Boxer diesel, you bet.

[Brucelee]

September 5, 2008 We’d been looking at pictures and static displays of Subarusubaru ’s horizontally-opposed diesel enginediesel engine for several years before seeing it in the Legacy and Outback earlier this year. The engine is exceptionally compact, very light and has a low centre-of-gravity which benefits handling agility and makes best use of the all-wheel drive system. Throw in gobs of torquetorque (the 2.0 litre version produces 258 lb ft at 1,800 rpm), class-leading fuel economy and emissions and the refinement, smoothness and sharp throttle-response it has already displayed and it makes the coming Forester Boxer Diesel which goes on sale in later this month and the Impreza Boxer Diesel (January 2009) very enticing indeed. The Forester will be unveiled in Paris next week.

Both the new Forester SUVsuv and Impreza five-door will be unveiled next week at the 2008 Paris Motor Show featuring Subaru’s highly-acclaimed new 2.0 litre (150 PS at 3,600 rpm) Boxer Diesel engine.

Both the Forester and Impreza Boxer Diesels feature new six-speed manual gearboxes while the engine itself benefits from a new closed-type dieselhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel particulate filter.

No other SUV can better the 44.8 mpg Combined and 167 g/km of the Forester 2.0D X.

The Forester 2.0D produces 147 PS and 258 lb ft torque and the Impreza 150 PS and 258 lb ft – both at 3,600 rpm and 1,800 rpm respectively.

[rick3000]

And we're never going to see one in the US?
(At least for another few years)

[Adam]

Originally Posted by rick3000

And we're never going to see one in the US?
(At least for another few years)

You're probably right, but subaru is crazy not to. With that kind of mpg rating I'd think they would fly off the dealership lots.

[Dr. Kill]

I continue to wave the diesel flag and hope that this country begins accepting what the Europeans have understood for a while now.

I would much rather have a 62MPG diesel Golf than a 50MPG Hybrid Prius.

http://blogs.thecarconnection.com/blogs/marty_blog/2009/vw-golf-bluemotion-concept-gets-62-mpg/

Diesel is not a transitional technology. The engines are robust and produce loads of torque. Still, I wonder what would happen if someone built a diesel hybrid...

[rick3000]

I agree. Diesels cars are much better than any hybrid alternative, and can go more than an electric cars 120 miles range. GM and Ford have diesels in Europe but not in the US and know they are paying the price. (They just asked the US for a $15 billion loan.)

[Quickurt]

Originally Posted by rick3000

I agree. Diesels cars are much better than any hybrid alternative, and can go more than an electric cars 120 miles range. GM and Ford have diesels in Europe but not in the US and know they are paying the price. (They just asked the US for a $15 billion loan.)

There are two reasons we are not getting the diesel cars.
1- our rediculous trucking industry consumes so much diesel that could be saved had we a realistic rail system, like europe and
2-the amount of gasoline and diesel from a barrel of oil is not adjustable. We get x number gallons of gas and x number gallons diesel from a barrel of oil and it is ALL already spoken for. More diesel cars would just run the demand, and price, up so high on diesel that it would more than offset the mpg savings.
I'm too tired to go looking for a link tonight, but the number of miles a train can take a ton of freight on a gallon of diesel will make you sick.
A new rail system would go a long, long way to solving our energy problems. Run trains hub to hub and deliver via truck from there. Set up the stations like a modern airport. There's no reason modern technologies and computer controlled inventory movement cannot make the load/unload slicker than owl dukey. Pay Walmart to run it. Their warehouse, load/unload systems are phenominal and a major reason they are able to sell at the prices they do.