Small Ford diesel car?

[eljefino]

Let's not forget Toyota had diesel Camrys and Nissan, diesel Sentras.

The urban legend I heard was by the time they were 10 years old in the states, they'd get put on a ship for Mexico/ South America where diesel is 1/2 the price of gas.

I recall seeing a tempo diesel at a junkyard's "for sale" section in 1998 for $500. A note was taped on the dash regarding proper glow plug operation for casual test-drivers. The car was not wrecked but not cared for either.

 

[GenesToy]

The big problem with the little diesel engines put in the chevettes and tempos were they were extremely slow to get up to speed. No turbo option. The other problem was to find qualified people to work on them and get information on repairing them in the 80s. A lot of guess work was done on them to keep running.

 

[CorvairGeek]

Yep, they were slow, but would really pull well up at highway speed. My dad took his injectors from his Chevette diesel to a diesel truck shop for rebuild. No doubt that the hammer mechanics at a Chevrolet stealership wouldn't have a clue what to do with them. The injector pumps were supposed to have had some issues with the Isuzus, but my dad never had any in over 250K (he always ran Pennzoil too

) . Always kept the fuel filters changed. Injectors need rebuilt after 100K to run clean. Never had a clutch, brake rotor, or wheel bearing in all those miles. Always over 40mpg as I recall, even with aftermarket A/C (factory A/C not available on diesel Chevettes, no room under the hood in the normal location).

 

[Nebraskan]

Our neighbor and guy that hunts on our property, drives a VW car with a diesel. He makes about 45 mpg with that. He also commutes pertty long distances to work so it is well that he makes such mileage.

I have a 1985 Isuzu pickup P'uP. One of the Isuzu pickups came with a diesel.

So, to find a diesel you would have to watch someones junkyard sales or the remote pausibility of one making it to the paper? Sad they don't make more of them available now.

 

[Pablo]

I've been watching for awhile. Here in the PNW they are so far overpriced it's not even worth it.

I would love a Volvo 740 (body) Turbo-Diesel (VW engine)....

The bottom line now is I'm waiting and waiting and waiting for new diesel cars. The suck thing is the price per gallon.....The fun thing will be making nasty fuels in the garage.

 

[crw]

For what it's worth, the Ford Focus Turbo Diesel that I drove was tons 'O fun. In a drag race it might have not quite beat it's gasoline counterpart, but it was "punchy". It loved to pull from a stop and put that torque to good use. It was "real world" power, not the power that is only found above 6000 RPM...

 

[Neil Womack]

I read several of auto companies are looking to import their diesels now that we have ultra low sulphur diesel. If the cost of fuel does not come more in line with reg. gas the economy of owning a diesel is lost. I'm currently paying $2.50/gallon for diesel with regular gas selling at $2.05. Were I in the market for wheels right now the 0.45 difference would keep me out of another VW TDI.

 

[BGK]

Diesel cars should be back in all 50 states in 2 or 3 years; we can only hope!