Diesel or No Diesel

Oh lord, wont you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsche's, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So lord, wont you buy me a Mercedes Benz?


It actually makes sense. Janis Joplin was probably an early environmentalist, and wanted to get a diesel Mercedes Benz and use recycled vegetable oil to run it!!!

Well, I did it. The price was pretty good, and it is really in incredible shape. Full of options. Of course, for the price, there are a few things that shall require attention, but for the most part, turn the key and go!!! It has a power sunroof, but something isn't quite right with it. The motor spins, and it moves just a bit, but won't open. Except one time. It has air conditioning, but it seems to need a charge. Typical for this age. The main switches for the power windows are coming apart, but only the driver's side one doesn't work at all. I'm thinking of replacing them with a panel from a 60's or 70's GM car, they're pretty heavy duty. Ummm, what else, it needs new tires soon, and I'd like a passenger side mirror. Oh yea, one of the headlights is burned out. The paint is pretty decent, but it is 27 years old. Just a tiny bit of rust on the trunk. Most Mercedes seem to rust along the bottom edges, but not this one. I think that has to do with being down by the ocean. The guy I bought it from said the radio didn't work because the antenna was broken, but today my wife figured out how to turn it on while I was driving, and it works just fine. Even the power antenna works with it. The radio is an old one with a cassette tape deck, but it does have an auxiliary input that I can probably plug my MP3 player into!!! Thing seems kind of underpowered, though, may have dirty injectors.


The story of how I ended up getting it is something altogether again!!! We looked at it on Sunday, then I had to head over to Sammy's to get him some paperwork. Kind of interrupted the test drive, and I told the guy I'd think about it and call him, one way or the other. The seller had bought it for a friend who was new in the country (I think they were both from Poland, their names have a LOT of strangely placed Y's and Z's in it) around 6 months ago, and now was selling it for him. The guy buys older Mercedes and ships them back to Germany, where they command a much better price than they do here. Of course, the Euro is strong compared to the dollar these days, so that helps, too. He has a lot of nice specimens.

When we got into the car for the test drive, he pulled back the floor mat and pulled out the key. Joked that I could steal it now that I know where the key is. After the drive, he slipped the key into his pocket. I called him from Sammy's and asked him if he would take a lesser amount. He agreed, along with agreeing to fill up the tank (I don't know where many diesel stations are, yet) so we drove back. We got there, and he tells us that he can't find the key. He's going crazy looking for it, but can't find it anywhere. He says that he'll keep looking for it, and, if I leave a deposit, he'll drive it up Monday evening with his wife following him for his ride home. When I got home, I called him to see what his story is. He hadn't found the key, and had to have a locksmith come out and make a new one. Getting ready to come up, and the key doesn't crank the car. Turns it on, but it doesn't crank it. He says he'll have his mechanic check it out the next morning. When I get home Tuesday, he calls and says his mechanic determined that it was a bad starter. Replaced the starter, and drove it up that evening. He gets here, and his wife's Mercedes (much newer and nicer) is blowing white smoke like crazy!!! He's a little agitated over that, I asked him if he was sure he wanted to sell this one to me, so he'd have a way to get home. He didn't, just wanted to wrap it up and get going. We did, and off he went, trailing white smoke. Seemed like a head gasket to me. Bad luck for him, I felt bad for him.

What Would Janis Do???

For some time now, I've been idly contemplating buying another car. I dearly love the Storm, but, as I originally titled it, it is less than perfect. While it runs like a top and (since I preformed a couple of minor modifications) pulls down a solid 30 miles per gallon, it obstinately refuses to pass the California emissions test.



I have a few criteria that I would like it to fulfill. Good to great mileage would be a huge plus. Easily passes emissions would be nice, but even nicer would be something exempt. Automatic transmission isn't a deal maker or breaker, but if I had my 'druthers, I would go with an auto. Something with a drop top would be nice, but barring that, at least a sun roof would be nice.

One of the first I considered was an old Opel GT. I've always loved the "baby corvette" styling. Old enough to be smog exempt. My dad has been going on about getting a 'vette for quite some time now. I found one that looked to have been sitting for years, on a little trailer, for a very reasonable price. Could it possibly be like the Falcon, where all it really needs is air in the tires, a live battery under the hood and some gas in the carb??? I told my dad about it (at my niece's graduation, in fact) and he was somewhat fascinated, especially after I mentioned that I'd seen big block Chevy engines swapped into these. He googled and found some that had this and similar treatments. He even went out and took a look at it, and while the body was in good condition for its age, the interior had seen better days. Pretty much as I would have expected. I had visions of swapping a Toyota 4 banger and automatic transmission into it for reliability and mileage. Back to the realm of reality, I really have no time or inclination for another project. I let this one go.



For quite a while I've been thinking of VW Diesels. They are famous for consistently pulling down around 50 MPG. Diesels are smog exempt. My preference would be a 2-door dasher wagon or, better yet, a Caddy pickup truck. Physics, the less weight you're hauling around, the better mileage, performance, and handling you're going to get. Of course, the bulk are going to have stick shifts. Other thoughts I'd kicked around for ages were rigging a small electric motor to the rear axle and a bank of batteries. Traffic slows down or comes to a stop??? Switch to electric and burn no fuel at all. Could be charged by plugging it in, using the motor as a generator, or from the vehicles charging system. I even had an idea of constructing a tonneau cover for the bed comprised of solar electric panels!!! I'd thought it would look pretty sharp with the passenger compartment roof cut off, too. (Paint Shop Pro to give you an idea of my vision!!!) However, the Caddy trucks seem to pull down a fairly high price, or if they are reasonably priced, seem to sell very quickly.

Lots of VW Cabriolets out there for good prices. They are also plentiful in the junkyards. I'm sure they would get decent mileage. Not smog exempt, though. I've considered buying any kind of VW diesel and swapping the drive train into a Cabriolet, that would merit me a trip to a smog referee. See notes above on getting into another project. Also, it always kind of bugged me that the rear windows don't roll down all the way. Looks wrong.

I saw one late 80's Mustang rag top that sounded good. The price wasn't too steep. It had a 4 cylinder and automatic. Mileage can't be TOO bad with a 4, right??? But, smog. Maybe it'd pass easily every time, but who knows??? The other strikes against were that the plastic back window was gone out of the back, and it needed the brake master cylinder replaced. Master cylinder is easy for me, but it still had the other two strikes. Also, I had visions of its little sewing machine engine laboring to get up to highway speed.



Another thing about diesels, you have options on the fuel. They can easily be converted to run on straight vegetable oil (used deep fryer oil, they say, and you exhaust will smell of what was cooked in it. I'd be hitting up the donut stores), or you can brew your own diesel fuel by mixing the veggie oil and alcohol and a tad of lye. Mix it for a while and let it settle out, a bulk of diesel fuel rises to the top, and a small amount of glycerin settles to the bottom. No foreign oil reliance!!! Let the Detroit auto makers and politicians blather on about E85 ethanol, that's really not a new technology, just a way to keep using the same old tricks and try and give people a warm fuzzy feeling or something. Of course, neither is the brewing of biodiesel or running on SVO new technology. Rudolf Diesel originally used just this type of fuel.

Of course, besides full size pickup trucks, there are only two major auto manufacturers that make diesels in the States. I've already touched on one. Tomorrow I will likely go and take a look at one from the other manufacturer. Sounds nice, has an automatic transmission, and a sunroof. I will probably take my camera along and will update you.

I think Janis Joplin would approve.