Cars with diesel engines
 

At start I must say that I am not quite sure whether this forum i right for adressing such issues. Anyway, I am an inhabitant of the old continent of Europe. I am considering moving to the United States. My concern is quite simple. Will I be able to purchase a car with diesel engine and manual transmission in the United States. The reason for posing such question is my belief that manual transmissions and diesel engines are superior to other solutions. I do believe that the best solutions would be Mercedes 116, 123, or 124. I am not quite sure if those cars were ever avaliable in the United States.
Thank You in advance and please excuse me for any misspellings.
Publius.

You will be able to find diesel vehicles here for sure. Lots of pick ups and even smaller vehicles. The trick may be finding one with a standard transmission. More and more people here cannot drive a manual and opt for the automatics.

Good Luck

Fozzy

That is right.
It is actually the reason that I am posing this question - I will never drive anything with automatic transmission. In my humble opinion it is giving up the control of vehicle.

heh - you wouldn't want my rig then - it's an auto ;-)

As for diesel cars/pickups - my brother has a 1988 Chevy 3/4ton pickup. 4wd, automatic, extended cab, long bed with the 5th wheel trailer package. When he bought it, the truck had 120,000+ miles on it. That was about 6 years ago. He's still driving it and the only repair he's had done on it was the fuel pump (about $1,400) a year or so ago. The odometer stopped working a few years ago at almost 300,000 miles and the truck is still running perfect. Plus he gets over 35mpg on the highway with it while pulling an average size trailer (ball mount, not 5th wheel).

Actually i am pretty amazed that you folks consider volkswagen as an luxury car - at least that can be concluded from the prices.
(etm.)Volks - people Wagen - car.
The first volkswagen was constructed in 30`s by german engineer Porsche, it was so called "the beetle". Hitler wanted it to be the car for every german family. From that point on volkswagen company was known for it`s reliability and a considerate price - and it is till known on in Europa, at least as far as price is concerned.

By the way it was so obvious to me that I even did not mention it, I am looking for a car, not a pickup, small truck or SUV. A truck is what I want to drive for the living.

Honda is coming out with a very clean diesel.

Currently there are no "regularly priced" diesels for north america. The VW TDI is currently not being produced, although there is lots of dealer stock from previous production. I think the VW TDI is going to come back in 2009.

I can't recall any diesel cars built in the US for quite awhile, probably since the early to mid 80s. They had underbuilt engines in them that couldn't handle the amount of compression in a diesel and failed miserably, and that made a lot of people shy completely away from them. Also, the diesels that used to be used in cars/pickups here were VERY "smoky" engines.

Good point Mr. Malaki
Hmmmz..... Let us see... In my primary post I was considering Mercedes Benz 116 - with 3,0 L diesel which I know was sold (or has been sold? - please correct me) on the US market throughout 70`s it was the predecessor of S Classe. I have also mentioned 123 and 124 models from 80`s and early 90`s the predecessors of E Classe.
I am the Mercedes Benz fan anyway.

Well, I'm an old Volkswagen man.. but I've never owned one of those water pumpers... I had a 59, two 64's and a 71. I'd kill to have the 59 back!

The VW's with the Turbo Diesel is a hot item (hence the high prices)