There’s still a few diesel lovers in my neighborhood, but the numbers are fading fast. Or more like bio-diesel lovers, who bought diesel cars (old Mercedes mostly) and trucks during the Great Bio-Diesel Era. That’s all kind of smoked out over the past few years, accelerated recently by the Great VW Diesel Fraud. Suddenly driving a diesel is not at all cool, like it was a while back.Fads do come and go…
These folks have hung on to their relics from that era, although the poor old Benz is probably not clattering much these days. I’m not too sure about the gen1 Cummins Dodge. Mementos of another time.
The W115 300D is a pioneer, the first five cylinder diesel and the first Mercedes diesel to not run like a total slug. It was a pretty big deal when it arrived in 1974, called the 240D 3.0 in Europe, since Mercedes wasn’t yet about to tarnish the magic “300” number with a mere diesel. With a mighty 80 hp, it was the rocket of diesels.
A well-heeled engineer at the tv station in LA bought one of these early ones, and showed off its acceleration prowess to up and down Cotner Avenue. It sounded faster than it was, by a substantial margin. 0-60 came in about 18-20 seconds, depending on the source, almost ten seconds faster than the 240D. And it would top out at 92 mph, eventually. That was rather impressive.
And here’s another pioneer, the first American pickup with a genuine truck-caliber diesel engine. It was a brilliant stroke by Dodge and Cummins, as Dodge pickups were really languishing about the time the first Cummins came along in 1989. What a life-saver. And its become rather iconic.
These gen1 Cummins Dodges have become rather scarce on the ground, although I suspect it’s not so likely because the basic engine wore out. More likely the third or fourth transmission.
There’s patina and then there’s…this. Nothing wrong with a W115 but that purply-brown color, once faded and flattened, doesn’t do anything for it. If it was white or any of the 60’s/70’s kitchen appliance colors, then yes, it’d have character all day long.
The healing rains of Eugene aren’t going to be so kind to the interior if that door stays open for much longer.
Still, nice pairing. I wonder if there’s a TDI Jetta wagon shamefully hiding in the garage…
My grandfather owned one of the infamous Oldsmobile diesels in the early-1980s, though he was lucky and got one of the good ones free of engine problems.
On the note of VW though, I currently have about 4-5 prospective clients looking at MINIs, but they can’t do anything until VW buys back the diesel VW/Audis their currently driving, and they don’t have a definite date yet of when this will happen. All VW said was “late summer/early fall”. Still though, at least VW just isn’t leaving all its diesel buyers out to dry.
YIKES, out of the frying pan into the fire….why would anyone move from a VW to a MINI? Both are known on the internet to have really miserable reliability records. Would those potential buyers be female?
And still on the MINI, at the rate they blow up with each generation the next generation should be called MAXI.
My uncle followed up sports models from VW with a Mini Cooper S which was followed by a Fiat 500 Abarth. The Abarth was finally so bad that he’s back to VW. Pretty much each of his cars have had a few times as many problems as all of my family’s Honda products have had combined. The funny things is that he was driving a Toyota Pickup when he married my aunt, and I think she had a Tercel at the time. Those are the last decent vehicles they’ve owned, as far as I know.
amazing. i love the idea of an abarth, especially convertible. but i drive a scion xA the past 10 yrs, drove a civic hatch the 8 years before that.
im anal about doing all my own work with the right parts/fluids but even i dont think a mexican built american car designed by an italian company is going to come close.
ill take my JTKKT vin and drive it happily. 10 years, not one fault.
I hear November.
The European owners are just getting a software change, so they are being left out to dry.
I think that the only fix to meet emission standards would involve adding a diesel exhaust fluid system (DEF), but the 2 liter 4’s are not designed for that, so the proposal is to upgrade the installed system and turning off the defeat software to partially meet standards. This may never be approved. VW could buy back all and ship them to somewhere with lower standards, like India (but they are too dirty for India). My guess is that before VW starts a buy back, they may want some settlement on the repair option. If they end up buying everything back, probably the price will decrease.
