This post was written originally for the Santa Monica Daily Press newspaper (www.smdp.com) so please excuse the few Southern California references ... We've also added to the original with some information we think might be important to Huffington Post readers (and frankly we're allowed just 700 words to tell our story in the newspaper each week; sometimes these topics just deserve more!).
Clean-Diesels - They're Here!
Carmakers are blowing the dust off some of their oldest marketing plans to get Americans
interested in cars and trucks outfitted with new, clean-diesel engines. And some of those plans call for using racing to get "clean-diesels" into the minds of a younger generation of car-buyers who don't remember GM's debacle with diesel engines from 1978 through 1985; they're also using a modern-day version of the old "Mobil Economy Run" (remember that?) to make their point about the new engines.
(Various Audi models, some with a 2-liter clean-diesel engine, others with a 3-liter model, ready for a cross-country trip; Audi hopes it to be a record-setting jaunt which buyers will remember; what's funny is that the skyline in the background is Los Angeles, not NYC).
- At 9AM, October 6th, a fleet of 23 clean-diesel Audis were slated to leave Manhattan's Tavern on the Green (in NYC's Central Park) on a trans-continental trek demonstrating clean-diesel efficiency;
- Volkswagen has created an entire racing series based around their clean-diesel Jetta TDI in Canada and the US. Thirty factory-prepared and maintained 2009 clean-diesel Jetta TDIs are being piloted by talented, up-and-coming drivers, aged 16 to 26 (16?!);
- VW recently sponsored an American couple on a "diesel tour" of the Lower 48, and their Jetta TDI managed 58.82 miles per gallon, enough to get it into Guinness' Book of World Records. The couple (still married, a miracle of sorts in itself) took 20 days to cover 9,419 miles, and not using "slow as you go, hyper-miling" tricks, either. They stayed within 5-mph of the speed limit whenever possible.
(VW has created an entire racing series to promote their 2009 Jetta TDI clean-diesel).
Having driven a Geo Metro from Hollywood (corner of Sunset and Van Ness, the KTLA/TV5 studio lot) to Las Vegas - and back - on one tank of gas, I can attest to how tiring such a trip can be. Unlike the couple in the VW event, though, we were hyper-miling as much as possible. And in a very stock automobile, even one with a 1-liter, 3-cylinder engine, we found ourselves drafting every big rig we could, making the trip at an average speed of about 45 mph. Maybe. Running several hundred miles on I-15, which goes through some of the most boring parts of the desert, is bad enough at 85; take it from me, you don't want to do it at 45. From 1990 through '94, the Metro was built in Canada by Suzuki.
Volkswagen's Jetta TDI clean-diesel is being delivered to showrooms now, and might even be found in some if a potential buyer is willing to work their iPhone to track one down (we can imagine executive assistants throughout Hollywood being so ordered by their publicly-green bosses). Will Leonardo pull-up to the next Oscar ceremony in a clean-diesel VW? Maybe an Audi?
This is no green-scam, but a reality. While these new clean-diesels keep the benefits of diesel engines, they also lose their sorriest and most-memorable negatives.
Those benefits: Great mileage compared to a gasoline engine of similar size and power, plus huge gobs of low-end engine torque, which gives these diesels a surprisingly quick launch when the light turns green. Diesels also offer much-longer engine life; stories abound (along with odometers) bearing witness to million-mile-plus diesel engines, and in passenger cars, not just big rig 18-wheelers.
(Honda has displayed their own clean-diesel Accord, and they're expected to sell it in the US within another year).
Drawbacks? Gone, finally, is the tell-tale engine rattle and clatter advertising someone's engine choice to everyone within earshot, as well as the thick black smoke and devilish smell emanating from the back of the car. Gone, too, is the interior noise and vibration in a diesel-equipped car, known to have shaken control knobs loose off the dashboard, as well as more than a few tooth fillings ("Honey, here - push on my amalgam filling that just fell out and maybe we can get KCRW!").
Most important, all of the coming clean-diesels have been approved for sale as new cars in all 50 states - yes, even here in California. California's Air Resources Board (CARB, or "the enemy" as it's known to carmakers) makes the decision as to whether a car or truck can be sold in the state. With 10 percent or more of major carmakers' total US sales happening there, if a model can't be sold in California, it generally won't be brought into the US for sale in any other state. Now that CARB has signaled "pass" on clean-diesels, the sales race is officially on.
Yes, one can soon drive by Ed Begley Jr's house in a clean-diesel and feel not one bit guilty of having polluted his family's airspace. And from what we've seen on his Planet Green "Living With Ed" reality TV show, they're a nice family, too. 
(Audi's R10 race cars use turbocharged diesel engines; here they're seen at the 12 Hours of Sebring, which the company from Ingolstadt, Germany, won).
Here's the fun part. Let's go racing! But clean-diesel racing?
For the past few years, Audi has dominated the world's most important sports car endurance races, especially the 24 Hours of LeMans, using race cars with 5.5-liter turbocharged 12-cylinder diesel engines. That's right, they've won LeMans - several times - using diesel engines. And the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring (apparently, sports car drivers like long races). Audi competitor Peugeot has developed their own proven-competitive diesel race car engine, giving rise to the belief that the French carmaker will try, yet again, to sell cars in the US.
And there's the All-VW "TDI Cup" series Volkswagen is using to put the phrase "clean-diesels" into our minds. Or the minds of young potential car-buyers and, by default, their parents, too. But drivers in this series as young as 16? A little scary.
We saw clean-diesel engines from both Nissan and Kia, among others, at recent international auto shows, and Japanese and Korean carmakers are deeply involved in bringing this technology to market, especially in the US.
Good news from Detroit, too: Dodge plans more than one clean-diesel engine built by Cummins for their pickups and other trucks sometime "after 2009" they told us. Ford plans an all-new 6.4-liter Power Stroke engine with clean-diesel technology, and GM plans a big twin-cam V8 and a more car-like V6 clean-diesel. They'll all be 50-state legal with sales starting about 2010 or soon after. All these Detroit Three clean-diesel engines, like many from European and Asian car-builders, will fit into their respective SUV and truck lines, as well as some of their crossovers and larger sedans. GM says both their V8 and V6 clean-diesels will fit into a space small enough to hold their small-block 350cid V8.
(Ford promises an all-new 6.4-liter Power Stroke clean-diesel for their new F-series truck).
Europe has clearly had a head start in developing clean-diesel engines. We're not certain of the answer, but while Detroit is to be lauded for their own clean-diesel engine development, why is the US again on the late side in bringing this technology to American roadways? Perhaps Detroit can use some of that $25 billion bailout they started getting last week from Washington to speed-up the process of getting clean-diesel cars and trucks into the hands of American drivers.
So throw those gas masks away, and enjoy the cool breeze of the new clean-diesels. If you can find one, that is - We have a feeling they're going to prove very popular, very quickly. Remember when people were willing to pay for someone's place "in line" when the Prius first went on-sale on the Web? We expect a similar demand for these cars and trucks, though obviously there will be many more of them available on the market than the single Prius model, which is still being built at just one factory in Japan (Toyota will start building the next-generation Prius at a plant in Texas in late 2010).
How better to enjoy cruising Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu during an August Friday afternoon than in a clean-diesel?
(Audi's clean-diesel cross-country trip can be monitored at http://www.audimileagemarathon.com; go to www.VW.com and type "TDI Cup" into the search window for details on the Jetta TDI clean-diesel racing series).