Tips on Buying Cars: Diesel Cars, gross vehicle weight, diesel pollution

Question
QUESTION: I am in the market for a diesel car.  I am not sure if there are a lot of these available, I know Volkswagon has a few.  What is a good way to look for this efficiently?

Thanks for your help

ANSWER: The only auto manufacturers currently offering diesel engines in passenger cars are VW and Mercedes.  They are not available new in California, or any of the "green" states that follow California's emissions standards (NY, MA, VT, and several others).  All 3 domestic truck manufacturers offer diesels in their heavy-duty pickups, and are available in most states. (Why diesel pollution from a truck is okay while it's not from a car makes no sense to me, but we ARE talking about our federal government.)  You'll pay top dollar for a good used one right now; we're hoping that as low-sulfur diesel becomes more readily available, and more manufacturers offer diesel engines, that there will be a much larger number of cars for you to pick from in the future.

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QUESTION: Thanks for the heads up, do you know of any good websites to look on?  I live in Cincinnati, OH
ANSWER: I don't know of any special ones myself.  Search for VW or Mercedes diesel owner sites and their forums.  You can also search sites like Edmunds or cars.com to see what they have for sale.

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QUESTION: What type of cars and trucks are diesel?  I know there are some vans, basically anything I can put on the road is fine.  If the cars are all going to be expensive then I would like to know more about the vans and trucks

Answer
I guess I should qualify my earlier statement by saying that a diesel-powered car will be more expensive to purchase than its gasoline-powered equivalent, just because of supply and demand.  You'll have to weigh the extra purchase price against the better mileage to see if it's worth it.  Diesels are only offered in the heavy-duty (8600-lb Gross Vehicle Weight, or GVW) pickup truck as and vans, so they won't be cheap to buy either.  Plus, these trucks are restricted to certain highways (you wouldn't be able to drive on any New York State Parkway with a heavy-duty truck, for example).  These are large, powerful trucks that get better fuel mileage than their gasoline-powered cousins, but wouldn't get the mileage of a small or mid-size gasoline-powered passenger car.