My Olds diesel, while not trouble free, did not have any major problems while I owned it.
whatever gets bought gets crushed.
I once heard an owner say, “I didn’t buy a Dodge, I bought a Cummins diesel. It just happened to be in a Dodge.”
I remember hearing an ad after the dramatic all-new for 1994 models, stating Dodge truck sales were up 500% over last year…one look at that 1990-ish final “refresh” of what had once been an attractive design, and it’s easy to see why.
A facelift too far.
Agreed on the Dodge – I had thought that they were slowly getting back to the attractiveness they had early in this body, and by 1990 I found them quite good looking. Then that 1991 grille came along. Yeesh!
My BIL the farmer was intrigued by these, but wondered about the wisdom of buying an engine that would last 3 times the life of the rest of the truck.
That 500% increase seemed like an exaggerated figure but, upon further research, the increase in sales for non-diesel Dodge pickups from 1993 to 1994 was actually 600% ! Including diesels, the rate of increase was a ‘paltry’ 200%. Diesel pickup sales didn’t actually increase all that much year-to-year once supply met demand but, prior to 1994, they still outsold non-diesels by a rate of roughly 2 to 1. Clearly, the introduction of the Cummins diesel helped spark a resurgence in interest in Dodge trucks at Chrysler.
To put it in better perspective, in the final year of the traditionally styled Dodge pickup (1993) they only sold less than 25k non-diesels. That has to be but a tiny fraction of what Chevy and Ford were selling (and I would wager most of those Dodge trucks were fleet/government sales, too).
my friend bought a 98 just because it “looked badass”. traded in a 91 wrangler with 66k and got 5k for it.
ida bought it for that price! i helped him put a brand new top on it too.
im sure it got flipped for 8k, no prob.
A good friend is along time MOPAR fan and that included Dodge trucks. When the new Semi tractor inspired design debuted, it was accompanied by the tag line ‘The Rules have changed” to what said friend opined “What rule? that Dodge trucks had to be ugly?”
When the 91 restyle debuted, I wasn’t overly impressed. Time has passed, and I’m even less impressed with all of the new pickups. In the meantime I’ve grow to appreciate the bulldog like ugliness of the 91 restyle. If you’ve ever loved a bulldog, you know just what I mean.
Ah the good ol oil burner. My father got hooked on Diesel back in the early 80’s after one of his co-workers bought a VW rabbit diesel and achieved the magic 50MPG number. He bought a used one and then moved up to the 240D because he liked a car he could “drive with your hat” on. I think he like the prestige of driving a Mercedes. (we used to laugh that Americans coveted a car that was used as a taxi cab in Europe, sort of the Crown Vic of Europe)
He drove that for a number of years until I found him a primo late model 190D for $1800USD. He loved that 190D until a little old lady plowed through a stop sign and right into the left front fender. Her insurance company gave him $3000 to total it. So out came the old 240D from mothballs (we always had 2 or three cars in mothballs including 1920’s era chain driven Mack Truck Dump Truck) and he used it as a backup car when he found a Dodge Stratus for $1100. The 240D never left him stranded but the Stratus did. I convinced him to dump the Dodge and go for a used KIA Sephia for $1100. (1100 being a magic number) The 240D remained in the stable until the cost to insure a 90 year old driver rose to $50 a week. I gave the kia to my nephew and the 240D went to the mechanic who took care of my family’s cars since I had moved away. There are plenty of the 240D , 300D and 300 Turbodiesels that live on in Northern California. They do not rust out like they do in Florida. Many have been converted to Biodiesel, especially in the San Francisco Bay area.
Had a final year ’93 one ton extended cab dually Cummins Dodge truck for a short while. Had 237k miles on it. It had the torqueflite auto with a factory overdrive in it, which made it effectively a 4 speed. When I first drove it it would top out around 60, finally saw the 4th gear switch was turned off, hit the button and the revs dropped and the speed picked up.
