you can thank our govmit for that. And it will be getting a whole lot worse soon too, hold tight.

I think part of the problem was that the cost of fuel in Europe - and particularly the UK where it's currently around $7 per imperial gallon but has been much higher - got so high that more and more fleet operators demanded diesel to reduce their costs. We also have 'green' taxes that clobber anyone with a higher polluting engine. We have diesel cars that do more than 80mpg and the hybrids simply can't match that and give the performance.

On top of that we have Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel (ULSD) which is much cleaner aand can be used safely with catalytic converters. ULSD has been the only diesel available for more than a decade and we now have up to 10% biofuel mix as standard too.

These European & Japanese engines are designed for this type of ULSD fuel and cannot use the older or low quality (high Sulphur)diesel at all without serious damage.

For some reason the US motor industry never looked seriously at diesel quality until the price of your motor fuels began to climb, it became 'uncool' to have large thirsty petrol engines, and you got a President who talks about climate change. From what I remember George W didn't, nor did some of his predecessors so there was no push. Did your trucking industry lobby hold ULSD up?

May be the current climate will force change, and I do hope you folks over the pond do get the choices you want (and need?). There are far more Diesel 4x4s (about 80% of the E53s are) in the UK than petrol ones and some manufacturers don't even offer a petrol version as no one will buy them here.

I meant 75mpg, not 35mpg when I was talking diesels vs hybrids. Oops. But yes X5Sport, I agree w/ you. I don't know if they lobbied to get ULSD over here or not as I haven't owner a diesel truck in like 8-9yrs. I've considered getting another, but ironically, diesel costs more than gas most of the time. My old diesel gussler F350 and M5...the M3 and GS were roommates cars.