[This is a ’78. At least it’s the right shade of poo brown]
In the midst of Volvo mania, the (ex)wife changes her mind. Now she wants a Mercedes. Diesel. Stick shift. In the early 2000s, in the Midwest, this is not the easiest thing to find. When you do, it comes with a funny story.
One of my Volvo parts customers was a European car sales and service establishment. Interesting place; they would work on anything European, from a Ferrari to a beater Volvo. They bought some parts from me, and would pass along my phone number to owners of old Volvos when the repair estimate exceeded the value of their car. I bought quite a few parts cars from their customers over the years.
I was stopping by the shop one day, and as was my habit, I cruised the back lot, with my eye out for derelict Volvos. And there sits this Benz. It’s got to be an automatic, right? I jump out of my car and look. It’s a stick!
I park and walk into the shop. “Hey Joe! What’s with the stick shift Mercedes out back?”
“Oh. That’s a customer’s car. He’s getting a lot of work done, but he’s not in a rush. I have the techs work on it when the shop is slow, to save the guy a few bucks.”
“Do me a favor, Joe. Tell the guy if he ever wants to sell it he should call me first.”
A month or so went by, and I kind of forgot about it. Then Joe called.
“Are you still interested in that old Mercedes?”
“Sure, Joe! What’s up?”
“We finished the work on it. We called the customer to tell him it’s done, and it turns out he’s DEAD. The family doesn’t want the car, so they brought me the title. If you just pay the bill on it, it’s yours.”
That’s how I became the owner of a $2400 Mercedes 240D with $2400 worth of recent repair receipts.
It was mostly in good mechanical shape, although the body was a bit rough. The wife loved it. Things broke now and again. Turns out Mercedes are quite a bit like Volvos when it comes to repair work, so my Volvo knowledge transferred easily.
(The main difference between repairing old Volvos and repairing old Mercedes is the number of bolts. If Volvo engineers determined that the correct number of bolts to hold a part in place is four, they used four bolts. If Mercedes engineers determined the correct number of bolts to hold a part in place is four, they used eight, just for good measure!)
The car serves us reasonably well. Sure, little things break, but they are easy to fix, or easy to ignore. It’s hard to get less that 35 miles from a gallon of diesel fuel. Everybody’s happy.
If you’ve never driven one of these, it’s an interesting and new learning experience. Everybody knows they’re slow, but even the owner’s manual quotes a 0-60 time of 28.5 seconds. That, my friends, is a whole new level of SLOW. Coincidentally, 28.5 seconds is also the 1/4 mile time. It’s like learning how to drive from scratch. Rule #1: NEVER SLOW DOWN if you can avoid it; it takes too long to get back up to speed!
Well we kept it going for a couple years, but being in Michigan the rust was eating the car quickly. One day, the wife was taking a particularly heavy client somewhere. The vertical brackets holding the seat frame to the floor punched clear through the floor pans, and the seat dropped 3 inches. It’s done.
At that point, the only real value in the car is in the drivetrain, particularly the manual transmission bits. I list the whole car on eBay with the title “Mercedes W123 Manual Transmission conversion kit + free carrying case”. The winning bid is $99. The buyer drags an empty trailer from Georgia to Michigan to come pick it up.
In my opinion, the Volvo 240 and the Mercedes W123-chassis Diesels are the two best-made cars the world has ever known. They sure don’t make them like they used to, but at least we don’t have to drive anything that slow anymore!
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me, Janis’s 356.
My friends all drive beaters, I’ve had enough of this.
Prove that you love me, and buy me this car.
At a high dollar auction, the price will go far.
That’s it. Ha Ha Ha Ha all the way to the bank.
I like how the 240D’s gear lever has to pulled up for Reverse: brilliant! And nicely weighted steering, too.
Almost all my passengers find it hard to get used to, but I drive as much as I can with the idea that it’s best not to slow down if you don’t have to….and I don’t drive a diesel.
I think the W123s were the ultimate “3 box” design, and yet they weren’t Volvo boxy.
I could almost live with a car like this but not crazy about “chocolate” brown, or the non-turbo 4 cylinder engine….make it a 300D.
I assume you mean your passengers are uncomfortable taking curves at higher speed in order not to lose momentum. I sympathize completely; modern cars can corner much harder than most drivers seem to realize, hence BMWs driven like grandpas in Buicks. Even our old XV10 Camry cornered like it was on rails despite not being terribly agile otherwise.
