>I found this interesting:
>
>The two main factors that held diesel engine back in private vehicles until quite recently were their low power outputs and high noise levels, characterised by knock or clatter, especially at low speeds and when cold. This noise is caused by "piston slap", the sudden ignition of the diesel fuel when injected into the combustion chamber slamming the cold-contracted piston into the cylinder wall. The tolerances between the piston and cylinder wall are greater at cold temperatures to allow expansion at higher temperatures. A combination of improved mechanical technology (such as two-stage injectors which fire a short "pilot charge" of fuel into the cylinder to warm the combustion chamber before delivering the main fuel charge) and electronic control (which can adjust the timing and length of the injection process to optimise it for all speeds and temperatures) have partially mitigated these problems in the latest generation of common-rail designs. Poor power and narrow torque
>bands have been helped by the use of turbochargers and intercoolers.
>

And that's not new either. Turbo diesel engines were there in the eighties, and there was the pre-heated fuel and whatnot even when I was a teenager, I remember the drivers talking about these things.

From what experience I gained driving those dieselers (what, there isn't such a word? - tsk, tsk) was that what they lost by being a tad slower on the uptake, was more than compensated by the general feel and low consupmtion.