And history repeats itself...

[jdc753 10+ year member]

another benefit of diesel (which could also be seen as a benefit of gas, to a lesser extent...)
is the flexibility of the motors. there are several tuners out there that can make modules which adjust power output on the fly, in many cases allowing several hundred extra Hp to be made on demand, and then you can roll the power back down to go back to getting good gas mileage when you dont need/want that juice.

only one example of this comes to mind with a gas engine, and its not on a car...

Very true and they can be absolute misers of fuel if tuned right and big power isn't needed. Also as you mentioned flexibility a diesel engine can run on many different types of fuel or oil, hence the old nick name "Oil burner" home heating oil, and many other things can be burned in a diesel motor. Also diesel fuel doesn't need to be refined as much as gasoline to produce it.

If all this history repeating itself stuff is true I'm sure we will be seeing many more diesel options in cars in the future. Back in the 80's there were many diesel options from the chevy 350 diesel in some of their cars and light trucks, you could get a Ford Ranger with a diesel, VW had diesel options back then I believe.

Hey Flip you could always convert your S-10 to diesel power lol, snag a Cummins 4-BT and you could probably get near 30mpg out of it, I remember hearing of a guy with one in a suburban getting 25mpg. They sound just like their big brother's in the dodge trucks too, music to the ears lol.