Quote:
Originally Posted by hertfordnc
About the 240D, just how slow is it? I know that's a tough question to answer. The simplicity really appeals to me and we don't have California freeways around here, and it's relatively flat, but i hear so many comments about the lack of speed. I'm trying to get san idea what it's like to live with.
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Well, speaking from experience having owned a couple of these, I would say that if it is in good shape, then you can expect 0-60 in around 20 seconds. My first 240D was 24 seconds. My current 240D is around 18 seconds.
I have NO trouble getting around town, and keeping up with traffic. OK, you will need to plan for a larger gap when merging in traffic, or when crossing the road, but I've had NO trouble at all.
On the freeway? Over the weekend I took a 500 mile trip, and the speed limit was anything from 55 to 70. No trouble at all keeping up. On the mountain passes, it is true that I could not pass people until the road flattened out, but I had NO trouble keeping at the speed limit or a little more when passing. I was thoroughly impressed. We went over mountain passes several thousand feet in elevation. The only thing I noticed was the NA 240D did puff a bit more at higher elevations, but the A/C worked great, and overall the 240D was quiet, cool, stable, and comfortable.
I WILL say that the auxiliary fan kicked in several times on the uphill climbs as we had the A/C on and were keeping at freeway speed.
So, I would say this. It does just fine. I would say that to the passenger, you don't notice that it is sluggish at all. For the driver, you do note that on mountain passes going uphill, you've got your foot all the way into it. In other words, there is no additional power for going any faster. However, no one shook their fist at us for being too slow, and I never felt the car as being too sluggish for daily duty. In fact, I consider it fun and nimble.
Another thing is that my 240D doesn't blow a lot of smoke. In fact, I need to look very closely at startup to see if there is any visible smoke (there is very little if any that I see). Even on the uphill grades, there was minimal visible smoke from the car. I don't know other's experiences, but this is mine. I do know that my first 240D blew a LOT of smoke, and seemed very 'tired' compared to my current one. I would estimate the mileage on my previous car at 350-400K. This car has only around 130K.
I might also add that I own an FD RX7, so I do know what 0-60 in 4.9 is like. That's fun, too! But I believe that the 240D (with manual transmission) is a fun, reasonably nimble, reasonably sure-footed, perfectly-adequate car for 99.5% of everything you need to do. The only exception is if you need to tow something.
Sincerely,
PE
P.S. I really like driving my 240D. I suggest you find one in good shape, make sure you do a PPI, and take it for a spin. I'd wager you'd find it totally fine.