Don’t mean to imply I never slow down, just that I use the brakes sparingly. I try to keep enough space between me and whatever is in front of me so that at worst I lift off gas….momentarily, then get back on gas. I know how fast I can take most curves and drive accordingly. Last time I “surprised” myself was when I drove a rental Ford Contour in light rain on what must be very crappy tires: General brand.
And Gene, I learned to drive on a 49 Plymouth so I know “glacial” acceleration.
Howard: you are driving efficiently. No need to give up momentum. I do that as well.
A few years ago I took a few laps with an instructor at ExoticsRacing at Las Vegas. They demanded that I take corners without touching the pedals, not the brake and not the accelerator. They called it “balance the car”. I was not allowed to touch the accelerator until the corner was all behind me and the wheel was straight again. That’s tough to get used to. But once you are used to that you will scare the heck out of your passengers because you will enter corners at unbelievable speeds.
To clarify: you brake while the car does a straight line, get off the brake and turn in, go through the corner, straighten the car and only now you hit the gas.
Evan,
If you don’t mind me asking – when you dabbled in Volvos, how often did you deal with 740s, and if you did, what’d you make of them in comparison to the 240s? I have owned 240s before but I gradually went to the 740s because of the better rust protection and smoother highway manners. I own a low-mileage 1989 GL (117k miles) which never sees snow or salt. A photo of it can be seen below.
Also, to add to your list of the best-made cars the world has ever known, I have another one – any Ford F100 or F150 with the 300-cubic-inch inline-6 cylinder. Couple to a 3- or 4-speed manual, those tanks are indestructible and will run till the end of time.
Very nice PJ. My fun car is an 88 740T with 245 km under its belt. Fun and the most reliable car I have ever owned (hope that doesn’t jinx it). It has needed nothing except scheduled maintenance in 9 years I have been its temporary custodian.
I dabbled a bit. The 740 was too fancy for me, and too fancy for Volvo. They needed to move upmarket, but they did not do it very well, in my opinion.
After owning a 740 turbo, they seemed a bit cheaply made to me with some of the most delicate interior plastics I’ve seen, think the door pockets of a 240 (if yours even still has them), build an interior around that along with the worlds most narrow center console.
Then you have the headliners, rather than use the 240s seemingly sag-proof material, Volvo used an off size cloth (which makes replacing it harder, needs special material sizing).
Too fancy for Volvo?
Really!
I drove the 760 GLE at work, working for Hertz Rent-a-Car in Copenhagen Airport.
I absolutely loved it.
The 740’s we thought of as too cheap in the cabin and lacking exterior refinement.
The wildest Volvo I have ever driven, was a Volvo 760 Turbo, white with deep red oxen leather. It is actually a 740 gasoline with a turbo.
Volvo Diesel I never cared about. Neither as 240 or 740. Didn’t they drive with the 5 cylinder diesel engine from a VW minibus?
Horribly noisy and smoking cars.
Only thing you had to be carefull about in a 760 GLE was the rear end driving in snow.
I grew up and started driving in a 1967 Volvo 144S, which especially my mother referred to being a car, you could throw into a snow drift, to get out of the way for oncomming traffic, and it would alway climb out again by itself.
With the Volvo 760 GLE you dealt with so much power that you easily got a loose rear end, the BMW trademark, why you had to hold back on the accelleration in winter weather.
Evan, These were often used as taxis in Amsterdam when I was there in the early 70s. All were manual shift. I don’t think the lack of acceleration was a big factor in a city made up of concentric rings of streets separated by canals (more than Venice I was told) and connected by highly curved bridges.
In the late 1970s I bought a condo that just a slab of concrete, and the builder let me take his pale yellow 240D manual for a spin. I liked it. Not very quick and kind of noisy, but nice in a way I have a hard time describing. Maybe it was because it had Mercedes status without Mercedes snootiness.
But rust is the killer of many fine cars.
I think it makes you feel safe. As safe as you felt in the baby crib.
It’s all about the energy management (I drove a ’71 VW Type II for most of the eight years I owned it).
“Rule #1: NEVER SLOW DOWN if you can avoid it; it takes too long to get back up to speed!”
Maintenance of Momentum: Also the driving style for 1949 Dodges and 2CV Citroens.
