On 12/02/2009, David Marshall <mailinglist@fastforward.ca> wrote:
> Hey Scott, putting engines in vehicles is just bad, two sides to both
> coins -

Diesels can be a lot cheaper than gasoline cars to run, depending
where you live. In New Zealand "diesel" fuel costs far less than gas.

A good diesel can give very long life, but many designs are slightly
or very prone to failure. Cracking heads is rife, especially with
turbos. Between us my wife and I have had more than 9 diesel cars or
vans, and the only one which wasn't good was the Nissan Skyline 2.8.
The others were all Toyotas with 1C-based engines, NA and turbo. Three
of these, all NA, did over 600,000km while we had them. They were
driven full-throttle the whole time (whenever accelerating from a
standstill or in low gears going up the steep hills which Dunedin is
composed of). We have broken a cambelt or three (one had done only
80,000km) and blown headgaskets, but the only real design failure we
had was the turbodiesel (3C-T) in the 92 Estima cracking its head...
and even then, we used it cracked daily for a full year before pulling
the head).

Diesel performance can range from very poor to pretty good. The only
other diesel brand I have driven was a Golf 1 1.6, and it wasn't
inspiring. Small NA Toyotas perform satisfactorily, and my Corolla
with a 2.0 turbo replacing its 1.8 NA, is certainly fun on Dunedin's
steep long hills.

When a diesel goes bad it can cost. But repairing a gas engine isn't
much cheaper. Just remember to change the oil and filter every
5000km...