"We just don't think North and South America would buy that many diesel cars"

I am so sick of this self-serving, self-fulfilling notion.

Consumers would buy whatever the hype machine made available and advertised, if that's all there was.

The no-longer-so-Big 3 made the systematic choice to engineer demand for SUVs rather than fuel-efficient cars (in the mid-90s American manufacturers were the world leader in hybrid R&D, but they threw it all away - imagine where they and America would be now if they'd gone the opposite route), for no reason other than greed, and they still claw at this now irredentist ideal even though it's no longer viable.

That's simply their ineradicable culture and mindset.

(That they have long marketed these cars in Europe and elsewhere proves, by the way, that they're lying when they claim they can't be profitable here with efficient models.)

Diesel seems to make sense.

It's closer to crude, so there's not as much refinement, by-products and so on as making gasoline.

In theory, you should get more diesel per barrel of crude than gasoline, and so use less crude.

The US auto industry will go through a few rounds of government intensive care but like Grandpa's congestive heart failure there isn't enough left to make a living.

That dog is all but dead. The near-zero value of every SUV sold or leased on the resale market will kill them and kill their customer base.

Two shoe salesmen went to a South Sea island.  One came back glum and reported It's hopeless, the don't wear shoes.  The other was exuberant, gushing The market's wide open, they don't wear shoes - yet!  Way back when in the USA the coffee was dishwater and the tea was worse, and now the coffee is equal to anywhere (but the tea still sucks).  And remember when hybrids were a niche market for bleeding-edgers?  So let's not yet write diesel's obituary over here just yet.

But then let's not lionize the new cuddlier friendlier diesels either.  Yes they are more fuel efficient and can be cheaper to run when diesel is taxed less than gas, but:
the jury is still out on the health effects of micro-particulates;
they are still as noisy as a bucket of nails;
they still have a narrow torque range;
and bring your own latex gloves to the pump or your hands will stink for a week.

Anyone have knowledge of importing euro cars?

Did you all catch that phrase?

In France in 2005 we rented a Ford wagon diesel with a 6 speed manual transmission that got about 48 MPG.  It was a very nice car, and quiet running but there is a lot of shifting.

The ECOnectic also uses a 6 speed manual trans.

Are Americans willing to drive that way?  The French, Germans and Brits are willing because they've been paying $8 per gallon.  We couldn't even rent an auto transmission car in France.

It is surprising to drive around Ireland and see that Ford is one of the most common brands. The Mondeo (Fusion) and Focus are very big hits, and Focus spin-offs like the C-Max win auto show and best seller awards.

My understanding is that they cannot import their European-built cars to the US because of their commitments to the UAW. So, instead they must do expensive retooling to build these cars in the US.

I understand why our US workers would object to Ford flooding the US market with imported Fords. But since Ford is too cash-strapped to do the retooling overnight, I'd like to suggest a compromise.

Maybe the unions could vote to allow Ford to import and sell its high-mileage European cars for a short time, while it simultaneously does the necessary retooling in the US. Let Ford take advantage of the dies and factories that it already owns overseas, in order to keep afloat while it retools in the US.

If you want to get Americans (or any group of humans) to buy X product (in this case, "small sporty" and very fuel efficient cars) all you gotta do - as any company worth their salt knows - is advertise it the right way to the right opinion leaders in any group to create the mindset that this is the next 'it' product that all the cool kids gotta have.  

Red state folks have disproportionately bought American autos because of the patriotism factor - all the while pumping scads of foreign oil (from countries who hate us) into the tanks.  What could be a more patriotic option?  An American auto that runs on next none of that liberty-hating oil. Better yet, autos running on American-brewed eco-fuels that keep the American landscape clean and American children free of pollutants.    Now THAT'S patriotic.

See, you can sell anything if you know how to speak to the customer's concerns.

Signed, --a Japanese auto lover