Great story, Evan!
I drove my 240d (automatic!) for five years and never found the car unduly slow for city traffic and highway merging. Then again I was living in Chicago, so there was nary a hill in a 90 mile radius to cause a problem. I do remember going on our first trip six weeks after my son was born. He was our first, so packing for a week away took all day, the car was loaded to the gills, and we didn’t leave till eight pm. Finally getting to northern Michigan around 11 pm, wife and child asleep in the back seat, I became alarmed when my car was undeniably slowing down from our 80mph cruising speed. 75, 70, 65, 60 mph…… ???
WHAT COULD BE WRONG? Nothing else seemed to be amiss, just this weird loss of power.
Will I have to wake my wife and say that we were broken down in the middle of the night with a newborn? Would she survive the news? Would I survive her anger? Just as a wave of panic crested in my mind, as the car slowed to 55 mph, we also crested the long hill the car was climbing, and magically, the cars speed began to increase. “Oh,” I thought, “a hill.” I hadn’t realized we were on one, and hadn’t driven up one in over a year…
Luckily, I guess, I never actually did any mountain climbing in the years I owned that car….
By the way, I moved from that ’82 240D directly to a ’92 Volvo 940 Turbo wagon. I always thought that particular Volvo (one of three) was the fastest car I ever owned. It felt like a jet on take-off. But it retrospect, maybe it was just in comparison to that 28 second zero-to-sixty speed of the 240D.
I am suffering from W123 “syndrome”…I have to wait at least four years, until after college, to buy one. (I also am a huge fan of the W126). I’m sure time will go fast though!
Also…I would almost bet money that the first comment of any passenger who sits in a W123 is “ooh, bouncy.” Of course, they’re referring to the firm but very comfortable/supportive steel-sprung seats.
how old are you now?
I learned how to drive in this car’s ancestor: a 1961 190Db, the last of the “pontoon” Mercedes. Four-speed stick on the column, and even more glacial than the 240D. But it could handle!
Dad took me out to the hills northwest of the city to teach me how to drive the thing in hills. It was basically this: gather speed going downhill, and floor it going uphill. It still lost speed, but at least it kept moving. And the lovely black cloud of diesel smoke kept tailgaters away! (This was way back at the end of the 1960s, and we could get away with that.)
The automotive landscape has changed so much that I wouldn’t want to drive that car now in the city, much less on the highway. It could barely get out of its own way, much less anyone else’s.
I have a car from 1964 and it’s slow to accelerate, but not ‘s-l-o-w’ as in ‘impossibly slow’. You could probably navigate that Mercedes all right if you needed to; other drivers would still stay away from you with the cloud of diesel smoke in the rear! And besides, you have as much right to the road as anyone else. When my panic attacks are at bay (watch out for brain injuries) and I can drive around without issue I never worry about getting into an accident; I can control my ’64 Ford with no problems and I’ve found that just the ‘look’ of the car in 2016 is like a safety feature. Since nothing modern looks like a ’64 Falcon other drivers notice it and don’t tailgate. Maybe folks are just scared to get too close to it as it’s so old, but no matter what the reason(s) are: They stay clear. Note that I don’t tailgate the folks driving in front of me, either. Works well all around.
Since I live on the side of a gently sloping mountain there are times when I lose speed even though my foot pressure on the gas pedal stays the same. I reckon one just gets used to it. When I lived in FL 99.9% of the places I ever drove to were flat, not so here in GA. But I figured out how to navigate the roads easily enough. Admittedly my Falcon does not take to *steep* inclines very well so I’m glad the mountain only slopes gently ^upwards^!
I have driven one Mercedes diesel in my life sometime in the late 70’s. Leaving from where I lived heading east on the freeway you entered at the bottom of the valley. That meant an uphill grade before one leveled off. It took forever but the thing that sticks in my mind was what a tank. Once moving at 65 mph there seemed like nothing could stop it other than me.
Here’s a real nice one going up for sale – and a WA car without rust. BTW, this YT M-B channel is terrific:
Gawd its loud, in my hatch you can barely hear the engine and its much faster.
I would definitely trust buying a car from Kent (Mercedessource). If you watch any of his videos, he’s very meticulous about the work he does! He had a few other cars for sale too — I think a 280SEL (W108), a 300SE (W126)…both sold already though if I’m not mistaken.
