I agree that the elimination of manuals likely gives a benefit to the other 98% that chose automatic (though not necessarily passed on 1:1 of course), but I disagree on the diesel. Sure, the market preference is probably poor enough to bar it, but it’s crippled by US efficiency requirements into a non-starter for nearly every make. The US has stricter NOx allowances than the EU while also measuring emissions per gallon, whereas the EU rates vehicles by mile. So yes, NOx is pretty bad, especially when concentrated in city settings, but the pollution of passenger diesel in general is overblown when looking at net emissions over distance.
Let’s also not forget that Americans were forever soured on passenger car diesels by General Motors, and their god-awful 5.7L IDI Oldsmobile diesel platform that blew headgaskets every 30k miles and was one of the loudest, most poorly refined passenger car production engines on the market.
I agree that the elimination of manuals likely gives a benefit to the other 98% that chose automatic (though not necessarily passed on 1:1 of course), but I disagree on the diesel. Sure, the market preference is probably poor enough to bar it, but it’s crippled by US efficiency requirements into a non-starter for nearly every make. The US has stricter NOx allowances than the EU while also measuring emissions per gallon, whereas the EU rates vehicles by mile. So yes, NOx is pretty bad, especially when concentrated in city settings, but the pollution of passenger diesel in general is overblown when looking at net emissions over distance.
Let’s also not forget that Americans were forever soured on passenger car diesels by General Motors, and their god-awful 5.7L IDI Oldsmobile diesel platform that blew headgaskets every 30k miles and was one of the loudest, most poorly refined passenger car production engines on the market.
Yes and no. Diesel exhaust causes acid rain.