Earlier this week I looked at a W124 diesel wagon and explained it’s probably as close are you are going to get to a true…
Comments closedTag: turbo diesel
Recently, I’ve been spending some time driving an Audi C6 A6 3.2 Avant. While I have a report coming on that car soon, I mention it for one reason – what happened the other day when I was filling it up. The gas light pinged on and I pulled into the station; pop the fuel door, card in, nozzle removed, then I tend to pass my time judging other people’s car choices as they fill up too. As I filled, I made my way all the way around the quite full station and had summed up the rather unhappy lives of most of the vanilla SUV drivers in my head. Suddenly, it occurred to me that I was still pumping gas. Filling the Passat generally limits my prejudice party as I run out of room at 12 gallons. The 530xi allows me to make judgements on more Kia drivers, as I’ve hit 16 and change. But I had strode past 16 with ease and the numbers were still going. Concerned, I stopped and began to look for the gas pouring out of the bottom of the car, much to the bemusement of my captive audience. Unable to locate the leak, in wonder I re-engaged the trigger and watched the number on the dial climb past 18 gallons. Now, the A6 gets pretty reasonable mileage for a big, heavy car – around 23 average, over 25-26 on the highway. And all told, if you ran it dry you’d be 21.1 gallons in the whole. That makes a real-world range of over 500 miles per a tank. Sound like a lot? It’s the type of number the B4 Passat TDi laughs at.
Especially in Variant wagon form, the B4 TDi Passats have become legendary. Equipped with the 1Z motor, they’re capable of a simply bladder-busting range. While the estimates of mileage on the car range from 30-41 mpg from the factory, real world results from some owners turn up with numbers closer to Prius-embarrassing 45 miles per a gallon. Now, if the Passat had a fuel tank the size of the A6, that would equate to a pretty large range. But they didn’t have a tank the size of the Audi – it was bigger. Much bigger. In the Variant, many owners claim 26 gallons fills their tank while some markets even had the option for a 33 gallon sump. The result is a pretty dependable 1,000 mile range and, driven very carefully, some VW TDi-faithful have gotten closer to 1,500 miles. Shocking. That means it’s pretty typical to see these TDis with multi-hundred thousand miles accrued, but that’s not the case here according to the odometer. No, this sedan – while it admittedly has a smaller tank than the wagon – has apparently traveled less than 40,000 miles. Here’s the really staggering part; at 20 years old, even going with the “conservative” 1,000 mile range, this car has only visited a gas station on average twice a year since new.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1996 Volkswagen Passat TDi on eBay
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The flexibility of Audi’s B2 platform and the huge number of engine choices that manage to fit under the hood make it a natural choice for swaps. Most popular are the all-wheel drive quattros, but the Coupe GT models are also well built, hugely capable cars that react pretty well to increases in power. And just about every period Volkswagen/Audi motor has made it under the hood of the Coupe GT; from 10 to 32 valves, rev-happy DOHC 16Vs and turbocharged inline-5s to narrow-angle VR6s and even the 4.2 V8s. But this car caught my attention because of the very unusual choice of mill to squeeze juice from. This no-spark Coupe GT has a tuned and turned up 2.0 inline-5 turbo diesel:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1986 Audi Coupe GT Turbo Diesel on Vancouver Craigslist
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If there was ever a car that looked more at home on the forecourt of a country club, it was the W124 series Mercedes E-class estate. This was a car synonymous with the well-heeled housewives or those summer jaunts to New England beaches. While utilitarian, this is a rather stately machine. Take it to the local market and you would have no problem finding this 300TD amongst the myriad of vanilla, look-alike SUVs jamming the parking lot. This 300TD for sale in British Columbia is a Canadian market car, but given its age of over 25 years, is legal for US importation.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1987 Mercedes-Benz 300TD on eBay
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The word “rare” gets tossed around an awful lot, and if I’m frank we misuse it often. We talk about rare color combinations, rare drivetrain configurations, or rare specifications. But how about an entire model line that’s rare these days? Now, that’s worthy of taking a second look, and while all early Audis fall into that category, the Type 43 large chassis cars are truly not often seen anymore. There are a few reasons that; Audi’s focus in 1984/5 shifted towards the more popular all-wheel drive models as they looked to go upscale in the market with the new Type 44 chassis. Additionally, many of the early Audis that were sold in the U.S. were sold in areas that left their rust-prone metal fatigued. And the Type 44 chassis was so thoroughly modern, it instantaneously rendered the still fairly new Type 43 a dinosaur of design. If “Video Killed the Radio Star” in 1978, aerodynamics, modern design and quattro killed the first 5000 in 1984. Looking back, though, the 5000 was a lovely design; sure, it was boxy and the U.S. didn’t really get the top-spec European 200 5T model. But by 1983 there were 3 different options to choose from; the base model was the 5000 S, available with the 2.1 inline-5 found also in the 4000 5+5 and the Coupe GT. At 100 horsepower, it wasn’t much of a match for the weight of the Type 43 chassis, but it was available with a 5-speed manual. Step up to the 5000 Turbo, and you got a healthy bump to 130 horsepower but could only select the dim-witted but reliable 3-speed automatic. But the sleeper of the trio, and the one that was seldom selected, was the 2.0 liter turbocharged inline-5 diesel option: