March 24, 2008 The US's Conservative Fears of Technology and Change

03:17pm by Cheechoo (Cars)

I just read about the Wired blog’s post about the BMW 118d winning the “World Green Car Award.” It’s a 1.8L 1-series that runs on Europe’s clean-diesel. This gets people thinking: well, why don’t they bring something like that to the US? Well, why don’t they?

The problem is, the United States is either one of two things: 1) So insistent that diesel is bad for the environment and dirty (the diesel we get in the US is dirtier… but not clean-diesel in europe), and we can’t get by that stigma, even if diesel becomes 1000% cleaner than gasoline, 1000% more efficient, 1000% more powerful, and 1000% cheaper; people will still think the word ‘diesel’ means ‘dirty’. That and/or we are 2) So pwned by big-oil that our huge oil corporations will stop any change from happening by way of lobbyists (which is what has been going on for years.)

If you just take a step back and look at what’s happening: The world’s cleanest car without sacrificing power, comfort, or looks, will not come to the US, which is the world’s biggest car-consuming country, and is also on the forefront of green technology and enviro-friendliness. Just doesn’t make sense.

I am all for things like this. I’m big on protecting the environment, and I’m also a big car enthusiast. People think you can’t be both of those because they are mutually exclusive. But This BMW (Hell, I don’t even like BMW that much) bridges the gap completely. It has 221 lb-ft of torque in a 1 series...