$99? Talk about a steal! Surprised you didn’t list it on GRM 😉
I also have a 123; it’s an ’82 230CE, which has the 4 cylinder gasoline engine w/ the 4 speed manual transmission. It apparently was a gray market import, coming through California and ending up in the Detroit area where I purchased it from a third-tier used car lot. It appealed to me because it had crank windows, stick shift, and a power sunroof. The coupes of that era were very nice looking in my opinion. It was finished in the popular Silberthistle, with the Tan MB-Tex seating. It had a mishap a while back; the muffler separated at the pipe join on the front end of the muffler, and before I could pull over it punched through the rear fascia as well as the euro spec bumper. I replaced the exhaust system, but that’s as far as I got. It sits in storage now. I should dig it out and start driving it again. I like the phrase “Sure, little things break, but they are easy to fix, or easy to ignore”. I certainly found that to be true.
i had an ’83 240d manual that was in good shape except for some transmission issues. i put it on ebay for $900 with a buy it now of $1600. it was sold in six hours and i got emails for weeks from people who were still interested.
i agree that the volvo 240 and the mb 240d are among the two best passenger cars ever built. i’ve had both but since i live in the city and don’t have my own garage to weekend repairs, i’ve moved on to the world of zipcar and the disposable cars they rent me. sigh.
Owned a manual trans 1982 240d for a few years. Power did not bother me, you just had to drive it hard, which it could take. Rust was the only real problem. Would have another, but would have to be a manual 300d, only available overseas. As others have mentioned there are few vehicles that feel more soiid, and can easily feel that way with 400k on the clock.
The engineering of the MB cars of this era really was something special, and out of the ordinary. A well maintained 240D, one that had the oil and filter changed religiously every 5000 km and the fuel filter twice a year, will run practically forever.
Not only would a W126 have double the number of fasteners, each one would have been beautifully engineered. These cars were very, very strong and had absolutely first class materials in the entire vehicle.
And yes, they were slow, but it never bothered me which in either a 240D or 300D. They were just such nice cars to drive, with that big steering wheel and the compliant suspension that also held the road.
The automatic was the weak point. If you constantly stomped it to get a low gear start, you’d fry it in no time. I remember a taxi guy trying to run a 300D and he couldn’t keep transmissions in the car.
These cars were, in my opinion, decent value. A 240D automatic with a/c and sunroof ran about $10,000 circa 1978, or $40,000 in today’s money. One could reasonably expect a W126 to last 25 years with even basic care. The cost per mile would be very reasonable if one were to keep it forever.
Canucknucklehead,
Just curious – when comparing the engineering of MB products of that time period versus the engineering of the Volvo products of the same era, which car came across to you as the better overall package? The Benz or Volvo? (When discussing Volvo here, I’m referring to the old RWD products, not any of the newer FWD cars)
An old guy I knew from the Volvo Club of America many years ago claimed the engineering on a Volvo 240 exceeded that of Benz’s cars during their heyday. Yes, the 240s were kinda slow, but they had that run-forever reputation for years.
That’s a good question, and I can put it this way: the 240 was extremely well engineered and made, but it was made to sell at a much lower price than a W123. They were both very good cars, but the Volvo was already kind of long in the tooth by the time the W123 came along. That means a live rear axle and less than optimum front suspension geometry.
The MB has it in the diesel engine, since the one Volvo eventually used was an awful VW thing that never worked as a five cylinder. A gas 240 would run for years, and there are still loads of them on the road all over small town British Columbia. The Volvo mecca is Chapman Motors, which has been around for a good 30 years or so.
Volvo club members of course love Volvos, but I still don’t think they were as nice a cars as a W123. The Volvo was a good 20% cheaper than a 240D and it would also run for 25 years with basic maintenance, and you an overbore a Volvo red block with ease. A rebuild on the Merc isn’t all that hard, either.
If I had the choice, I would take a 240D manual, sunroof, white colour, no a/c and cranker windows.
if you want slow try a vw jetta diesel WITHOUT the turbo. bet the 240D would win!
Toyota 2c NA diesel with auto is glacial but not as slow as a 240d lighter weight likely helps but I drove one for 11 months and it hardly missed a beat and got great miles to the gallon in total discomfort.
I had an 82 non-turbo Jetta for a while. You would need to get it in 3rd gear just to complete a turn from a full stop.
