Quote:
Originally Posted by Army
If you are talking new cars - can't you guys get a BMW 5 series estate (wagon) with a diesel engine and a manual transmission over there?
They are all over the place over here - sometimes hard to find an auto!
Same for Mercedes, Volvo, Subaru (I think), possibly even Jaguar...
To the best of my knowledge all French cars are front wheel drive these days - I can't see why anyone would buy one...
|
no offense Army, but.....
American history lesson: When Jaguar, BMW and MB started selling cars in the US, they marketed themselves as cars for the rich- which in the 70's and 80's meant that we only got Automagic transmissions and all the options (no cloth-seated W123's here !) Not sure why MB sold diesels here, but BMW only tried to sell a 528TD here in the mid 1980's. We got a 240D in the W123 style but never the 200D that sold elsewhere.
More than that, the utility of a wagon never caught on - if you needed that much room, you'd just get a pickup truck - We sell them in 3 sizes (F150, Dodge Dakota and Ford Ranger) and again, sticks are for poor people (lol) so the automatic transmissions (only $400 option) were very common. You can find trucks with manuals, but they are not the norm.
Notable exceptions include the late 90's 5-series (M5's ?) available with a 6-speed stick and the 1986 300E available with a 5-speed and various volkswagens (which never competed with MB/BMW or volvo for sales)
The closest we have to what the OP wants is a Passat Wagon TDI from the laet 80's - 4cyl VW diesel economy but also their front-wheel drive platform. I would argue that you lose some economy when you go to a rear-drive platform, so the Passat TDI wagon is your closest bet.
-John