GM Prepares U.S. Market for its Diesels, Chevy Cruze to Debut First

CADILLAC’S DIESEL

Chevrolet was not alone as these problems impacted all GM divisions offering passenger cars with diesel engines.  Indeed, Cadillac was the first U.S. automaker to offer a diesel back in the late 70s and its 5.7-liter V-8 diesel engines suffered from similar issues.

The poor reliability of these engines tarnished the reputation of diesels in the U.S for generations to come.

Perhaps ironically, at the same time GM was dealing with its diesel problems, the giant automaker was pushing its cylinder deactivation technologies, such as Cadillac’s V-8-6-4 engine, with equally disastrous results in terms of drivability and reliability.

GM wasn’t the only automaker to offer a diesel in the 1980s, although it was the most successful in terms of sales volume.  From 1984 to 1985, Lincoln offered a BMW-built 2.4-liter inline six-cylinder diesel in the Lincoln Continental Mark VII.

General Motors has had much better luck in offering diesels in more recent years.  Diesels make up 70% of new car registrations in Germany and GM’s Adam Opel division in Europe offers all of its passenger cars with a choice of several diesel engines.

Indeed, last year, GM sold over 500,000 diesel-powered cars in other markets, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.  This figure includes 33,000 Cruzes.

The reader might wonder why we are bringing up all of these diesel problems from 30 years ago.  In a delicious twist of irony, while Chevy clearly hopes you forget all of these problems that turned consumers off from diesels, the automaker is doing a good job reminding potential customers of the reasons they were turned off from diesels in the 1980s via an infographic it released recently (pictured below).

General Motors plans to launch a second clean diesel in the U.S., the Cadillac ATS, but it has not announced a timeframe for its introduction.

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