Not everyone wants a large diesel engine
 

Why is it you can't get a truck with a small diesel? Most people do not need to pull a house, but would like the MPG.

It is starting to change. The new Colorado will have a 2.5l I4, and the Ram can already be had with a 3L V6.

Smaller would be nicer. GM and VW, have sub 2L diesels for the Cruze and Golf elsewhere, but our auto press and public would likely complain about the acceleration.

I agree, I like small diesels. For what ever reason they are not as common in the USA as they are in Europe. Hopefully we will get more diesel option in the decade ahead as CAFE laws push OEMs to reach a 54.5 MPR for their fleets by 2025. This means we will see smaller, lighter weight vehicles with more efficient engines.

My friend has an Isuzu pickup 2.5 TDI and he gets close to 40 MPG in it, and can still pull over 7000 lbs. American trucks seem to have massive yet underpowered petrol engines, bit of a joke compared to the stuff on sale in Europe.

Some of the rules around crash testing in the US mandate fairly heavy impact structures. This coupled with the prevelance of steel 'ladder' type chassis and live rear axles just keeps on piling on the pounds. Putting in a smaller diesel engine may be less efficient than a larger one due to needing to spool it more to pull the extra weight.

The real benefit of a powerful diesel engine, is being able to hoon it around like a petrol (albeit a fairly front heavy one), but without the single-digit MPG!

But its still possible to have a large diesel engine, with plenty of power but without sacrificing economy. A lot of the large German engines spring to mind, my friend recently sold his 3.0litre BMW with 300 HP, and he consistantly got between 50 and 60 MPG in the 15,000 miles he had the car.

Ford have a 2.2Ltr Pickup ... https://www.ford.co.th/en/trucks/new-...ions/spec-data in their Ranger and Wildtrak. These trucks are not exactly light.

Anything much smaller and they will be sluggish and not much use for the purpose that they were initially designed.

I use my 3Ltr Isuzu for every day motoring ... I just like the view from the cab ... anyway here in Thailand potholes are prevalent. It's quite quick as well!!

well, GM's 350 diesel was the first introduction usa/canada had to the diesel on the level that it did ... and it made such a bad impression it nearly killed the diesel outright. not to mention stricter emissions standards in over here means that they're also more expensive than gassers to buy and maintain (diesel exhaust fluid, diesel isn't always cheaper than gas). I like how modern diesels are better with fuel mileage than an equivalent gasser but the cost involved in getting a diesel and owning it isn't worth it. it might be in europe, but I'm not living there

Its not that the emissions are stricter in the US, its that they're different. For some reason the US goverment seems to think it's still ok to produce cars that burn a gallon of fuel every 15 or 20 miles and churn out 300 or 400 grams of carbon dioxide every KM. But in Europe, it's not unusual to see diesels that get close to 100 MPG, with low C02 emissions to match. The N0X is slightly higher for diesels, but its still zero point somthing per KM, as opposed to the plus figures you see for C02 if that makes sense.

This may not be about trucks with a "small" diesel, but it is about engines smaller than the Duramax, Powerstroke and inline 6 Cummins.

Nisssan will be offering a newly developed Cummins V-8 5.0 liter engine in the Nissan Titan full size truck sometime in 2015. They also have a webpage on a Frontier Project Truck with a 2.8 L Cummins diesel.

Toyota also will be introducing a full size Tundra with the Cummins V-8 diesel, as a 2016 model.

On edit: A post above mentions the 2.5 L in the upcoming Chevy Colorado. Articles I see on the net say it will be the 2.8 L version, coming out in the fall of 2015. The engine is made in the GM Thailand plant.