Ford, GM have discussed merger, alliance

Joe wrote:
> "Tom Adkins" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Nemisis wrote:
> >> Tom Adkins wrote:
> >>
> >>>Nemisis wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Jeep offers a diesel in their Liberty, but with automatic tranny only.
> >> Being a die-hard clutch & stick fan, I did not even consider the
> >> Liberty as a viable option.
> >
> > Hmmm, I wasn't aware of that.
> >
> They've already canceled it.
>
> Getting back to the thread, I agree that a small truck with a deisel would
> be a good thing to market in the states. Right now that would sell. They
> don't really make small trucks at all any more. I get autoweek, and they had
> a long-term Nissan Frontier (not a Titan) and that was getting 14 mpg, about
> half what Nissan pickups used to get 15 years ago.
>
> Obviously there's an opportunity there.

I had an 83 Nissan King Cab with the 2.4 L 4-cyl that was a blast to
drive. The bolt pattern was the same as a Chevy 6-lug, so I went out
and got a set of 4 and put 205/60R15 tires on it. It cornered like it
was on rails, and gave me 24 mpg back and forth to work, semi-city type
driving. I wish I could find another small pickup like that. I had 2
Toyota Tacomas and they were junk.

In article .com>, Nemisis wrote:
>
> Brent P wrote:
>> In article .com>, Nemisis wrote:
>>
>> > Interesting, because having just visited Ford of Germany's website, the
>> > only available engine in the Ranger is a 2.5 L turbo-diesel. How tough
>> > would it be to bring that truck here?
>>
>> Very. The oil companies do not produce diesel fuel in the US clean enough
>> (low enough in sulfur) to run them. That is slowly changing.
>
> OK, explain what the sulfer content of the fuel has to do with these
> Euro diesels.
> Just curious to know as most of the old diesels would run on almost
> anything.

catalyst survival as I recall. He
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicer...d/chapter2.htm

"The new ULSD standards finalized by the EPA are crucial to the
successful development of emission control equipment for heavy-duty
diesel engines. The catalysts to be used in meeting the emission
standards can be severely damaged by sulfur contamination. For example,
catalyst-based particulate filters for diesel engines have shown
significant losses of conversion efficiency with fuel containing 30 ppm
sulfur, particularly in colder climates. With respect to NOx adsorbers,
researchers have found that at fuel sulfur levels above 10 ppm, the heavy
truck emission standard may not be attainable."

Happy now?