Diesel compact pickups that can tow?

[hillfolk'r]

my buddy used to have an 84 ford ranger diesel,,i think it was a mazda engine,,was way slower than a vw rabbit,, geared way short,,lemme try+remember max speeds in gears,,,first,like 12mph,2nd,like 25,,3rd,like 45-50,and never more than 65on the flats in4th,,,,biggest hill in town,stil lcouldnt bury speedo,,it sat there at 83,,and if you cant bury a scateboard down  that hill u got a problem,,i think they had around 60hp or so,,,,,but didnt get much slower with a load of crap in the back,,,,,,,

[zyewdall]

Yeah...  In '86 the ford ranger went to the 2.3 liter turbodiesel made by mitsubishi, instead of the 2.2 liter mazda NA diesel.  I've heard from numerous people (who thought NA VW's were just fine) that the NA japanese pickups (isuzu, mazda, and toyota) were slow as dirt -- either with or without a giant load of stuff in the back.  But they all have a reputation as being impossible to kill too -- a friend of mine just did a couple month road trip around mexico with an old isuzu diesel pickup, running it on waste veggie oil and hauling about 1,000 lbs of camping gear/supplies/etc.

[stewardc]

One of the guys who works for me used to have a slug-slow Chevy S-10 diesel (Isuzu, I think). As I remember, it had a $30 oil filter and a $50 fuel filter.
A local guy here in Halifax imports European Toyota Land Cruisers. They have a 2.4 Turbodiesel Toyota engine that is really sweet.

[prysm]

my buddy used to have an 84 ford ranger diesel,,i think it was a mazda engine,,was way slower than a vw rabbit,, geared way short,,lemme try+remember max speeds in gears,,,first,like 12mph,2nd,like 25,,3rd,like 45-50,and never more than 65on the flats in4th,,,,biggest hill in town,stil lcouldnt bury speedo,,it sat there at 83,,and if you cant bury a scateboard down  that hill u got a problem,,i think they had around 60hp or so,,,,,but didnt get much slower with a load of crap in the back,,,,,,,

looks like they havent improve much. I am still getting somewhere around this figures.

although I can go a bit higher than 83 in 5th gear