The Japanese judicial system is so tilted (99% conviction rates) that it’s hard to see how he’d get a fair trial, especially since the evidence points toward a contrived set of charges drummed up by MITI to protect Nissan from falling into French government control. This was a set-up, pure and simple.

Guaranteed that cologne and that beer are the same product in different packages.

It’s an image and a lifestyle to some extent. your buying your way into the Harley club. It’s like a Jeep (which is now cooler then ever). You get to accessorize, go to events, waive to other owners as you drive by. But, now 90% of the Harley club also has AARP memberships so it’s not so cool with generations that…

Good ole Harley, missing the mark by overpricing and under delivering.

Interesting that you’re the second person who has mentioned reliability and maintenance as advantages of gassers over diesels. Sounds as though the longtime stereotype of a diesel as a simple and stalwart little thing that just chugs along forever, and a gasoline engine as relatively fussy, has been inverted!

Working at a Ford dealer, the main customers for these big gassers is the local Transit Authority who will definitely like reliability, and local construction companies, which like them for the same reason. They are also way cheaper to maintain than diesels. Also they will most likely cost less than the diesel.

Fuel efficiency is not the huge gap it used to be, and factoring the higher cost of diesel fuel is often a wash.

This is not for the mainstream market. These engines are used in commercial fleets, your E-series vans and your F450-F750 haulers.

Yes. And as for your Volvo example, this engine is supposed to be for the medium duty market (think E-series vans and F450-750s).

I put a fair bit of work into getting 400hp out of my Ford 7.3, and your telling me all I had to do was switch to putting gasoline in it? FFS!

It doesn’t scale really, but the principles are basically the same as you mention - Low HP numbers per liter to push the rpms down. When you are covering huge miles “downspeeding” is the #1 thing you can do for cost savings. Not driving slower, but reducing engine revs to do the same amount of work.

It actually warms my heart to see a company producing an engine based on being overbuilt and long lasting at the expense of outright power or sexiness.

If you’re running a fleet that you replace every 3-4 years, then diesels longevity and fuel economy advantages become irrelevant and the gasoline engine simply costs less. However if I was a long term fleet operator, diesel is the way to go.

right?  The vortec 7400 we had made a stonking 290 hp!  Funny thing is, it didn’t make THAT much less torque (410 lbs-ft at 3200 rpm)

The numbers are starting to favor gasoline for long term operating cost savings these days in fleets and heavy duty trucks. Simpler, cheaper, more reliable.

This exactly. Fleets and heavy operators are figuring out that diesels high initial costs, higher costs in maintenance and higher downtimes for maintenance aren’t worth the gains in economy.  A dead reliable, low maintenance and cheaper gasoline engine is the economic choice in the long run.  

That is cool.  I was just going to go with because it is dead reliable and will run fully submerged/creamed by a train/no oil changes for 10293847 miles.

I thought car wash mode in a MB is just an automated text message to your assistant/servant to wash the car.