Covered in this installment:
• Buy the best vehicle your budget will allow
• Buy a vehicle already setup to burn WVO
• Diesel vehicles to steer clear of
• Avoid high mileage diesel vehicles
Buying the WVO Vehicle
Frankly there wasn’t much I liked about the 1982 Mercedes-Benz 300D I was buying.
At $3,800 it was overpriced. It was a (gag) four-door, painted Bored Out of My Skull Beige. It was slower than the cast of Jersey Shore taking the SATs and the interior aroma was a delicious bouquet of pine needles and cat pee.
Meanwhile my sporty, low-mileage Jeep Wrangler sat shining in the driveway. I’d wanted a Jeep for most of my adult life and finally broke down and bought a clean used one the previous year. It was a four cylinder five speed and the mileage ranged from 21-24 mpg on my commute. Good enough for some people… but I had to make a statement: A vehicular declaration of independence. And it was going to require some sacrifice.
My plan was to do what hundreds of people had already done, buy an old diesel Mercedes, collect waste vegetable oil and tell Big Oil to cram their fossil fuel up their tailpipes.
Why an old Mercedes? They’re tough, easy to work on and the parts supply is abundant. Amazing in fact — used parts for old Benzes are everywhere and if you want or need new or rebuilt, the corner auto parts store can order it. The closest Mercedes-Benz dealer can supply you with parts too. M-B supports all of its cars and continues to sell parts for every car it has ever built. Most OEMs don’t sell parts for any vehicles more than 10 years old.That’s the good news. The bad news is, using an old diesel car or any old car as a daily driver for a long commute can be challenging. Within the first two years driving my 300D I’d replaced: the speedometer, the tachometer relay, the exhaust system, the starter, the alternator, the water pump, the glow plugs, the glow plug relay, a brake caliper, part of the shift linkage and the neutral safety switch, plus other things I’m sure I’m forgetting. The car also proved to be very difficult to start in the cold weather and didn’t have an engine heater.
I do all of my own repair work so all of the above cost me only the price of the parts, some skinned knuckles and my spare time. If you have to pay someone to work on your car, you would’ve quickly had far more in the car than it’s worth or quite possibly than you would ever save by driving with free fuel. Read that last part very carefully and let it sink in.
WVO Vehicle Shopping Tips: Buy the Best You Can Afford
No matter what brand of diesel you decide to buy -- a VW, a Mercedes car, a Ford, GM, or Dodge truck are all popular choices -- buy a vehicle that’s in the best condition that you can afford. Preferably one with a documented repair history and some of the high-wear items replaced (brakes, exhaust, starter, alternator…). But don’t spend so much money on the vehicle that if it were to suffer an expensive mechanical failure (like the injector pump, or an automatic transmission) that it’s going to be a financial catastrophe.
WVO Vehicle Shopping Tips: Shop For a Converted Vehicle
Shop the classified listings at Greasecar.com and buy a car that someone else has already converted, preferably with a Greasecar kit. I didn’t do this because I wanted to go through the entire process myself, but I’d strongly encourage you to let someone else absorb the cost of buying the kit and having it installed.
WVO Vehicle Shopping Tips: Vehicles to Avoid
Avoid old GM diesel passenger cars with the 5.7-liter V-8 diesel. They’re an engine failure waiting to happen. I’d also avoid Peugeots in the U.S. They’re probably good cars, but parts can be hard to come by.
WVO Vehicle Shopping Tips: Mileage is an Issue
You're bound to run across a knucklehead with a high-mileage used diesel vehicle for sale who will tell you that mileage is a non issue because diesels are designed to run zillions of miles. It’s true that quality diesel engines are built more ruggedly than gasoline engines in order to withstand the rigors of the compression-ignition combustion process. They DO wear out though. More importantly the vehicle around the engine wears out at the same rate as any other vehicle. There are a lot of old diesel cars riding around on original suspension parts like ball joints, control arm bushings and tie-rod ends that are long past the point that they should’ve been replaced. Ditto for drivetrain parts like constant velocity joints and automatic transmissions.
WVO Vehicle Shopping Tips: Engine Heaters
If you live in a cold climate, buy a vehicle with a functioning engine heater or install one immediately after purchase. It will not only help you start the vehicle in cold weather, it will preheat the vegetable oil in the tank.
WVO Vehicle Shopping Tips: An Online Resource
Check out About.com Used Cars guide Keith Griffin’s site. There’s lots of good common sensical information there that will help you. Like this piece on How to Inspect Used Cars.
WVO Vehicle Shopping Tips: Final Thoughts
I really didn’t like much about my 300D when I bought it, but after countless hours working on it and 100,000 miles driving it, I came to appreciate the car’s ruggedness. Especially once the smell of pine needles and cat pee was covered up by the smell of burning vegetable oil – some say it’s like popcorn, but it reminds me most of cooked lo mein noodles from a Chinese restaurant.
So get searching and remember, this isn’t just another used car, it’s a declaration of independence from Big Oil. There might be some sacrifice involved, like selling your dream vehicle to do this. But in the end, you’ll have made your statement.