i love diesels, my friend's brother built an E46 M3 as a sort-of race car and put in a 3.5 litre diesel, added turbo etc..
it didn't rev as high as some of the competition but it had so much torque that it could easily out accelerate them, what's more the regualtions said 350bhp was the maximum power, so they had 350bhp and about 600lb/ft of torque, so they matched the power an had more torque than the petrol/gas cars. and it returned 16 miles per gallon as opposed to the 11 that the others were doing, it's a good endurace car because it ha good econcomy etc, and it requires less maintenance.
i hope diesles do make an impact into north america, i live in London Uk an yea, there's loads of diesels here, all the owners of newer diesels i know love them.
if you want proof of just what diesels are capable of just look at commercial diesel trucks, now some people think that for a 12 litre engine 350bhp isnt much, but many engines in that category produce about 1500-2000lb/ft and more. and those engines haul over 60 tons.
i went to the truck racing recently here, the trucks used 12 litre straight six engines, producing over 1000bhp and over 4500lb/ft of torque and although the trucks weigh in at 5.5 tons, they're damn fast. and they can outrun most sports car in the 0-100 sprint.