240 rebuilt Bio-diesel conversion?

Has anyone heard about this company? The Green Car Company out of Washington State in the USA,

formatting link
who are takingmint N.American or imported German 240 wagons and converting them todiesels (for Bio-diesel or with an upgrade, veggy oil). They claim thecars are completely rebuilt and the bodies are in near-PERFECTcondition. Almost like buying new, they say. Anyways, I'm sure we'dall love to have the chance to buy a NEW 240 wagon again, so I'mwondering if this would even be worth it? I really like the idea ofrunning on Bio-diesel, and possibly running on free veg oil waste. Theonly issue is the price.. they run $15000-18000 US. They're completelyrebuilt I suppose, and you'd save on the fuel costs, but is it reallyworth it? Any one heard of these rebuilt conversions?

Reply to
cton
Loading thread data ...

I also wonder if these could be imported into Canada with no problems ( with the fact that they're a conversion and/or a German to US import)?

Reply to
cton

I looked at the site, and I see two major issues:

  • Are these the anemic, unimpressive VW diesels that were sold in North America? If so, the wagons will be very slow with a standard shift, and unacceptably slow with an automatic. And they won't last as long as the gas models.
  • Their description of what they do seems to imply that they don't address *any* of the issues that aging 240s have, from fan motors to wiring harnesses. Would you want to pay that much money for an old car, with old wiring and electricals? They don't *rebuild* the cars, they just *inspect* them, and replace whatever is actually broken.
Reply to
mjc1

I wouldn't buy one that had the NA Diesel engine, they were horribly underpowered and got only marginally better fuel economy. Given the cost of biodiesel, it would be cheaper to just drive a gas 240 and the performance will be much better.

Now if you get one with the intercooled turbodiesel motor out of a 760TD in it then you can get some decent power.

In either case it can be very difficult to find someone to work on these engines and parts can be expensive and hard to find as well. You might have the best luck looking for an old timer Volkswagon guy, the engines are made by VW and are closely related to the Rabbit Diesel motor.

Reply to
James Sweet

I would have to see it to believe a statement like that. How near to perfect (or far from perfect) is a A Near Perfect 20 year old car?

Do you have a supplier of Biodiesel or recycled and converted vegetable oil? Or will you be doing it yourself.

If it were me I would buy a new VW diesel.

Reply to
Roadie

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.