The use of direct fuel injection and turbocharging is not new. Audi and VW have been using it for several years now. It can make for pleasant engines, but its boost to fuel economy is minimal, especially because US emissions laws limit its scope.

Dear Mr. Mulally,
I have spent three years talking to every Ford Salesperson, manager, exec, I can find telling them that we (the customers) want an F-150 with an efficient diesel engine. Everyone has told me that the customers don't want this. I have continued to tell them the customers will line up at the door to get the truck with the efficiency and the torque of the diesel in the mid sized pickup. You still are fiddling around and have no product out there. The writing has been on the wall for a decade. Would you please wake up and listen!

One more comment. The writer of the earlier comment about boost to fuel economy being minimal is simply wrong. I drove one for three years in Europe that was built in Alabama and shipped to Europe. I drove the car 100 mph on the autobahn and never fell below 30mpg and the car weighed over 5000 lbs. 2.7 liter common rail diesel engine. Unfortunately our regulators at EPA in 2006 brought us from having the worst diesel emission standard to having the strictest and today Ford among others has a mess on their hands meeting this standard with the big diesels. Problem relates not to particulates but to NOx emissions. Ours is now 5x stricter than the rest of the world. This is why volkswagen stopped shipment of all the diesel models.

ET, your second post answered your first.
The reason there is no F150 diesel is because of the emissions regulations, which don't apply to the F250 and 350.
All pickup makers are working on light duty diesels, but the job of cleaning them up is not easy....nor cheap.

The mere smell of raw diesel fuel makes me sick with nausea and headaches. What kinid of rednecks like to smell that?? I dont want diesel crap around here, thank you!
The key to car success is lightweight materials simple as that. Airplanes has to be light to be airborne. Cars dont but it helps a lot !
You know what? We cant get enough lightweight materials to satisfy the voracious appetite of car makers churning out 70 millions units a year. That is why we are stuck with heavy and dumb steel and iron which is still plentiful .
Dont you know that we proudce 30 times as much steel as lightweight metals per year. So go figure, Put your money in lightweight materials. Why are you putting your money in them steel scrappers?
That is dumb!

Cost vs. Profit..... A simple analogy... Detroit is fixated on Captialism(Next quarters profit), and therefore doesn't have the gonads to make long term investment...... Other countries make that sacrifice....

How stupid can we be and see that this is what Capitalism costs... Short term gain, is how it works, until somebody has the hutzpah to actually enforce a change that will alter things, long term.... Don't believe me, check out Warren Buffetts writings, and don't forget he is a long term winner.....

Don't wait too long, or there won't be any boomers to see it. hehehehehe

Mike Sartor Sr
Cyborg