Pre ’92 versions only had 3 speeds in the auto, and had a taller axle ratio to permit a higher top speed. A 5 speed manual was standard.
The auto transmission was the weak link in these, a manual transmission was the better choice for reliability. But I had all the receipts from new with this one owner truck, and it was used to tow a 30 ft. Airstream trailer all over the country, and up to around 170k miles the transmission was trouble free. But after the transmission was replaced, it had all kinds of driveplate, torque convertor, and overdrive unit problems. In fact, after I sold it the new owner experienced another driveplate cracking problem.
I only put around 300 miles on it, it was very good original condition, needing only a hood and roof respray to look like new. It was 2 tome silver and blue, and fully loaded. Dad bought it from a buddy in the assisted living center, lucky for me (and the driving world) the battery had run down from sitting and spoiled his license less road trip plans. It was a great deal for the $2000 he paid for it. I sold it cheap to a neighbor for $2500, so when the transmission acted up he didn’t feel too bad, he knew it’s history and bought it as is.
Back in the late seventies my uncle’s job sent him on a temporary transfer that left him with a daily, 130 mile round trip; the assignment was only going to be for 7-8 months and he didn’t want to relocate the family. Rather than put all those miles on his late model Sedan de Ville, he took the advice of some engineers and purchased a used M-B 240D to use on the commute. This car was indeed economical but it was slower than grass growing; even with the four speed manual transmission 0-60 could be measured with a calendar. Still it was a great car for what he needed it for; most of the commute was on the interstate and the Benz was capable of 65 or so, even it if took a while to get there. As soon as the temp assignment was over my uncle sold the 240D for essentially what he paid for it.
Drove a few early ’70’s MB 220D’s while I worked part-time during college as a stevedore unloading cars at the Dundalk Marine Terminal in Baltimore. Recall the unusual starting technique. You turned the key to the on position, waited a bit for the glow plugs to warm, then pulled up on a knob to start. You were then rewarded with the unique “pocketa-pocketa-pocketa” of the MB diesel warming up. Interesting, but not nearly as exciting as the exhaust note of the rare 300 6.3 that would infrequently appear.
The MB diesels were desirable as they were virtually indestructible. GM poisoned that well and diesels were never really popular in passenger cars after that. Also, I recall diesel fuel being much cheaper than unleaded regular gas in the ’70’s. Today, it’s more expensive.
Good ‘ol bio-diesel. The Star Oil Co, just around the corner from my boat shop, had Stoddard (cleaning) solvent dispensed out of a fuel pump out front, along with a kerosene pump. They got rid of the solvent, and put bio-diesel in its place. They conveniently had the solvent in pre-packaged 5 gallon pails, for 3 times the price per gallon. And when you run a professional repair shop, changing your solvent is akin to changing the oil in your fryer if you are in the restaurant business. Just more cost to pass on to the customer, sadly. And all the times I was there, never saw anyone at the bio-diesel pump.
Something tells me Dodge offered Perkins diesels long before Cummins got into their engine bays or was that a conversion kit, Diesel is still a popular engine choice here I run one as a daily drive and so do many others, VWs have never been a good choice when buying a car, expensive to buy expensive to service, expensive parts thanks to the German currency and only average reliability, the US diesel disaster VW has found itself in means nothing here so the people who have them are still driving them.
Same here. Frankly no one gives a damn and just orders a new Golf, Passat, Tiguan, Transporter, Amarok or Crafter with the 2.0 TDI engine. And then we’re not even talking about Audis, Skodas and Seats with the same engine.
And Mercedes ? Recently Das Haus introduced the brand new OM 654 1,950 cc 4-cylinder diesel engine. 195 hp, now you’re talking. An inline-6 2.9 liter OM 656 Biturbo diesel will follow soon. A new Mercedes-Benz E-Class with that 6-cylinder, now THAT would be my dream-commuter / daily driver…
I’ve read that Mercedes-Benz is selling cars and making money these days like it’s nobody’s business.
” Frankly no one gives a damn and just orders a new Golf, Passat, Tiguan, Transporter, Amarok or Crafter with the 2.0 TDI engine.”
