Motor Trend reviews the 2009 Ford Escape where consumers can find detailed information on specs, fuel economy, transmission and safety. Cracking The Gnostic Code The Powers In Gnosticism History. Find local 2009 Ford Escape. Back when Mercedes was using the reanimated corpse of Pablo Picasso as the head of design for the Unimog division. The 2009 Lincoln MKSs smart performance, subdued good looks, and roomy interior put the brand back in fullsize, luxurysedan territory. BibMe Free Bibliography Citation Maker MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard. The Chevrolet Equinox is the brands secondbest selling vehicle in North America and has been holding steady in a sweet spot for crossovervehicle popularity. The Chevrolet Volt is a plugin hybrid car manufactured by General Motors, also marketed in rebadged variants as the Holden Volt in Australia and New Zealand, and. Auto/izmo/301240/2009_chevrolet_tahoe_hybrid_sideview.jpg' alt='Brand Activation Awards 2009 Chevrolet' title='Brand Activation Awards 2009 Chevrolet' />The 3. MPG 2. 01. Chevrolet Equinox Diesel Seems Like A Hard Sell UpdatedThe EPA recently released fuel economy figures for the 2. Chevrolet Equinox Diesel, and at 2. Very good. Best In Class Good. But will anyone buy this thingAfter running some numbers and looking at specs, it looks like an incredibly tough sell. The Equinox diesels MPG figures are great, the range per tank of fuel is excellent, and the car apparently makes 9. RPM. That all sounds wonderful, but as you dive into the price of diesel fuel and the cost premium for the motor, and start looking at the torque figures of the other engine options, its hard not to wonder if anyones going to buy this thing. Looking At The Numbers. You might think crossover shoppers would go for the Equinox Diesel to save money on fuel, so lets walk through some numbers to see if that makes sense. Hop onto Chevys website, and youll see a 1. Equinox LT starting at 2. LT commands 3. 1,4. To find out how long it would take for fuel savings to cancel out that added cost, I divided 3,7. Chevrolet Equinox and the 1. Equinox I used the vehicles highway fuel economy figures of 3. MPG, respectively, to maximize the diesels advantage. Brand Activation Awards 2009 Chevrolet' title='Brand Activation Awards 2009 Chevrolet' />What I found was, with the current average national gas price of 2. AAA, a typical 2. Chevrolet Equinox Diesel driver will spend 8. On the other hand, the average 2. Equinox 1. 5 liter gas driver will spend 9. This calculation was done assuming the average person drives 1. Department of Transportation. The difference in annual fuel expenses between the gas Equinox buyer and the Diesel buyer is 1. Dividing the delta in price between the two models3,7. Recognizing that diesel shoppers tend to drive farther than people who normally buy gas cars, I ran the same exercise assuming that the driver goes 2. That results in a fuel cost of 1,4. Equinox and 1,2. Diesel crossover. Dividing the delta in price between the two cars by the difference in annual fuel costs 1. I still find that itll take 2. Update As a reader has pointed out, the Equinox Diesel LT also comes with the 1,9. Confidence and Convenience Package, and the gas LTs do not. Configuring a 1. 5 liter gas LT with that package brings the cost delta between it and the 1. Diesel LT to 1,7. That brings the time needed to recover the added cost of the diesel engine down to about 1. Its All About Choice And Convenience. The argument that sensible crossover buyers will be sensible enough to run the calculations and find that theyll save money on fuel is not a good one. Because they wont, for a long, long time. So I called up Tara Kuhnen from Chevrolet to discuss whats really going to draw in customers to the Equinox. She told me that low end torque and range 5. FWD diesel are two of the big ones. The latter, Kuhnen pointed out, is considered a convenience in a market where convenience is key. Kuhnen also told me that adding this dieselwhich was already in use in the Chevy Cruzewas a fairly easy way for the brand to provide more options in terms of efficiency and choice. Kuhnen put me in touch with Tom Read, who works in GMs Global Propulsion Systems Communications group he said the Equinoxs allure is a combination of factors What makes the diesel option attractive is torque, efficiency, range and customer satisfaction. The Equinoxs 2. 40 lb ft of torque provides the response of a larger engine. The passing ability is phenomenal with 2. The EPA estimated 3. SUV. He goes on, saying The front wheel drive range is 5. AWD range is 5. 92 miles the tank is a little larger. According to a study by Marcom that could save the average owner around 7 1. Who enjoys filling up Lastly, there is some personal satisfaction at seeing such high numbers with the real time mpg. So convenience and low end torque seem to be the driving factors, here. But is that enough to justify the premiumIt Still Seems Like A Hard Sell. Americans have been wary about buying diesel cars for years. As you can see in the graphic above, in 2. And this year in July, only about 0. Hybridcars. com. Part of that has to do with diesels perception. To a lot of Americans, compression engines have a reputation for being unrefined, dirty agricultural and commercial powerplants. And Volkswagens Dieselgate scandal did little to quell these thoughts. The other issues, of course, are price both at the pump, and at the dealer. After looking at the numbers, and just knowing the conservative mindset of a typical crossover customer, Im unsure if the 2. Equinox is going to be able to get over those enormous hurdles. I agree that the convenience of being able to travel over 5. But is that convenience about 1. Equinox worth the inconvenience associated with refilling Diesel Exhaust Fluid, finding gas stations that sell the fuel, and just paying more at both the dealership and per gallon at the pump Ill also admit that a turbodiesel with a variable geometry turbo that makes 2. But honestly, how much is a crossover buyer going to care about an extra 3. And if they did care, why wouldnt they just buy the 2. MPG The 2. 01. 8 Chevrolet Equinox Diesel seems like a hell of a tough sell. People arent going to buy it to save money, I doubt theyll buy it for that extra 1. I strongly doubt a crossover customer is going to care that much about low end torque and again, if they really cared about performance, theyd grab the 2. There is one quote from Chevrolets Tara Kuhnen that maybe helped clarify why Chevy would bother to build this thing. She said We know that diesel customers tend to be a fan of Diesel. It seems like a simple quote, but it suggests that perhaps Chevrolet isnt just looking for crossover shoppers to buy a diesel, but especially for diesel shoppers to buy an Equinox. The latter seems a lot more plausible. Whether there are enough diesel lovers out there especially with VW no longer in the game interested in buying a crossover is another question. But Kuhnen admits, with this being one of the companys first diesel cars of late, the Equinox Diesel is a bit of a learning exercise, and Chevy is not expecting to break any sales records. She said In terms of volume, I dont think we expect this to take the place of our traditional gas engine. As a big diesel fan myself I enjoy the low end torque, but Im an enthusiast whod never buy a crossover, I hope Im wrong, and people buy these things in droves. This post has been updated to include the fact that the Diesel comes standard with the 1,9. Confidence and Convenience Package.