I hear all the rants about the new diesels, and for many they are relevant, the new ones aren't for everyone. But, there are some of us that appreciate the difference that a diesel delivers, and are willing to pay up a little up front for those. Some of the things are:
Drivability - My Jeep w/ it's 3.0L EcoDiesel will pull my bass boat at 75MPH and very rarely downshift out of 8th gear, but most all of my buddies w/ either 1/2T PU's or SUV's are constantly hunting in search of torque to pull hills because their torque is at a much higher RPM, typically above 3K RPM where it's in the torque curve (yes, the newer turbo Fords are better, but still search for gearing). To me, that means a lot.
Economy - Yes, I pay a premium for fuel, but I've run spreadsheets since I started towing w/ a diesel to ensure it's the correct decision for me - and what I found is that my ROI for the up-charge on the diesel turns in about 75K miles, last diesel I used for 126K so I was ROI positive there, and maintenance cost was not out of line to what a gas engine was, biggest was I used 2X the amount of oil, but I do all my own maintenance so it's only the cost of the oil, not the increased oil change cost in total. On the Jeep, I'm seeing even better improvement on mileage over a gas tow vehicle, most all my buddies struggle to pull their boats at above 10MPG and it drops like a brick as speed goes up, they are constantly asking me to run slower because their mileage drops BIG above 65MPH, I run better at about 72-75MPH because of where that puts me in the engines torque curve. I yearly make a trip from NE MO to East TX and round trip running the posted speed or just slightly above (turnpike posted 75, I'll run about 77) and for the total trip including to/from motel/launch for a week I pulled 19.5MPG vs. the 10MPG buddies got. So, in my case a fuel cost premium of about 15% (last trip was 87Octane @ $1.90/gal and #2 at $2.20/gal) I definitely got more MP$ (miles per $$) than my buddies! The other advantage is my non-towing MPG is about 33MPG running interstates, again 70-75MPH, where similar powered gas Jeeps (5.7L, not the lame 3.6L) are getting low 20's MPG, so again I'm MPG positive vs. the cost of fuel.
My Jeep spends almost 80% of it's time either towing or on the highway, hardly ever sees many miles in town slow&go traffic since I work from a home office, so it sits in the drive often 10 days in a row.
I look back to 1986 when I bought my first VW Jetta w/ a diesel - I was commuting 55 miles each way to my office, averaged about 52MPG where most similar gas Jettas would average about 25MPG, but because it was a NA I didn't see the drivability of the current turbo-diesels. I simply chose for economy, and at that era diesel was virtually the same $$/gal as gas, usually never varied +/- more than a couple cents per gal. That car definitely was ROI positive as the up charge was negligible back then.
Come forward to today, you can't pry the latest VW Passat TDI out of my wife's hands, we actually owned one of the Jetta TDI's (2012) that was included in the scandal - it got bought back and we replaced with the 2015 Passat for a mere $1,000 difference 5 years later. Why do we like that car? Drivability, it just goes when you want it to, knocks down 52MPG on the highway and we average a combined 42-45 city/hwy, and did I mention it goes when you ask it to? It's quiet so much so that many never realize it's a diesel unless we tell them or they remind us as we refuel - YOU KNOW THAT'S A DIESEL PUMP, DON'T YA?
So, I applaud the manufactures for giving us choices, and to finally see GM bring a diesel choice to market is great.
Are diesels a good choice for everyone? NO, but they are a great choice for some, I've got evidence that assures me that it's the right choice for me. And to those that scoff at the DEF, I've not found it to be a nuisance, yes it adds some cost / mile, but no where near enough to be concerned about - I'm averaging about 2.5G per 5K miles - paying about $8 / 2.5G, so about .0016 cents per mile or 80 cents per tank, I can live with that.
And, on another note, I've only had a diesel fuel issue one time since 1986, I never run additives (the old Jetta would get a gal of gas each fill in winter, and it's the one that gelled on me, but ULSD is much better I believe) and run a lot longer on fuel filter changes than most, my Duramax I ran 40K on fuel filter, never did change the filter on the 2012 Jetta, and run about 25K on the Jeep.
Feel free to disagree with my logic, but again I've tracked my decision and am comfortable it's right for me. Is it a status or ego thing, well I've always marched to a different drummer, so maybe, but that's not the driver - I don't go around rolling coal (smoke cloud to show off), etc. It's just a way of life for me.