Funny how the only ones that are really raising a stink here are the federal regulators, and the environmentalists…neither of which are actually spending their money on the cars. The VW TDI owners I know are all ticked off that they have to give up their cars (which they love for the mpg and the fact that it drives like a real actual car instead of a dishwasher) or they have to downgrade the PCM to make it run like crap and waste fuel in the name of emissions.
I work with a woman who commutes 35 miles from Vancouver one way. She cares about saving money first and owning a car that isn’t an embarrassment second. She is NOT happy about having to turn in her Jetta, and doing the downgrade will cost her big time.
Just to preface, I’m very uninformed on the post scandal developments, but is this to say you couldn’t simply chose to keep the car as is? It’s either buyback or “fix” or else?
I’m not particularly up on the latest developments either but I assume it’ll be something along the lines of voiding the warranty or being unable to pass inspection/register the car without proof of the downgrade being performed.
Maybe you can get away with it in a state that doesn’t require emissions inspections?
The fix for that: Save the current “cheater” tune op a programmer. (VW Vortex or TDI Club would be more help than I will for that.) Get the fix done. Reinstall the “cheater” tune the next day, save the “fix” on the programmer. Drive the car.
Dodge did have a rarely chose diesel option back in the 1970s. I think it was Perkins.
Dodge did have a diesel option in ’78-80 but it was Mitsubishi. They did offer a diesel in the early ’60s in their trucks that was a Perkins, however. On a unrelated note, I knew a guy that had a Pontiac 6000, 1984, with the 4.3L diesel V6
a “goolie”?
The ’91 refresh on the D/W series Rams was indeed unfortunate. Though the interiors had been nicely upgraded and many options added, that large chrome plastic grille and the exaggerated wheel lip moldings were hard on the eyes. A last ditch attempt to keep that ’72 design current. These trucks had a problem with paint adhesion which caused a lot of rust issues as they got older. Automatic transmissions, 4X2 front suspension, and brakes were also issues.
I suspect that Mercedes’ door has been open as long as the registration has been expired, 3 years. Other than the accumulated patina the Mercedes’ paint is holding up better than the Dodge which has that typical for the era peeling paint. A former neighbor of mine had a 1993 Dodge pickup they got wicked cheap in early or mid-1994. There are a few Diesel Mercedes around Portland in various degrees of preservation or disrepair.
I still think a diesel Benz could be a good commuter car, but I think I’d have to find a W123 turbodiesel. Pretty sure I couldn’t get comfortable with the glacial acceleration of a 240D, and the NA 300D would be better but why bother?
Really a shame about the door on this one. If the door were closed, all it would take would be a good wash to get it looking decent (aside from the unattractive, faded paint color) again. Depending on how long the door’s been open, though, the interior may be a moldy, wrecked mess.
The VW fiasco as a whole, is a sad state for the company, and even sadder for those who bought into their product. Used VW’s go pretty cheap, if at all…and if one bought one of these new foul ducks, everyone looks at them like, why are you driving that, polluting up the air and the planet? I fear these folks may be on the losing end…Hope something positive comes of it.
Personally, not a fan of smelly diesels…even when everyone thought they were “clean” diesels. When our family pulls up behind one, we have to turn the vents/windows closed, least we all breath in its micro debris. The smell alone is enough to turn your stomach. Like some smelly old city bus….Yuck!
Man those Dodge trucks were awful. The Cummaparts diesels at least were understressed so they would usually hold together. Heads cracking from bad machining in the valve spring pockets was about the worst of it. Bosch VE rotary injection pump same as Peugeot with 2 more cylinders not so much. The bodies were crap, manual and auto transmissions were not up to the diesel pounding, the introduction of the Dodge death wobble suspension, and the which way will it dart braking. Best thing for those is to yank the motor and scrap the rest.
If the motor isn’t terminal in the Merc, it might be worth saving if one lives far away from any hills. I used to blow by them on the freeway hills around here while driving a school bus.
