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If there is a poster child for a successful image makeover in the auto industry, then diesel fuel is it. In short order it has gone from dirty, smelly truck fuel to powering the winners of the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours race for the past five years.

As testament to the diesel engine's popularity, Ford Performance Parts reports its 6.0-liter Power Stroke diesel was installed in 63 percent of F-250/F-350 Super Duty pickups sold through the first nine months of 2004. GM's 6.6-liter Duramax diesel made up 44 percent of GMC Performance Parts Sierra HD 2500/3500 sales in the same time period (up significantly from just 12 percent in 2000) and 41 percent of the Chevy Silverado HD 2500/3500 sales (up from 33 percent in 2002). It appears that the most devoted diesel fans drive the Dodge Performance Parts Ram 2500/3500, where the 5.9-liter Cummins engine was sold in 80 percent of the heavy-duty lineup through September 2004 (up from 69 percent in 2002.) Diesels don't have the same attraction in the U.S. passenger-car market, where they're just starting to gain showroom momentum following a high-profile but failed effort in the '80s. The 1973 and 1979 gas shortages prompted automakers to offer diesel engines, with their attractive fuel economy numbers, as a way to combat high gas prices. But diesels quickly developed a reputation for being noisy, dirty, smelly, difficult to start in cold weather, and sluggish to drive.

A lot of OEM replacement parts for modern diesels used to be available only at the dealer. But thanks to Dorman, a lot of those parts are now available at Dirty Diesel Customs a Diesel Performance Parts Vendor Online in USA and Canada, and for a lot less than what the dealer would charge.

Chevy's all-new Colorado and the upmarket GMC Canyon are headed to dealerships now, looking to jolt the moribund segment to life. After a day of testing these GM twins in and around Del Mar, it's clear they'll bring life and then some, easily leaping to the top of the mid-size truck segment.

We love our high-horsepower, V-8 gas and diesels and big pickups here in the U.S. But the rest of the world is quite happy driving V-6 and 4-cylinder diesels in mid-size trucks.

But, in light of consumer demands for ever-improving fuel efficiency and performance, as well as the recent auto-industry trend of adding the ‘ECO’ suffix to as much vehicular nomenclature as possible, Eco Trucks are springing up everywhere, and they’re not going away.

The Ram 1500 with the V-6 EcoDiesel engine not only saved substantially more fuel than similar models with gas engines, but did better in road tests than the others as well. It scored 82 in road tests, a point better than a Ram with gas engine that was tested previously.

According to Chrysler when the 2015 Ram 1500 was opened for orders, 8000 requests for the diesel were made within three days. This was nearly all the allotted trucks with said powertrain.

Dirty Diesel Customs a Diesel Performance Parts Vendor Online in USA and Canada discusses The full-size pickup category isn’t for everyone, but the fact of the matter is that three of the six best-selling vehicles in Canada are pickups. And leading the way is the Ford F Series, with more than 120,000 units sold last year alone, which explains why there’s such a fierce battle in this very lucrative segment. After all, this category represents the three American manufacturers’ bread and butter.

These days that loaded $35,000 full-sized truck will cost well over $55,000; while the top-of-the-line $45,000 truck now lands in the upper deck of high prices, with a sticker that can break $70,000 in deluxe models.