first timer. 240D manual or 300D??
 

new to the market. wanting a stick shift for bio-diesel. whats a good year for these (240D)? I read in this forum that the 300D and 300TD from 80 - 84 were the best in terms of reliability, cheap to fix, and reliability. any suggestions are appreciated.

Are 77-79 300's much different? cost to change the tranny? will a manual tranny line up with a 616 or 617 automatic engine?

any pros and cons for the 240's are appreciated. my budget is about 2-3G. thanks

Stick shift 240D, says me.... It will be peppier than the automatic 300D, better fuel economy and piece of cake to maintain. 5th cylinder up against the firewall makes for tougher valve adjustment.

Some believe the turbo diesel was designed to compensate for a slushy automatic tranny that bottoms the gears at/near 2,000 rpm most of the time.

I think 1980 was first year of the horrible automatic climate control and that's something you want to avoid.

Agreed on the 240D w/4 speed.

Don't let anybody feed you any crap about them being slow. A well running 240D can get up and move.

- Patrick

Does it move anything like your 4 cylinder TDI? :D

240/300
 

the 240 is pretty slow even with a stick but it is pleasant to drive after you get used to it. the 300 with auto and non turbo is probably quicker but if it has the automatic climate control well, that slows me down. i happen to have exactly what you need... a 83 240 d with a non turbo 300d and a stick. the motor has about 20,000 on a professional no excuses rebuild, a new clutch, cold air, a rust free texas body, rebuilt driver s seat, recent bilsteins good michelin tires, the correct speedo for the axle ratio, brand new front end work and an alignment the conversion was done using two complete cars to start with so all parts are factory... and it is officially not needed. i also have an 82 240d stock with brand new professionally rebuilt motor, stick, cold air no power windows or sunroof, rebuilt drivers seat, recent michelins and bilsteins. i need to sell one of them. the clocks and radios work in both cars.

Prices???

I don't follow. What has a stick shift got to do with biodiesel? You can run biodiesel in both stick and auto. :confused: :confused: