Diesel Herds. Advice Please - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

The Clk Man · #1 11-30-2013, 11:59 PM

I'm tired of spending every dollar I make on gas. So I'm thinking about getting an older diesel as a second car. What would be a good choice under $5000, it doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to get us from point A to point B and back. Any thoughts?

Aquaticedge · #2 12-01-2013, 12:04 AM

300TD wagon. 87. om603 is a great engine

Angel · #3 12-01-2013, 12:46 AM

I'd vote for a MK1 or MK2 VW diesel - more plainly - any VW with a diesel engine, manufactured from about 1976 to 1993 (I'm slightly hazy on those numbers...)
Itll be a 1.5l, or 1.6l motor, return 40+ mpg most of the time, and be old-school indirect injection/mechanical injection (simple). You will only get 40-50hp out of the motor, but thats (just) enough for highway speeds.
The problem with these will be the 20+ year old VW body that surrounds the motor (rust)...

The newer you go, the better things you get - Air conditioning, power steering, 5 speed transmissions... $5k would get you a cherry version of one of these...

The alternative would be a VW TDI, made in newer years - I don't think that $5k would get you much in the way of a TDI....they command crazy resale.

You could get a W123, but it'll be tough to get better than 30mpg in a W123, and where I live diesel is still $.60/gal more expensive than gas so you need noticeably better MPG's ondiesel than a gas replacement. I replaced my 240D with a '97 Jetta 2.0L (gasser) and saved measurable money on gas each month (the jetta got the same mpgs, made more HP and the fuel cost less...)

I always thought that, for now, diesels command such a premium price that if you want cheap transportation, you need a honda fit/Mazda 2/Scion xA or something in that size range, that gets 30+ mpg easily on cheaper gasoline.

-John

yvairguy · #4 12-01-2013, 01:44 AM

Everything Angel said but keep in mind with the IDI, aka the early VW's and the W123's you can run on waste oil and WVO

TylerH860 · #5 12-01-2013, 02:31 AM

By the time you tax, tag, insure and maintain 2 cars you might as well have one gas guzzler.

A well sorted old Mercedes diesel is going to cost you 1-2k a year to maintain properly if you don't do the work yourself. The old 123s will get at best 25MPG in mixed driving. 606 powered 124 and 210 30ish mixed.

By the time you do the math, its cheaper to keep the old Explorer.

sixto · #6 12-01-2013, 02:47 AM

90-93 300D 2.5 turbo or '95 E300 and some change. $5000 should get you into a 98-99 E300 but it'll have ~300K miles or need work to be a comfortable daily driver at that price.

Sixto
87 300D

sixto · #7 12-01-2013, 02:51 AM

Okay, I'll say it - turbo 602 swap into the Explorer.

Sixto
87 300D

yvairguy · #8 12-01-2013, 03:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sixto

Okay, I'll say it - turbo 602 swap into the Explorer.

Sixto
87 300D

that's kind of funny after seeing the astro van on here i am trying to figure out what i am going to re-power and i have an Explorer in the backyard, i was thinking about finding a toyota 4runner but maybe the explorer is the ticket...

Stretch · #9 12-01-2013, 03:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TylerH860

By the time you tax, tag, insure and maintain 2 cars you might as well have one gas guzzler.

A well sorted old Mercedes diesel is going to cost you 1-2k a year to maintain properly if you don't do the work yourself. The old 123s will get at best 25MPG in mixed driving. 606 powered 124 and 210 30ish mixed.

By the time you do the math, its cheaper to keep the old Explorer.

Agreed - a second car is always more expensive. Only buy a second car if you happen to have taken the first one to pieces (!) or you need additional vehicle redundancy.

If you want the feeling of paying less for fuel go the whole hog and change all the way to a diesel.

I personally would avoid any diesel with a dual mass flywheel.

For the more modern diesels you'll end up with weird diesel particulate filter (DPF) systems that need you to drive for a long way to get them to work properly. These systems capture the first puffs of soot that come out of a diesel on start up and then burn them off at high temperatures when the engine has been running for a long time. If you do lots of short trips then the DPF clogs and things start to get expensive to fix.

Angel · #10 12-01-2013, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stretch

Agreed - a second car is always more expensive. Only buy a second car if you happen to have taken the first one to pieces (!) or you need additional vehicle redundancy.

If you want the feeling of paying less for fuel go the whole hog and change all the way to a diesel.

I personally would avoid any diesel with a dual mass flywheel.

For the more modern diesels you'll end up with weird diesel particulate filter (DPF) systems that need you to drive for a long way to get them to work properly. These systems capture the first puffs of soot that come out of a diesel on start up and then burn them off at high temperatures when the engine has been running for a long time. If you do lots of short trips then the DPF clogs and things start to get expensive to fix.

Re: DPF - I havent looked at the price of DEF (Diesel exhaust fluid) but that would need filling occasionally - my power plant gets it by the tank-truck load)
I dont think that his posted budget of $5k is going to him a diesel any newer than 2003...

I think that this board had a thread recently, and silently agreed that any car -**any car** costs $80/m in parts to keep going. You wont be writing a check every month for $80, but over the course of a year or 5, the parts, consumables and your time start extracting money from your wallet. And if you think that your time is free, think of the loved ones that you'd rather be spending time with, and then back to how long it takes to change the oil and filters and adjust the valves on an OM606.

Add that $80/m to fuel consumption (12k miles/yr = 1000mi/mp at 40mpg = 25 gallons per month, at $3/gal thats $75/mo), and insurance ($50/mo for cheap stuff in my area) and you are already paying $205 to run that car. Maybe your numbers will be smaller (you live in a rural area IIRC) but even if you let the car sit, thats more than $100/m just to let the car sit in your driveway. And actually, you live in KY right ? don't you pay taxes on the car every year at registration time ?

I'm not hating on 2nd cars - Wife and I have 2 and it'd be tough to live with 1, and if you have $5k to drop on a 2nd car - rock it. I assume that if you hang out on a Mercedes board then you are at least some kinda car guy, and would enjoy having a 2nd machine - I keep trying to justify a Miata in place of my outback but can't quite do it...

-John

POS · #11 12-01-2013, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TylerH860

By the time you tax, tag, insure and maintain 2 cars you might as well have one gas guzzler.

A well sorted old Mercedes diesel is going to cost you 1-2k a year to maintain properly if you don't do the work yourself. The old 123s will get at best 25MPG in mixed driving. 606 powered 124 and 210 30ish mixed.

By the time you do the math, its cheaper to keep the old Explorer.

I'll third that comment. Second cars are for toys, not saving money.

elchivito · #12 12-01-2013, 10:47 AM

Given the premium paid for diesel these days, it seems to me you'd be needing to get pretty astronomically high mileage from one to make buying it pay off. Far as I'm concerned, poor mileage is often reason NOT to buy a particular car, but good mileage is hardly ever the most important reason TO buy one.

elchivito · #13 12-01-2013, 10:48 AM

How much will you get for your Mountaineer thing and how much gas can you buy for 5K??

Mölyapina · #14 12-01-2013, 09:42 PM

BUY A MAC!!!!

Hahahahahahahaha I said it

The Clk Man · #15 12-01-2013, 09:42 PM

This is a lot of good info to take in. I would like to just sell the mountaineer and have one car that got 40+ miles per gal. We live in the middle of nowhere, so when we go anywhere it's a long drive.