OK, this is my first, so hi!
I'm a high school senior looking to get cheap to run transportation. Now this has lead me to one of two conclusions: A old toyota tercel, or an old diesel.
I've deciced to get an old european diesel. Tercels have very little character, and don't want to have yet another toyota like everyone else in my family. Plus I can get bio diesel for $2 a gallon from a local co-op.
Now, I have about 2 grand right now, and am in the process of selling some of my stuff and working (if anyone needs parts for an automag/E-mag paintball gun, a 16.8v 720 mAH NiMH battery, legos, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs- message me), which hopefully will bring me up to 3 grand.
At that point I'm going to be looking for a diesel car. I'm thinking either a Volkswagon, Audi (if they had a diesel), or Mercades. I have afew questions about these though:
Are there any modles I should flat out avoid due to unrelablity or rarity of parts?
Are there any that are incredibly common or relyable? I see alot of Golfs and Mercades 300s. Are these good buys? How do the 70's-80's VW's stack up against the Benz?
What models are easiest to work on? I'm not a mechanic or anything, but I can fix things other than cars. I'd like something easy to work on so I can learn a bit about working on cars myself. I read over a guide on doing a diesel purge and a valve adjustment on a Mercadese 300, and I actually understood it. Are the VW's just as easy?
What models are easiest to convert to strait veggie oil? Reason is I'm not sure if this guy is selling actual bio diesel or filter veggie oil.
Do any of these get less than 25mpg? The reason is that even with the $2 a gallon, it becomes much cheaper to run a tercel if it gets less than that.
What models have pathetically low horsepower? I know diesels are slower, but I was reading up on one of the Mercades (the 240 I think) and it had 50 horsepower- to lug around a 3,300 lb car. I'm not looking for a race car, but I kind of want a minium of around 50 horsepower per ton.
And lastly...how well would taking the engine from a newer jetta TDI (the 1.6 or the 1.9...either really) and putting it into an older car (I'd imagine a golf would be easiest) that had a dead engine? How much harder would it be if the car with the dead engine were a gasoline car and not a diesel? Also how much would the engine swap cost?
Lastly, how much of this do you think I can get for under $3,000?
Welcome to the board.
You came to the right place to get answers.
Give us a bit to respond to all those questions..