Over the Long Haul, Diesels Appeal - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

#1 05-18-2008, 05:43 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/automobiles/collectibles/18SMOKE.html?_r=2&oref=login&oref=slogin

Collecting
Over the Long Haul, Diesels Appeal

1984 Mercedes-Benz 300CD.

By ROB SASS
Published: May 18, 2008

THE first fuel crisis that followed the Arab oil embargo of 1973 persuaded Americans to give diesel cars a try. These proliferated at first, but quickly faded under a foul-smelling cloud.

By May 1974, the price of oil had risen from about $3 a barrel to $12. Gasoline rose from about 30 cents a gallon to nearly 60 cents (almost $3 a gallon in current dollars). There were shortages and gas lines.

In 1973, the typical American sedan was a two-ton behemoth that had trouble breaking single-digit gas mileage in city driving. Small imported cars were an economical alternative, but some people simply needed more room than the Volkswagens, Toyotas and Fiats could provide.

For these people, there were diesel-powered sedans from Mercedes-Benz, which pioneered diesel passenger cars in 1936, and Peugeot. Diesels are more efficient because of their higher compression ratios.

Also, diesel fuel — a less refined petroleum fuel similar to kerosene — has a higher energy density than gasoline. Diesel-powered cars are generally 25 percent to 40 percent more fuel efficient than equivalent gasoline-powered cars.

Older diesel cars had drawbacks: they were smoky, smelly, noisy and sluggish. Although more efficient, diesels operate at far lower engine speeds, or r.p.m., and produce much less horsepower than gasoline engines of equal size.

(Consider the 1971 Mercedes 220D, as tested back then by Road & Track magazine: with only 65 horsepower to move a 3,500-pound sedan, acceleration was nearly imperceptible — zero-to-60 took an excruciating 27.5 seconds; top speed was only 84 miles an hour.)

Starting a diesel also took patience, because the driver had to wait for the glow plugs, which aid starting, to warm up.

Performance of the 220D’s chief rival, the Peugeot 504 diesel, was about the same. That was not surprising because it had the same meager 65 horsepower. The Peugeot was cheaper and rode softer, the Benz was better built and had a real dealer network to support it.

Larry Trochtenberg, who owned a St. Louis construction company in the early 1970s, bought his first diesel in 1974 — a Mercedes 240D sedan — during the first gas crisis. “It just seemed like a smart thing to do,” he said.

Like most pioneers, he experienced his share of inconvenience. When temperatures fell below freezing, Mr. Trochtenberg’s 240D did its best impersonation of a Panzer tank in a Stalingrad winter — the diesel fuel would gel and the car would refuse to start. To counteract this, he snaked a heavy-duty power cable from his office door and into the parking lot to an engine block heater under the hood.

But all was not privation. Mr. Trochtenberg’s 240D was durable and thrifty, as was the 1985 300CD coupe he owned later. By the time Mr. Trochtenberg bought the 300CD, technology had advanced considerably. The 5-cylinder turbodiesel gave the car adequate performance.

Neal Caudle, a software executive in Atlanta, bought a 1983 300D in 1993 with 158,000 miles on it. He drove it through college and gave it to his sister in 1999 with nearly 275,000 miles on it. She drove it until 2003 when the transmission gave out. Left for dead, it was sold for $50.

After the buyer paid, he disappeared under the car for a few moments. He then started it and drove off with the transmission functioning fine; a vacuum line had simply come loose. Mr. Caudle said the man still owned the car, which had now gone almost 420,000 miles.

Prices of used Mercedes diesels remain strong. A 1984 300TD wagon with 164,000 miles on it recently sold for $11,900 on eBay.

While the engines will seemingly run forever, rust has ravaged many of the early Mercedes diesels on the East Coast. But out West, it’s a different story. Eco-conscious Portland, Ore., is home to many Mercedes diesels from the ’70s and ’80s, many of them wearing “biodiesel powered” stickers.

Brady Joy, who owns an import repair shop in Portland, has worked on a number of these cars and said they were popular with the biodiesel crowd because the cars were cheap and their low-tech injections systems “will pass a gallstone without doing damage.” He added, “You wouldn’t want to try that with a new diesel that has $1,000 injectors.”

Mercedes and Peugeot weren’t the only ones hawking diesel cars in the United States in the ’70s and ’80s. Volkswagen sold diesel Rabbits, and BMW, Nissan and Toyota dabbled with diesels.

Jim B. · #2 05-18-2008, 08:08 AM

Nice article for the uninformed, but none of it is news to anyone here.