1985 Jetta Diesel 5 speed stick 0-60 18.2 top speed 91 MPH. (VW factory spec.)
1982 240D 4 speed stick 0-60 20.8 top speed 89 MPH (Mercedes factory spec.)
How about a 82-83 Vanagon Diesel? 0-60 41.1seconds! (tested by hot VW’s)
I love your auction listing. “Free carrying case” — talk about truth in advertising!
Having owned a 744 (gone to Volvo heaven saving its uninjured driver) and a 945 (ditto) each with 114 hp red blocks, and previously having put miles on a 244, and currently owning a W126 – these are the finest feeling cars I can imagine. Energy management is critical and entirely the driver’s responsibility, to be sure. I’ve owned and still own newer Volvos and MBZ, but their virtues are just not the the same.
More modern cars may have better rustproofing and materials science underlying them, they may even be safer (as long as the airbags are mostly inflated while still in motion…. things can go bad if the wreck goes on too long) but there’s just something about the older ones… The rustproofing on later 740/940 Volvos beats W123’s, regardless of the rest of the engineering.
W123 vs. Volvo 244? Give me a mint example of each, I’ll keep them both out of the salt, and I’ll gladly let you know in 10 years which one is fundamentally better.
I love the W123, I was actively seeking one out a few years ago when they were going for peanuts(sub $1000), maybe they still do. Oddly, being in the Chicago suburbs you’d think there would be a greater selection(since there’s a slight bit more of that “coastal” taste in cars than the surrounding midwest), but nope, almost every one I found was in rural Indiana, southern illinois, western Illinois, Milwalkee area, ect. On top of that I was primarily using craigslist for my search and contacted and met probably 5 or 6 of the shadiest or frustrating sellers ever. The last of which was someone in South Bend who I was contacting via the provided phone AND email for several weeks while watching during those weeks after weeks the price get knocked down another $100 each time he renewed the listings! I think it ended up at like $350 or something! He eventually answered when I saw the listing disappear, his response was “uhh, sorry the Mercedes was picked up yesterday. You should have contacted me sooner.” it took every ounce of strength for me to not rip him a new orifice over the phone, and I pretty much gave up on my search after that.
What I found eye opening about the first 240D I drove, which belonged to a friend who had a few before downsizing, they are slow only when you ask them to go fast, which, for reasons I cannot explain, you(not I anyway) don’t have the temptation to do when driving one. They keep up with highway traffic fine, merge fine and pass fine. When you’re driving a typical modern car with 3-4 times the horsepower of one you’re probably using maybe half the throttle in those instances, putting out a fraction of the peak horsepower, the 240 though, you’re foot to the floor, using all the available power, but netting the same ultimate result. You lose the instinct that foot to the floor = naughty, it’s definitely a unique experience.
“This is a ’78. At least it’s the right shade of poo brown”..
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But , it wasn’t a wagon….. =8-) .
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I have a 1982 W123 240D with slushbox , that was the only option it came with when new ~ not even a radio was fitted .
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As mentioned , fairly slow off a dead stop but able to cruise right along and if you keep it right at 60 MPH , it’ll return 34 ~ 36 MPG’s fully loaded up with five adults and trunk jammed full, R12 AC cranked to ‘refrigerate’ .
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I’m a Diesel Mercedes Enthusiast , I like the W123’s best and have one of each body style , Wagon , Coupe and Sedan .
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All are great cars but if I had to choose just *one* it’d be the old 240D with it’s 356,XXX miles and only 200# compression in one cylinder .
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W126’s are also very nice but the sound deadening carpet used all over the interior would be filthy and greasy after two weeks with me plus TOO DARN BIG ! =8-).
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-Nate
I love diesel MB products, too, and the W123 is my favourite by far. One can still get a 1982 300D Turbdiesel for a reasonable price if one looks around and despite all the horror stories, the cars are really not hard to work on nor unduly expensive. Yes, some parts may seem expensive, but remember they have lasted close to 40 years before failing. Like with all old cars, the secret is joining a club, and you no doubt meet plenty of new friends.
I was seriously surprised when I looked at the 2017 E Class on the MB.ca website. The only engine available was the 2 litre turbo in in a C$61,000 car. This is the same engine as in the B class, which is half the money. No diesel is available. If I could buy a stipper 2017 E200 diesel for $40,000 I would seriously consider it, but not way at $61,000 with a clattery gas engine.
