Diesels

When I was living in 1970s Europe, Mercedes Diesels were everywhere. Everywhere, here, means that about 90% of all taxicabs were Mercedes 200D, powered by the infamous 50hp inline-4 oil burner. Loaded with 3, 4, sometimes even 5 people, those things were rolling roadblocks, emitting clouds of black smoke. On the Autobahn, a 200D would top out at 65 or 70mph, a speed where "normal" people would just about shift into high gear. And inside those things were covered with ugly vinyl . . . pardon . . . MB-Tex. Add to this the scent of a thousand cigarettes that had already been smoked in such a car, and you ask yourself: what's not to hate?

The whole impression had been burned deep into my mind. Thinking that I would ever want to own a Diesel-powered vehicle was an idea so far out . . . like from another galaxy.

All of that changed in 2000 when I found out that my 360-Magnum-powered 1999 Dodge RAM pickup had a hard time pulling my race car trailer up and over the steep Grapevine. Diesels are good for towing, we all know that, so I sold that pristine truck and purchased a 1st Generation Dodge D250 Ram, older, not nearly as pretty, but powered by the best Diesel truck engine ever installed in any pickup: the intercooled 5.9-liter Cummins turbodiesel.

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It was love on first drive which only grew fonder once I found out that it got 20mpg empty and about 18.5-19mpg loaded, pulling a trailer. Most likely I will keep this truck until I'm too old to drive.

Then, in 2001, a dealer in Santa Barbara offered us a one owner 1985 Mercedes 300CD Turbodiesel Coupe with 91K fully documented miles, as the Lady owner had moved into a retirement home. Commuting nearly 100 miles per day to and from work, I thought it was a good idea to get it as a commuter, since those things get up to 30 mpg on the freeway.
After I bought the car at a rather low price, I went through the books and service folder and found every receipt since new. I removed the sheep skins from the seats and found flawlessly preserved leather, which is extremely rare on Diesels. The velour carpeting had been protected by Mercedes floor mats since day one. The spare and toolkit looked brand spankin' new.
I truly enjoyed driving this car for years without as much as a hiccup, until a tourist visiting from Europe made me an offer I absolutely couldn't refuse. In hindsight I wish I had never sold this car; in fact, of the countless personal cars I owned throughout the years (and there were some really cool ones among them), it's the only car I regret having sold. I would pay even more today to get it back as it has proven to be irreplaceable. Ain't gonna happen.

I got really lucky, however, and replaced the 1985 Mercedes 300CD only a couple of months later with a car I had been looking for like the proverbial needle in the haystack: a fully loaded, Moonstone Gray 1995 Mercedes E300D SE (Special Edition), one of thousand cars made for planet Earth.

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Ninety-five is the last year for the W124 body style and the first year Mercedes offered the 24-valve, twin-cam EDS Diesel engine--designed for the (then) coming W201 generation--into a passenger car, so it's an experimental of some kind. This truly is a whisper Diesel, and you'll have a hard time identifying the engine as a self-igniter when driving the car, even at triple-digit speeds. This star cruiser gets up to 36mpg on the freeway, and I still own it and will probably own it for a long time to come, simply because I can't think of any car I could replace it with.

Repairs in over 2 years of driving? One water pump for $239, installed. Service? Regular oil changes with Rotella Synthetic Diesel oil. That's it!

When my teenage daughter Carissa needed an affordable first car to learn driving and earn her first stripes as a motorist, I bought a (relatively) high-mileage 1978 Mercedes 240D with nicely preserved original paint, original blue-and-yellow license plates, power sunroof, and Becker Europa II Stereo radio for the price of the radio: $100. (No, I'm not kidding, but I will tell the story another time).

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Sympathetically "refurbished," we still have less than $1,500 invested and it runs like a charm, getting up to 34mpg on the freeway while humming strongly at 75mph all day long. Insurance is as affordable as it gets, safety is legendary, and this car will still run when most 2007 models are delegated to the big boneyard in the sky, after their electronic components failed and replacing them turned out to be a non-viable proposition. The 240D is one of "the best cars ever made" (check out Chapter 6 of the Buyers' Guide) and in 2006 we sold a pristine, super low mileage example for $12,5K to an attorney in Miami, Florida. Expensive, yes, but still a fantastic purchase, as it potentially is a car for life.

