When it became very apparent to me I was about to lose my 1977 Toyota Corolla due to obsolescence, smog issues, State of California, and city ordinances about storing dead vehicles in public view, and since retirement, my needs drastically changed, I researched my ideal retirement vehicle - the old IDI came out way ahead of anything else. Economy, reliability, simplicity, no "terms and conditions" to sign, my insurance agent liked it, the State considers it grandfathered for smog.
So I got who I consider the best diesel guy in Southern California to inspect one I found on Craigslist. 260K miles on the clock. He did his top-of-the-line service on it, as I wanted him to go over everything and tell me what needed done.
Mostly small stuff, but it's E4OD kept throwing error codes. Turned out to be an erratic PSOM.
Well, that was four years ago. I have changed out the rear end, front suspension, alternator, the entire cooling system, and kept the oil changed, and added about 35K to the clock. It runs a lot better than it did when I bought it.
1994 Ford E350 IDI cargo van.
I get about 20 mpg on I40 in the middle of nowhere going about 65 MPH, steady, and about 12 mpg where I live, with lots of stop lights and signs. I know most of that is going to wearing out my brakes and heating up my slush box.
I smoke a bit on cold start, and when trying to get on to the freeway if stopped by those ramp metering lights. In order to obey the light, I find my insertion speed woefully inadequate, even if I roll coal. One has to get quite adept at merging going 45 when the lane is going 60, but I have to remember that I was compelled to waste all my initial kinetic energy, for safety, then burn fuel like hell trying to come up to a safe merge speed so I don't make others on the freeway **** their pants.
That's the shortcoming of NA. I can't keep up with zoom-zoom.
