I have been getting more and more excited about the Mazda Skyactiv Diesel engines which are due to arrive in North America this spring. My thoughts have been a bit skewed with estimating power numbers with down-pipes, cranking up the boost, and doing crazy low RPM burnouts in the first 4 gears with mountains of torque. My dreams were dealt a big blow yesterday as the news was released by Mazda that the diesels have been delayed. Again.
Seeking an answer as to why the holdup I went to look at Mazda’s official press release. The Mazda official text is below
“Mazda North American Operations today announced that the launch of its SKYACTIV-D clean diesel engine in North America is being further delayed from its Spring 2014 announced debut timing.
While Mazda understands its SKYACTIV-D can meet emission regulation requirements without the use of a NOx after-treatment system, it was decided that further development is required to deliver the right balance between fuel economy and Mazda-appropriate driving performance.”
I read this as Mazda wants to make sure the car is trouble free for North America and I am giving them props for this. In the rest of the planet people are more familiar with diesels and the needed upkeep with urea injections to keep NOx lower. Mazda is trying to do away with the need for this completely making the car similar to owning a standard petrol powered car which I am in agreement with. Your average American is used to a diesel in an F350 or a Dodge not a passenger car and the last thing you want is people having problems with their cars and posting to Yelp about it for not understanding the real issue.
So for now my burnout dreams will be just that, dreams until Mazda gets it all sorted out. I wonder if they would let me take one of the 25 hours of thunder hill cars for a weekend to hold me over…
-Derrick