And to provide more info, the 940 has the bulletproof 4 cylinder inline engine, the 960 has the substantially more powerful and also quite reliable inline 6 cylinder, it's much less forgiving to poor maintenance but it's still a very good motor.
Thanks everyone for the info. I forgot to mention in my OP that I also preferred an auto over a manual transmission. Do the wagons come exclusively one, or the other?
1993 960. With little city driving, but a lot of up and down (we live in the mountains) and mostly at 50-60mph, it gets about 20. Haven't had it on the highway for long stretches to know, but it has gotten
22-23 at 70+ with the air on. That's on Claifornia gas, which is only gasoline by name...
Most anything in your age range will be auto, which personally is dissapointing since those of us who demand a manual gearbox have a much harder time finding one.
The 740/940 with the diesel engine (a VW rabbit diesel engine with two cilinders added) have 6 cilinders, while the 760/960 with Turbo (but not the Turbodiesel) had 4 cilinders.
CU Mathy
PS manual gearboxes are much more common here in Europe as compared to the US or Canada.
That shouldn't be an issue of it's in north america, we never got 900 Diesels and the 700's with that engine are extremely rare, they were only sold for a few years intil '86. I'd be shocked if he even found one for sale that wasn't dead.
No the V6 was gasoline, they sold those a bit longer but they're still fairly rare these days. The Diesel was a 6 cylinder inline from Volkswagon. Both have earned very bad reputations and it's difficult to find someone who knows how to work on either one.
Back then there was little need for diesel cars in the US so there were few sold and very few remain from what I can see, other than an ocassional Mercedes Diesel. Diesel Rabbit.. tee hee
When I was in Germany at the Nurburgring museum they had the VW experimental diesel that Keekee Rossburg (sp?) drove and set all sort of records for diesels (MPG, sustained speed, etc.). Looked sort of like a big, white door wedge.
More so than that the Diesel cars we got here at the time were mostly crap, you only get one chance at a first impression and the automakers screwed up. There's some great ones in Europe now but not much is offered here beyond a few VWs.
The ultimate irony is that generally, the 6-cyl models were supposed to be the "upmarket" or "luxury" models, so a 6-cyl (regardless of whether it's a PRV V6 or a VW diesel L6) car is generally the best starting point for a V8 engine conversion - cheap and well equipped. :-)
I bought a used 1994 850 wagon with 125,000 miles on it last summer and I just love it. The 5 cyl engine is plenty powerful, I get about 22mpg, and it is both comfortable, reliable and handles like a small car (great turning radius and handling). There are plenty of parts and accessories for it available so I have no problem fixing it, and truthfully, after an initial expensive fix-up the car has been rock-solid. I purchased it for $1800 US and put about $3000 into the car (new tires, brakes, rotors, tune up, replaced front power seat cable, new A/C evaporator, new radiator, new thermostat, new hoses, new heater core plus many accessories which included euro-rails, roof rack load bars w/ locks, floor mats, cargo cover, trailer hitch w/ platform, etc.). The best thing is that the engine (and the rest of the car, for that matter) is pretty easy to work on and there is plenty of information and help available.
If you find a good one at a reasonable price you'd be hard pressed to find a better car.
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