Originally Posted by NO2
Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
Toyota totally missed the boat not importing their diesels into the US.
That's because the price of diesel compared to gasoline is relatively much higher in the USA. Toyota is a very rational company and made a good decision based on the local market.
Here is an example of two stations 4 miles apart, in Sarnia, ON and Port Huron USA.
Esso Sarnia: Regular 109.6/L Diesel 122.3/L
equal to USD: 3.11/gal 3.48/gal 12% higher
Speedy PT Huron: Regular 2.47/gal Diesel $2.95/gal 19.5% higher
The differential is even greater when you take low cost sellers like Costco:
Costco Roseville MI
Regular: 2.19/gal Diesel: 2.79/gal 33% higher
Diesel light duty vehicles do not sell well in the US except for trucks with towing applications because of the cost differential of fuel, negating any mileage advantage, and the higher initial cost of diesel engines. In Ontario, and most other provinces in Canada, tax differentials favor the economics of diesel.
It is not that. Toyota is staying away on North America market from complex engines. Their diesel engines are average at best, and some are absolutely abysmal performance wise and reliability wise (this is especially true of small 2.0 D-4D engines they introduced in Europe some 15 years ago). This would not go well with their perception of reliability that people have.
I own Land Cruiser Prado 3.0 D-4D in Europe, and my BMW X5 35d was 10 times a vehicle compare tot hat one, especially when it comes to maintenance. In the end, Toyota is buying now diesel engines for smaller vehicles from BMW.
If Toyota had confidence in their engines they would fit LC with V8 for the US market. But also, that means they would have to fit SCR into LC, and all manufacturers have issues with that system.