Small AMG SUV w/diesel?

[Kajtek1]

Originally Posted by DelJ

The V10 VW diesel is fine, but a V10 gas engine would be even faster.

So how would you explain the fact that millions of Super Duty truck owners are switching from gassers to diesels? At premium.

[bocabenz]

All I can say is that diesels used to be slow. I know, I learned to drive on nothing but diesels. But look at the specs of the new E-Classes. In 2005, the E320CDI was a half second faster than the E320 gas counterpart. Even after the upgrade to the 3.5L, the gas engine is only a tenth second faster.

The redeeming factor of diesels is the massive amounts of low-end torque that offsets the lack of horsepower.

[DelJ]

I carefully stressed that gas and diesels should be compared for same engine type. Thus, if the diesel engine has a turbo then the gas engine must have a turbo (or perhaps a kompressor) for a fair comparison. If not, then any conclusions are confounded by two key variables: diesel versus gas and turbo versus no turbo.

I suspect that once a turbo or kompressor is added to the E320, then the diesel will not compete performance-wise. This is why I questioned the wisdom of an "AMG diesel". That would be like pulling on opposite ends of a rope.

DelJ

Originally Posted by bocabenz

...But look at the specs of the new E-Classes. In 2005, the E320CDI was a half second faster than the E320 gas counterpart. Even after the upgrade to the 3.5L, the gas engine is only a tenth second faster...

[Kajtek1]

You are stretching it DelJ
The same way we can compare rpm. Diesels run 4-5000 red-line, while gassers do about 7,000. If you limit gassers to 5000 rpm for longer life like diesels do, there is no comparison.