Well, if you already have two vanagons, 
And you miss having a car ............and stock diesel vanagons really are
'needing more' in several departments.................I'd say that says 'get
a diesel car." !

And a Benz, baby, Mercedes are in a whole other world for safety,
well-builtness, solidness, on and on and on.
Or, I can say this, if you haven't owned a Mercedes, you should for once in
your life at least.
You need to get a pretty good one.
I've seen them that seemed to drive just fine from behind the wheel, but if
you really examined things carefully, they needed a lot.
But they are incredibly cars.
On good Benz diesel car, is worth about 6 diesel dashers. 
I personally would not drive a diesel dasher if paid 50 cents a mile.
Sorry..........not really a whole lot of 'real car' there, but you are used
to a an air-cooled Thing., so that wouldn't be too foreign.
I love the idea of making your Thing into Diesel, but that's whole engine
conversion, you may not be up to that 
Hardest part is a radiator in front, and perhaps engine mounting , but it's
do-able. 
My recommendations at the moment, look into the benz's carefully.
I  might never sell Ursula my 1970  250 gas Benz vanagon tow car, owned her
two separate times.  That car has parts untouched on it at 300 + K  miles.
Solid like you can't imagine. 
And I had a 240D for a while.........just an incredible car.   Gotta get a
pretty good one thought to start with. 
Scott
www.turbovans.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Zeitgeist
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 5:48 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Want to talk me out of buying diesel Vanagon?

Why not convert your "Thing" to a diesel?  I really wanted to do that with
my old '73 Thing, back about twenty years ago.

I've owned all of your stated choices, and I think you'd be happier with the
MB over the long haul.

On Jan 19, 2008 4:48 AM, Edward Duntz <eduntz@hotmail.com> wrote:

> I don't have anything diesel anymore and I want something to put a wvo kit
> in like I had in my dearly departed Jetta diesel. I'm tempted to buy an
'82
> Vangagon GL diesel that my mechanic has for sale. It doesn't have a rear
> heater, doesn't have the duct that directs the front heat to the back, and
> it's not a 5-speed... All things I would like. It not a turbo and I know
it
> will be slow. He wants $3,000 for it.
>
> Another choice is an '82 MB 300D from the same mchanic. It's got around
> 200K on it and he wants $2,000 for it.
>
> I'm also thinking of a '92 Jetta turbodiesel that is on eBay right now,
> but with very little info posted. I've e-mailed the seller, who's supposed
> to call me, but I haven't heard back yet.
>
> To complicate things, another guy wants me to trade my '73 Thing for
> either a MB or Dasher diesel that he's got.
>
> One of the reasons I was thinking of the diesel Vanagon was that I thought
> it might be easier for me to put in the wvo kit myself- shorter distance
> from extra tank to engine, shorter hose lengths, etc. But as much as I
like
> driving my '87 Vanagon and '85 Westfalia, I do miss driving a car.
>
> Any suggestions?
> Ed in CT
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