re: Why can't we get a compact, 4 cylinder diesel pickup here in the US?

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Later this year GMC will have to more engines available in the Sierra, 300HP 4cyl Turbo

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Why’d they do a 4 cyl ? Just doesn’t sound right.

To me, it's the 90's Isuzu pup, Dodge D50, Ford Ranger, and Chevy S10.

Yeah the Mazda and Mitsubishi are the Ranger and D50. The D50 had a 4 cylinder Mitsubishi engine and was built by Mitsubishi.

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Lots of people used to buy comparatively small Rangers, S-10s, Tacomas, and Frontiers back in the '90s and early '00s.

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Hell, the SCCA had a road-racing series for those little 4-cylinder trucks.

I mean the new Colorados and canyons are obviously bigger, but the old style were definitely compact. Basically were S10’s. I honestly miss them like that.

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just need a small truck for smaller projects, and a 4 cylinder diesel to get great mileage.

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But diesel cost more...what's the point??

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But diesel cost more...what's the point??

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This is completely ignoring the fact that many years at a time, gas cost more. In 2014, gas was over $3 a gallon and diesel was $2.49. Diesel is not always more expensive. Matter of fact, the price seems more stable, long term.

I think one main reason you don’t see more small Diesel engines designed for personal vehicles is concern on the manufacturer’s part that the rigorous emissions standards the government has already imposed on commercial Diesel engines will be applied to these.

Ever increasing emissions regulations are why Caterpillar decided some years ago to get out of the over the road truck engine market. They saw that to meet the emissions standards set, they’d not be able to build an engine that still met Cat’s quality standards and be profitable.

As for the impact on industrial engines (generators, drill rigs, etc.) and earth moving equipment engines (track type tractors, excavators, etc), the “Tier IV Final” emissions standards necessities the addition of an extremely expensive and complacted emissions after treatment system. These systems add thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of dollars in initial expense at time of purchase. Then on top of this, these systems are quite maintenance intensive and highly expensive to repair. And what’s worse, these systems do absolutely nothing to improve the life or performance of the engine in any way.

One good example I recently encounted was a drilling company who has a Cat C18 engine in one of their drills. The engine is a little over six years old. As of this time last year when their “regen” problems started, the engine had just over 8,000 hours on it. Between January of last year and this month they’ve put on an additional roughly 2,000 hours. But over that timespan they’ve had six repairs to the regen system that totals of $24,700. That’s $24,700 they’ve had to spend on a system that doesn’t do anything for them. But, being that there are no other options they have no choice but to fork out this money.

I understand the smaller regen system in an automotive engine would be far less expensive than on these big industrial engines. But they’d still add a huge cost both up front and during the life of the vehicle. Auto manufacturers realize this and thus, I believe this is one main reason they’re not producing small Diesel engines. They’re afraid the government will do to the automotive diesel market what they’ve done to the industrial diesel market. And unlike the customer in the industrial Diesel engine market, customers in the automotive diesel market do have other options.

I'd rather my large truck with roughly the same mileage.

I had an Isuzu 4x2 diesel pickup that I had that was used in the 1980's. I bought it used with 14,000 miles for $3,995 in the late 1980's from a co-worker. Used it for a year and it was a pretty reliable truck.

Sold it to my friend who was a commercial HVAC tech for what I paid for it.
He used it for 10 years and finally sold it. He like that it was small and easy to get in tight parking spaces in areas with limited parking.

I think the price with all the safety features, emissions, and electronics would make this truck if mfg today cost more than a 1/2 ton full-size truck.