I have always been an environmentally conscious person; I recycle everything and I care about our planet a great deal.
When Biodiesel and Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO) showed up on our nation's radar, I was among the first too look into that and do my homework, thoroughly.
Luckily, today I can fill up with B100 at my local gas station, for only a few pennies more than I'd have to pay for petroleum-based "dino" Diesel. Hence, all of my Diesels now run with Biodiesel, most of the time, or a blend of it. None of the cars needed any kind of conversion, save for the old 240D that got some new fuel hoses, which I purchased from MercedesSource.com.
Biodiesel fuel is biodegradable, non-toxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics, meaning it doesn't smell. Best of all, it's renewable and made in America, supporting our independence from foreign oil! Using Biodiesel helps America's farmers and the environment.
For me, that's a win-win situation.

The newest hype today seem to be the gasoline-electric hybrids. Extremely popular is the Toyota Prius, as it gets close to 50mpg in real life. But wait . . . the Volkswagen Golf TDI and Jetta TDI get the same mileage, at a considerable lower price!
Prius' huge battery packs have to be replaced every 10 years, which currently carries a $4000 price tag. Yowsa!
Viewed from a purely financial perspective, by the time a new Prius reaches the age of my daughter's 240D, it will already have sucked up $12,000 worth in batteries alone! But that's not really a fair comparison, as a Prius will not live 3 or 4 decades as an old Mercedes Diesel does; a hybrid's life-cyle is designed to be about 10 years. It's highly unlikely that you will ever find one with 200K miles on the clock and the first engine. A hybrid is a consumable, like a cellular phone. A computer on wheels. You buy it, you use it for a while, and when it breaks, you'll have to spend money on a new one.

A gasoline-electric hybrid has two engines: a regular gas-burner and an electric engine. That's twice the potential for headaches than a regular car has. A hybrid is so efficient because an advanced computer system controls both engines. That's the potential headache number 3. More precisely: it's not a question whether or not the computer will malfunction; it's a question when.
A Diesel, in comparision, is as simple as it gets (save for the rotary, another one of my favorites). It has no ignition system, no distributor, not even spark plugs. It's fuel efficient by design alone.

So why do so many people believe a hybrid is the environmentally most responsible and financially smartest vehicle to buy? Simple, they don't know better. Most people don't have a closer look at Diesels because, for once, they might have a pre-conceived notion that they are rattling stinkers (like I did), but also, because there are not many Diesel-powered new cars to choose from over here in the US of A.

It's different in Europe though. About 60% of all passenger cars in the Old World are Diesels now. Looking for 50mpg? How' bout 70mpg with a Volkswagen Lupo! Do you like the NEW MINI? Well, in Europe they can buy it with the BMW Diesel. Speaking of Bimmers, yep, they all are available with a Diesel engine. Even the 7 series flagship: it comes with a twin-turbo V8, good for cruising at 150mph, silently, all day long. Mercedes even offers their sports cars, including the top-of-the-line SL, with a Turbodiesel engine. Diesels have more torque than their gasoline counterparts, last much longer, and are much more fuel efficient as well. And the fastest, most successful and virtually unbeatable road race car today is . . . the LeMans-winning Audi R10, powered by a twin-turbocharged 10-cylinder Diesel. It drives circles around the Porsche prototypes, doesn't smoke or smell, and runs so silently that the drivers can't "hear" the engine and have to closely monitor the tach in order not to miss a shift.

The key ingredient for clean Diesels and a boost in perception and reputation are the environmentally friendlier fuels, of course. Ultra-low sulfur Diesel (ULSD) and Biodiesel are common in Europe for many years already, and the primary reason why we here couldn't buy modern Diesels is that their advanced engines and emission control systems (i.e., catalytic converters & particle filters) wouldn't accept the high sulfur Diesel that was sold here until the end of 2006.
It all has changed now, and thus a fleet of new Diesel-powered cars will arrive on our shores shortly. I proclaim that owning a Diesel as a daily driver is simply smart, more so if you drive a lot, and will become quite fashionable very soon.

Ready to buy a new car? Want to save fuel? Don't buy a hybrid; buy a Diesel instead!

But even if you are not a new car buyer, such as myself, a Diesel might be just the way to go. I, personally, buy my cars gently used, drive them for years, and when I sell them, I usually get my money back, sometimes a bit less, sometimes even more. Since I prefer cars that last and are trouble free, I buy Diesels whenever possible. Fair to say: as far as daily drivers are concerned, I'm an out-of-the-closet Dieselholic.

So which Diesels are good, which are not so good, which should be avoided?
We'll explore that in great detail in the next chapter of this Buyers' Guide (under construction).