I regularly see Cummins powered 1st gen Rams here in the Portland area…some are a bit ratty and worn out, but a good many are nicely kept, usualy the first owner was a retiree who used it to pull the RV. Nowadays the 12v 6BT is one of the most popular scores for the hot rod diesel crowd. I’d like a singlecab 4×4 manual trans in a solid color that a grampa wouldn’t have picked.
Both my Elder Brothers got into Diesels in the early 1970’s , one by buying rusted out M-B’s and running them into the ground , holding up traffic in Boston etc.
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Both bought Diesel VW Rabbits the first year they came out and tried unsuccessfully to get me into the Diesel Fold .
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SWMBO finally got me to buy here one and I was hooked .
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The Diesel craze is over , just now we’re getting some branded bio-fuel stations around L.A. , it’s cheaper than Dino Diesel , smokes less , gives you more power & economy too .
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I *think* it’s called ” Pro Pel ” .
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I hope someone saves that old Dodge ! .
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-Nate
Mark me down as not a fan of the biodiesal movement. There had to be a real suspension of reality to think that reusing cooking grease was doing any thing for the environment when it was obvious what filth was coming out of the tailpipe. There a lot of very smart older people who go through life using their ample brainpower to figure out how to part with fewer and fewer of their dollars. That is really what this was.
Bio-diesel and used cooking oil are quite different; don’t mix up the two Bio-diesel is genuine diesel fuel, approved to use in modern cars, but processed from any number of organic sources, including various seeds and such. It’s sold globally, and used very widely, often mixed 5 or 10% with regular diesel, or at 95% for true bio-diesel.
Running a diesel on used oil is quite different, and requires that the oil filtered and is kept warm enough to not congeal in the cold weather. And for what it’s worth, what comes out of the tailpipe from running used oil is a nice smell of fried food. It really is rather clean and not bad for the environment, in relative terms. Not filth, in any case.
What Paul said ~
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These a HUGE amount of rigamarole necessary to properly do waste fry oil as fuel , 90 + % of the boobs who try it , discover the car ‘ seems to run O.K. ‘ when they’ve skipped a few steps , this of course inevitably winds up with the car being filthy greasy from end to end and smoking , hard to start etc . until the day they give up and scrap it .
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This is how I got my ’84 Mercedes 300CD Diesel Coupe for scrap price ~ they used any old veggie oil (lots of jerkhoffs & hipsters simply bought 5 gallon jugs of canola oil @ COSTCO for $5 / jug) , the fools who had my Coupe ran it until it ground itself to death ~ a .040″ longitudinal groove in # 5 cylinder meant I had to re sleeve the block =8-^ .
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Not to mention the chore of cleaning all the crud and fungus etc. out of the entire fuel system.
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Anyway , to – day (8/18/16) I was driving up El Molino and the exact twin of this car pulled out of a side street and passed me , red paint in O.K. shape , purring smoothly and NOT SMOKING , indicating there are still a few Diesel Heads out there who know how to get their money’s worth out of an old Mercedes =8-) .
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-Nate
Unfortunately, as the upmarket alternative to the 240D, all early 300D’s sold in the US were saddled with automatic tranny, negating much of the added performance from the extra cylinder. Also, their automatic climate control used the unreliable and expensive servo-unit from early 70s full-size Chryslers.
A properly sorted stick-shift 240D is at least tolerable where the hills aren’t too numerous or steep, and all had a simple manual heat-AC system.
Finally, about 1981, the 300D’s Gen 2 climate control dumped the Chrysler servo, and turbocharging made 300D performance more acceptable in the US.
Actually, IMHO, the best overall Mercedes diesels of the late ’70s – early ’80s were the W123 Euro non-turbo 300Ds, equipped with manual shift and manual heat-AC – if you can find a decent one that’s not all eaten up with rust.
Happy Motoring, Mark
I’ll take the Dodge with a manual. I love the sound of the Cummins engine – tap the throttle and there’s nothing you can’t move.