Huh, well would you just look at that.
Hope it catches on, diesel engines make a lot of sense especially for heavy vehicles because of the high torque they produce. I wouldn't personally buy one of these Equinox diesels because I'm not a fan of crossovers and I'm 99% sure they won't offer a manual transmission. I've said it before if I wasn't so stubborn about driving a manual, I would have went with a diesel Cruze. (But I'm never giving up my clutch, and you can't make me!)
Boring stuff alert:
Gas and diesel engines work in fundamentally different ways. Most gas engines draw in a fuel and air mixture, compress it, then ignite it with a spark plug. But since gas is so volatile it's prone to pre-detonation (pinging/knocking - the gas explodes in the cylinder before the spark plug ignites it) during the compression stroke if the conditions are met (Too much compression/heat and not enough octane). This is why turbo gas engines generally have lower piston compression ratios and require higher octane fuel. Pre-detonation is very harmful to a gasoline engine.
Diesel engines on the other hand use very high compression to ignite the diesel. They draw in and compress only air, and when the piston has fully compressed the air, it injects diesel which instantly detonates, no spark plug needed. This allows diesel engines to more easily accept turbo chargers since they aren't limited by pinging, they're limited by strength of the parts. That's why diesel fuel has no grades of octane. (Octane ratings are measures of resistance to pre-detonation) Diesel fuel itself has many advantages over gasoline. It contains more energy potential per gallon, and burns cooler than gasoline which is good for efficiency. Diesel fuel also has better lubrication properties, and because diesel engines have higher compression they tend to use higher strength components, both of which aid in longevity of the engines. The downside is a higher initial cost.
