), so I'm confident that they will find a suitable Opel diesel to put in it.

 

When you all fell out of love with diesels back in the early eighties we've been cracking on with them. They're now nothing like you remember. Also, European diesel emission legislation is now pretty similar to yours and therefore it's easier to modify it for your compliance rules.

As someone has already said, don't judge diesels from 30 year old memories, without comparing Toyota's to the rot boxes they were 30 years ago too.

Diesels aren't suitable for everyone but neither are hybrids. If you drive lots of highway miles then they're worth considering.

 

GM does have its own advanced diesel technology from its European and Asian operations as do Ford and Chrysler (European only). But there is very real concern in the US in that Diesel fuels do not consistently meet the requirements for common rail systems. This problem has plagued VW in particular, but is so prevalent that the manufactures of common rail systems wrote a joint position letter (allegedly addressed to US refiners) reiterating the latest standards for Diesel fuel. See link below for letter signed by Bosch, Denso, Stanadyne, Delphi and Continental.

delphi.com/pdf/diesel/FIEM_Common_Position_Statement_2009.pdf

 

Oldsmobile V8 engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It did to diesels in the US, what the Volt is trying to do to hybrids, discredit them totally.

 

It's not the technology, it's the manufacturer that has me a bit worried.

 

240 and 300d's upto 85 were indestructible. but, they were noisy, smelly, highly polluting, rattletraps and waaaaaay underpowered. but i did have a 10 year love affair with them in the 90's.

 

Hmmm only in Albania or anywhere else where annual emission and safety checks are erm, somewhat lax.

You'd be hard pushed to find a 20 year old diesel still running over here though there'll be many petrol versions about of similar age. Maybe the diesels had a harder more commercial life but I know from my taxi experience that the older (and higher the mileage) a diesel gets, the harder it is to force it through its annual test. Many a time I had to use two bottles of injector cleaner in one tank and give the car a 30 mile blast down the motorway hours before the emission test. There was one time I forgot, the vehicle was tested and promptly blew a thick residue of wet black soot all over his testing equipment. I failed and he was not happy. Oh and yes it did have an early particle filter.

Saying that, diesels have got better in the last 10 years (even last 2 years) and excel in certain circumstances - highway use. But things have moved on since your memories of diesels back in 1982!?!

 

Don't worry. Opel has plenty of experience in both diesels for the Vectra, Insignia and vans. Their 6sp. transmission is a pleasure to use as well.

 

will regenerative braking let brakes last longer? will the idling engine stop when I stop forward motion or when coasting? will the fuel be cheaper? will maintenance be less $$?
will emissions be less?

When one can answer yes to all, why would anyone buy diesel versus hybrid?

I find the hybrid world has SOOOOO many more advantages than diesel...not just higher overall MPGs...

 

Yes and no.

Diesels are available with stop/start feature and some do get better mpg than Prius -- at least in UK versions. But even "clean" diesels do pollute more than Prius and their brake wear is not mitigated by regen braking. But you never face a traction battery replacement. A diesel with something like the Honda IMA might make an interesting alternative.

(mpg cited below is imperial, not US gallons)

http://www.sincerelysustainable.com...ay-mpg-ratings-of-us-cars-including-the-prius

 

so it's smaller, manual tranny, and imperial gallons. color me unimpressed. The articles I found to read about this volvo state same size as Insight 2, 5 or 6 speed manual, and 62 MPG imperial combined. Plus, not available in US...or in a versatile hatchback. for all it's combined features, no one has what Prius delivers.

Volvo C30, S40 and V50 1.6D DRIVe review - Telegraph

Volvo S40 DRIVe: What Car? greenest car of the year | Environment | guardian.co.uk

And this is 2 plus years ago...

I applaud any reduction in emissions and fossil fuel usage. My idea of a versatile 'clean' efficient vehicle may be different than some...YMMV as they say. Still, not a diesel fan at all, knowing and driving hybrid for 8 years.