Diesel Engines And Well Known Gas

In passenger cars, the diesel engine has never really caught on.  During the middle to late 70s, diesel engines in passenger cars did notice a surge in sales due to the OPEC oil embargo, although that is the only real significant penetration that diesel engines have made in the market. 

Although diesel engines are more efficient, there are eight historical problems that may have held them back.
    1.  Due to the higher compression ratios, diesel engines tend be heavier than the equivalent gasoline engine.
    2.  Diesel vehicles and diesel engines tend to be more expensive than gas.
    3.  Because of their weight and compression ratio, diesel engines tend to have lower RPM ranges than gas engines.  This gives diesel engines more torque rather than higher horsepower, and this tends to make diesel vehicles slower in terms of acceleration.
    4.  Diesel engines have to be fuel injected, and in the past fuel injection was very expensive and less reliable.
    5.  Diesel engines tend to produce more smoke and smell very funny when compared to gasoline engines.
    6.  They are harder to start in cold weather and if they contain glow plugs, the diesel engines may require you to wait before you start the engine so that the glow plugs can heat up.
    7.  Diesel engines are much noisier than gas engines and tend to vibrate quite a bit.
    8.  Diesel fuel is less available than gas.

Although one or two of these disadvantages would be acceptable, a group of them is a big turn away for many people.

Even though the list above are reasons in the past as to why diesel never really took off, you can expect these reasons to get corrected and improved in the future, meaning that you will see more and more diesel vehicles on the road.