Yep ;
I’m a long time German car Mechanic , I only came to the M-B fold 20 years ago , they’re dead easy to repair , just like the older air cooled VW’s were but they’re vastly better cars , simple , reliable , cheap to operate and maintain , parts are not bad as long as you know to beat the bushes , I get lots of fiddly little things from the Mercedes Classic Center , I have an account there , with three old W-123’s I always need some part or another , like a replacement ignition lock cylinder with correct matching key for less than a Japanese car sells you the one with mystery key that doesn’t fit the doors….
Not for everyone but I really enjoy the driving experience , leaving Sports Cars eating my dust in the canyons is much fun indeed .
30 MPG’s is nice too =8-) .
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-Nate
I bought one for my daughter. They eat anything so we run it on paraffin (kerosene/jetA1) mixed 80:1 with 2 stroke oil to keep the injectors lubricated. In South Africa this reduces the cost of fuel by about 37%. It has now traveled over 365 000, 65 000 of them for us the auto boxes tend to wear out though.
Since there is a lot of comparisons of the MB diesel and the Volvo 240 can we add the the Peugeot diesels and maybe the gas powered ones as well to the mix. So how do the Peugeots do in comparison?
Sorry, I couldn’t help it since we had all the recent articles on the Pugs.
If “best” means quality AND reliability/durability, I think the W123 Mercedes was the best car of the 70s and 80.
They may have been slow (all versions with less than 6-cylinders), they may have not posted as good handling numbers (g-force, slalom speeds) as contemporary BMW or Chevy Novas or other GM cars with handling packages, but they handled well AND rode well, and were solid, and handled extremely competently–the RWD car of choice on curvy roads and bad weather for normal drivers (those who never attended racing school).
My only W123 experience involves selling a junk gauge cluster, cant say I’d want one as a daily driver with how pricey parts can be. I’m sure they make great weekend rides.
The Volvo 240 was a pretty good car, but hardly “the best”, by the late 80’s-early 90’s it was quite dated and lacking in many basic amenities (tach, arm rest, cup holders, map lights), oh yes, those parts existed but they were all optional and they’re quite rare these days.
Plus, the 240 would have greatly benefited from the 7-940s lock out torque converter, but Volvo never saw it fit to equip the 240 with them.
I owned three and between had an 850 and a 740, the 850 felt like an unfinished prototype in many areas and often required expensive repairs. The 740 was a case of “2 steps foward, 3 steps backward”, they dont age as well as the 240.
I’ve long wanted a W123, ideally a 300TD. The 240D seems like it would be too much of a chore to deal with the lack of acceleration, though I do suppose one gets used to it. The W123 in general still has that very old-school German nature though…and the many surviving ones seem to be in good enough shape that you can tell they were engineered for the long haul.
As to the Volvos–to your quote of “If Volvo engineers determined that the correct number of bolts to hold a part in place is four, they used four bolts.” I would add “and then placed those four bolts in the most difficult to access places imaginable.” That’s been my experience with the 780 so far, a continual litany of “how the hell are you supposed to get a tool onto that?”
That Mercedes 4 pot diesel, while no ball of fire, is an absolute legend of an engine. If you can kill one before it’s done half a million miles you’ll be doing very well, they simply refuse to wear out. It’s nigh on impossible to thrash them because doing so achieves so little result. They are unstressed and just do what they do for a very long time.
You want slow? Just imagine the purgatory of driving a 2 ton unaerodynamic cargo van with that 2.4 diesel in it, like the 207d we had in Europe. I used to get overtaken by trucks going uphill in mine.
I think the Pacific Nwst is the magical resting place of older W123’s and 240 Volvos. Between Portland and Seattle, there’s dozens of decent ones to choose from. Eugene has them too- but the Mercedes’s have probably been converted to bio-diesel.
There’s no conversion to run on biodiesel. Any diesel can. It’s legitimately diesel fuel, just processed from other sources.
Are you mixing up biodiesel with vegetable oil? That’s different, and does require some changes. But that’s become quite uncommon. It never really was common anytime, really, except for a few fanatics.
Yes I was- thanks for pointing that out. Led to some spectacular fuel system failures.
This technique for going up hills also works for my 4 cyl ranger loaded and pulling a trailer to the flea market just give those hills a running start I often think I am driving a vw bus