The price of diesel has just went up even more and it just doesn't make sense to drive my 300D anymore, at least not on a daily basis. I really liked driving the car. I finally have it running in a way that I almost forget that it's a diesel.
The lowest price for diesel in my area is now up to $2.199 and I saw regular UL for $1.819. It's an outrage that the price of diesel has gotten so out of hand. Less than a month ago I was only(?) paying $2.009 for it.
I finally got the 230CE insured today and it'll be my daily driver for now. I'm glad though I can still drive an MB. It might be fun to drive a car with a manual once again.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

I just paid $2.39 a gallon today for diesel , and I live in Eastern Washington. In the long run it would probally be cheapest for me to drive the Benz until the snow falls, but I also don't have a functioning heater

I'm sorry, but I have very little sympathy for those who complain about the price we pay for fuel in the US. We still pay much, much less than the "true" cost of fuel at the pump, when you figure in all the costs that we pay through our taxes. Many studies have come to the conclusion that the "fully burdened" cost of fuel is at least $5 or $6 per gallon - or about what they pay in Europe.

Google "true cost of fuel" for any number of interesting reads.

Kevin

I'm not really complaining, just if prices get to be too much, I need to do some serious adjustments to my budget... I spent some time in College study energy, and spent several weeks studying what we actually pay for fuel and the actual costs to produce it, and the US government suppliments a majority of the fuels costs...

Start burning vegetable oil. My cost per gallon is next to nothing.

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'83 240D with 617.952 and 2.88
'01 VW Beetle TDI
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD
'89 Toyota 4x4, needs 2L-T
'78 280Z with L28ET - 12.86@110
Oil Burner Kartel #35

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...oD/bioclip.jpg

A man dear to my heart. The cost of fuel is too cheap. Just look at all the shi*boxes on the road getting about 16 mpg. If these people have enough money to dump $250.00 per month in gasoline into those pieces of *****, and they keep buying them like they cost $15,000., then gasoline is too damned cheap.

I stand by my original proposal to increase the tax on gasoline by $1.00 per gallon and give every owner of a vehicle a $500.00 credit on his/her income taxes. If you can get by on 500 gallons of gasoline per year then the tax costs you nothing. Drive a *****box and pay up. The government needs the money.

Fire Away.

This country's delivery system depends on fuel and we'll all see increases everywhere on stuff we need to buy. I drove 20K+ miles last year. The idea may sound OK if you don't drive much....BUT don't hijack my thread to propose some ludicrous govt supporting crackpot ideas. That's the last I want to read about more $#@% taxes! I'll delete this thread altogether if I find anymore in it.
I want to hear some bellyaching from other diesel owners. That's the intention of my thread.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

I'll shut up forever on additional fuel taxes.

There's a few good fuel threads out there you might get some words in edgewise.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

Just kidding.

Diesel is still $2.14 vs $2.09 for premium gas and $1.85 for reg here in denver. I've been looking for cheaper, but the lowest I can find is $1.99 way out of town.

I really do hope prices go down, I can't stand the idea of driving a paper-thin Geo.

I'd like to have like a 280 123 gas car or something but they seem extremely rare. I just recently got the car I have now thinking I was all smart and stuff. I got served pretty good. Diesel fuel won't be sky high for long though. Hopefully.
There is a luscious chocolate 240D parked across the street right now. It's probably the sweetest one I've ever seen.

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'02 BMW 325i
'85 300D 450k
'93 190E 2.6 170k(killed by tree)
'08 Ducati Hypermotard 1100S 6k
'06 Ducati S2R800 14k(sold)

I think parking the diesel is a little over reacting. I would guess most of the 300Ds in our driveways are paid for. For the price of a car payment on a car that gets 50mpg you can sure buy a lot of fuel. I for one don't like the spine jarring that the econo box cars give on our less then perfect roads.
my .02

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1959 Gravely LI, 1963 Gravely L8, 1973 Gravely C12
1982 380SL
1978 450 SEL 6.9 euro restoration at 63% and climbing
1987 300 D
2005 CDI European Delivery
2006 CDI Handed down to daughter
2007 GL CDI. Wifes

I would have to fill my '03 Dodge Dakota up twice (at $38.00 per tank) versus one tank of diesel at $28.00 for my weekly commute. I'll pay the diesel price.....

The Europeans pay so much for fuel because of taxes, but the taxes subsidize public transportation, which is far superior to the US method of having everyone drive his car everywhere.

For example, in Madrid, Spain, a ticket on the subway costs the non senior, non child about 60 cents. For this, he can go on the subway to within ten blocks to darn near anywhere in the entire Madrid Community, and wll not have to park. His trip will almost always take less than 45 minutes.

As a result of this, there are far fewer cars in Madrid, and therefore space is not wasted on parking them, so centuries old architectural teasures are not torn down to build parking garages and new apartment blocks with paking built in the the yuppies. Real estate costs less, because it is not rebuilt every 40 years or so, as it tends to be in the US.

The GDP in Spain is about a third of what it is in the US, but after riding around all over Madrid for two weeks, I never saw any slums even half as bad as what we have here in Miami, FL. There are a few camps of gypsies and immigrants living in old German trailers around the outskirts of town, but there are not legions of beer-sipping hostile young men hanging out in the streets. The streets are mostly clean and I had an impression that I was safe everywhere--more so than in Miami or Mexico City.

The relatively low price of gasoline raises all sorts of other problems: the much higher number of traffic fatalities, the spread of shoping from the city center to way out in the sticks and to unnecessary strip malls all over the place. Who needs car insurance if they have no car? Many, if not most of us Americans pay more for the insurance than for the fuel and even for the car, if we have older used vehicles.

I am pretty sure that if I lives in Madrid or Barcelona, I would have only one car and it would not get driven except for special occasions and recreation.

I spent a week in Barcelona, two in Madrid and did not see it necessary tro take a cab even once. There was a convenient train from the airport right into downtown in both cities.

Last winter, I was in Paris, and although the tickets were about 90 cents US, we did not need to take a cab even once, and took a bus only twice.

The fact is that Americans need their cars in US cities only because the cities have been designed to be convenient for cars more than for people.

If the French or the Spanish lowered the price on fuel, the result would be more far-out suburbs, increased expenses for insurance and more traffic accidents, as well as the destruction of fine old buildings that cannot be duplicated today.

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Semibodacious Transmogrifications a Specialty

1990 300D 2.5 Turbo sedan 171K (Rudolf)
1985 300D Turbo TD Wagon 219K (Remuda)

"Time flies like and arrow, yet fruit flies like a banana"
---Marx (Groucho)

I spent a few days in Madrid and few years back, an I took the subway everywhere. There was always a stop within 2 blocks from the hotels I was staying at, and I could make a trip across town to many of the major sites, and make it there within 15-20 minutes. I do remember that a majority of the vehicles there were diesel powered, and virually all taxi cabs are diesel...