Diesel is Dead

Is there any good reason to buy a diesel-powered vehicle anymore – leaving aside how few diesel egines are even available anymore? It’s hard to come up with one.

Disadvantage number one –

Diesel fuel used to cost less than gasoline.

This alone was a good reason to buy a diesel powered vehicle because it saved you money at every fill-up. The reason why diesel used to cost less was because it cost less to refine diesel; it was a simpler fuel, so to speak. Then it got more complicated – and expensive. It had to be refined further; it had to be made low (and then ultra low) sulfur content, to comply with the regs requiring this and also to avoid causing problems in “modern” diesel engines that had to be designed to burn low-sulfur diesel, to comply with the regs.

Diesel fuel now costs a lot more than gasoline, eliminating the at-the-pump savings that used to be a very good reason to buy a diesel-powered vehicle.

Disadvantage number two –

Diesel engines are no longer simpler – and less expensive to maintain – than gas-burning engines. They were, once. They were so simple, in fact, that they didn’t need electronics to run. Once you got them running, they just kept running. You could get them running by roll-starting them down a hill. You could then drive such a vehicle as long as you liked without a battery or a working alternator, even. Other than the (mechanical) injection pump, there was very little a diesel engine needed to work other than . . . diesel. So long as the injector pump worked, the engine would probably work.

All modern passenger vehicle diesel engines are now electronically injected, just like gas engines and dependent on electronics, just like gas engines. They also have particulate traps and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) injection systems. These encumbrances have made diesel engines a hassle as well as even more expensive to operate and maintain than gas engines and reduced their longevity, too – eliminating what was once another good reason to buy a diesel engine.

Also, most cannot safely burn vegetable oil (let alone used cooking oil) as the old, mechanically injected diesels could. It gunks up their emissions controls.

Disadvantage number three –

It is almost impossible to find a diesel engine option in any new (2026 model year) light-duty passenger vehicle – including half-ton trucks. One of the few 2026 models that still does offer a diesel engine option is the Chevy Silverado – and it’s only available in the higher trim/crew cab models such as the Custom Trail Boss, which starts at $52,900. The diesel option adds another $2,390 to the sticker price. The cost might be worth it, if spending the extra to get the diesel got you appreciably better fuel economy, but it doesn’t. The Chevy’s available diesel 3.0 six touts 20 city, 23 highway. The less expensive 2.7 liter turbocharged four that’s standard in the Chevy touts 17 city, 22 highway and makes more horsepower and almost as much torque. 310 horsepower and 430 ft. lbs. of torque. You can also get a less expensive V8 ($1,595) in less expensive trims such as the LT ($47,900) that will cost you less to own because it costs so much less to buy and only costs a little more to fuel.

None of the above is the fault of the diesel engine. It is the result of the federal regulatory regime systematically undermining the market viability of the diesel engine by rendering it the more expensive and hardly more efficient option. It has effectively outlawed the diesel engine from the passenger car market via the “emissions” requirements that are so extreme as to make complying with them too onerous and expensive to be worth the bother, from the viewpoint of vehicle manufacturers. They know they can’t sell diesels that cost more than gas engines and don’t reduce ownership costs, increase longevity or reduce over-the-road maintenance costs – so they have given up trying to “certify” them for sale in the models they sell here. The italics are there to emphasize the fact that in Europe – where the regulatory regime is a little less onerous – diesel engines are commonly available in passenger vehicles, including SUV such as the ’26 Land Rover Defender I recently reviewed (see here if interested).

It is almost as if the regulatory regime in the United States doesn’t want diesel engines to be available, even. Especially not the diesel engines that used to be available in under $25k passenger cars such as the VW Jetta and the Chevy Cruze as recently as about ten years ago. These offered a huge mileage advantage – 50-plus MPG on the highway – and did not have the disadvantages (e.g., particulate traps, DEF) that afflict the straggling handful of diesel engines that are still available (and only in big trucks) today.

And that explains why those diesel engines are no longer available today.

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