Mini considering U.S.-market diesel by 2011

Diesel engines are still failing to gain much traction in the U.S., in part because of a national memory of the diesels of three decades ago, and in part because diesel fuel and engines are still too expensive to make good business sense. But Mini is thinking a small, sporty and efficient diesel may be just the thing to make Americans switch. Slipping a torquey and efficient diesel into the small and sporty platform of the Mini could be just want U.S. drivers are looking for, at least in larger cities: something nimble, easy to park, yet highly efficient and not terribly expensive.