Will alternative auto power make sense in '07?

Diesel vehicles
In some other countries as many as 60 percent of all vehicles have diesel engines -- they get better fuel mileage and last longer. Getting 200,000 miles or more from a diesel engine is not unusual.

But diesels as power plants for passenger cars and even sport utility vehicles have never really caught on in the U.S., where only about 3 percent of all vehicles are diesels. Why?

Why 3 percent of all vehicles are diesels:

• Ultra-strict emission standards keep most diesels from being sold in California and the Northeast. • Disastrous passenger car diesels General Motors sold in the 1980s led consumers to think diesels were slow and noisy, which certainly doesn't describe engines available from Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, the traditional purveyors of diesels in this country. • Diesel fuel often is priced above regular gasoline, though the difference is usually more than covered by the 30 percent to 40 percent better fuel economy some diesels offer.

With gasoline flirting with $3 per gallon, it would seem that 2007 would be the time for diesels to shine.

Unfortunately -- at least at the start of the 2007 model year -- that's not the case, thanks to new nationwide EPA regulations taking effect Jan. 1 that will require emissions of diesel-powered passenger vehicle to meet the same stringent levels as gasoline vehicles.

Jeep, which took a tentative step into the diesel pool with its 2006 Liberty, ceased production of the diesel model in May because it couldn't meet the pending new standards. Volkswagen, the largest seller of diesels cars in the United States, won't offer diesels in its Golf, New Beetle and Passat models in 2007.

Still, most everyone is scrambling to develop new, more environmentally friendly diesels.

General Motors is revising its diesel engines and, as of now, won't offer a diesel engine in its SUVs for the start of the 2007 model year. Ford plans a new diesel for its SuperDuty pickup as a 2008 model.

That doesn't mean there won't be any diesels available in 2007.

Volkswagen will offer a revamped diesel engine in a limited number of its 2007 Touareg and Jetta models.

So for now, it looks like fans of the diesel will have to wait until the 2008 model year before the choice of vehicles expands significantly.

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