Originally Posted by R Leo

In the mid-80's, I had a diesel Rabbit in the UTE format for running appliance service. It was cute and that's about where it ended...if you think a 240D is anemic, you should have driven that Rabbit pickup. It didn't have the guts to pull the skin off of a rice custard. 5-speed, 48mpg and 23, maybe 24hp. Dad was riding with me one day and the A/C compressor cycled on. He hought I'd hit the brakes.

That damned thing shook so much that in three weeks, it destroyed the #2cyl injector line 6 times. The last time it broke, I drove the miserable POS 40+ miles on three cylinders, #2 sprayin' diesel all over the underside of the hood and on the ground. I was praying it would burst into flame so I could take the loss. Turns out the IP had been pulled at one point and the Einstein that did the work neglected to replace all of the IP's support brackets.

I found a bracket, installed it, replaced the injector line and drove it exactly 21 more miles before the lift pump on the IP died a horrible death. I was spending more time pulling service on that truck than I was on paying jobs like washers and refrigerators.

I parked it and eventually found a gas engine to stab in.

Everytime I have a brainfart and think: "Man, a TDI would save me a lot of cash driving back and forth to the farm..." I recall that miserable Rabbit truck and love my Mercedes even more.