Yes, agreed, look at what is hapenning in switzerland, they used to have very few diesel cars there, but recently diesel sales have growned very fast. Cost of petrol will be more and more an issue.
You may see in a near future diesel cars sold on the US market. Mercedes benz in preparing introduction of some very powerfull diesel cars for the US market.

For AmethySC:
IS250 will sure make a good share of the (non diesel) sales, considering speed limits and radars, 204 Hp is quite enough to blow your driving license in a couple of weeks. But number one will be the IS220D.
If Lexus wants to sell some GS in Europe, they have to come up with a high power V6 diesel engine as well.

Talking about the IS300 revival, I think it makes sense to think that it may come back, 204 HP for the IS250, 245 HP for the IS300 and 300 HP+ for the IS350. However, gas mileage could be pretty close between IS250 and IS300. And so would be the price. And furthermore, what about the soon coming ES3x0 with 245 HP? Is there any room left for it?

And that's with the cost of diesel (like in the US) higher than gas.

The only problem with Toyota and diesel is that in the US they seem to be leaning heavily on the hybrid solution to achieve milage gains. Stuborn Europeans can't be weaned off the diesel solution so they had to offer that there.

The adoption of either hybrid or diesel as a way to increase milage may depend on pricing and marketing. If people depended on hard numbers, then simple math would be the deciding factor (will the milage gains pay for extra up front cost). The hype with either solution however and some subjectivity (performance) might cloud things.

Blah, I theorize that with the introduction of all these hybrids, the oil companies will figure they aren't seeing as much business as they used to, so they'll jack the gas prices through the roof to compensate for their lost business.

Economy doesn't work this way, you know. When something becomes less demanded, the merchants lower the prices in order to increase sales.

eh, IS220d? :-)

Well that depends to a certain point. If the sold goods or services are provided are structured within a competitive environment then yes, I agree. But with OPEC, they pretty much have a monopoly, so it would be easy to suggest they could make up for lost revenue by offsetting with a higher profit margin. ..

Any who-- 30 mpg doesn't really excite me. Now 50-100 mpg would. The hybrids are a step in the right direction, but just not quite ready for prime time yet.

Ah.. very true. I totally forgot about the fact that the oil business is but a monopoly. It's just too bad.