Reader Question: Top Ten Diesels?

Here’s the latest reader question, along with my reply!

Arthur asks: I’ve been following your commentary about autos, etc. on Real News with David Knight. Would like to know if I can get your opinion and list on the best top ten moderately priced diesel cars of 2018-19?

My reply: I wish I could list ten moderately priced diesel cars… or even five.

The sad fact is there are almost no diesel-powered cars available new, period. And the ones which are – like the diesel-powered version of the 2019 Chevy Cruze – which stickers for $25,620 to start – aren’t particularly affordable.

VW was the only car company selling a line of affordable diesel-powered cars. Before it was pulled off the market, you could have bought a new TDI-powered Jetta for about $22k. The Cruze is not a bad car by any means, but unless you can haggle down the price by several thousand dollars, it is much harder to justify its purchase on saving money grounds. It costs more than several hybrid cars that get significantly better mileage – such as the Hyundai Ioniq and the Kia Niro.

Mazda was – reportedly – going to offer a Sky-D (diesel) version of the Mazda3 and possibly some others, but it is unclear whether they will actually make it here.

Reason? Diesels – affordable ones especially – are a threat to the EV Agenda. That is why they are being rendered more expensive – artificially – by completely unreasonable federal emissions requirements which make it almost impossible to sell them in other than higher-priced cars, which serves the purpose of checking them as a threat to EVs.

There are some good choices – for now – when it comes to diesel-powered trucks.

You can get a diesel in the mid-sized Chevy Canyon and GMC Colorado pick-ups; unfortunately, the engine is only offered in high-trim models (bingo, again) and that makes them harder to justify unless you are buying the truck to pull/haul.

The Nissan Titan XD is another. Cummins turbo-diesel V8; strong as a Clydesdale. But not cheap.

My favorite of this bunch is the Ram 1500 diesel – but you’ll have to buy the “Classic” version (last year’s model) as it doesn’t look like they will be offering that engine in the 2019 Ram.

PS: I’ll be on with David again today – at 10:30 east coast time!

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Got a question about cars – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in!

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