Seriously, I'm sick of our VW's trying to be Toyotas andCadillacs. There is a reason why VW made their most reliable and funcars almost 20 years ago. VW seems to occupy the spot where Audi usedto be, and Audi is now, well.............why bother. To me (opiniononly) VW hasn't made a car worthy of "car of the people" since 1992.I don't have a lot of money, but if I were to buy a new car, I'dseriously only look Toyota/Honda. Many of us watercooled fans wereraised on diesel rabbits, caddys, and the 16V monicker. My daily is aScirocco 16v with 210,000 miles on the original motor/gearbox. Itneeded mechanical TLC (head gasket, brakes, fuel lines) when I boughtit for $900. But now that it runs strong for 1.5 years, and I'mready to invest in a more suitable d/d for me and the lady, I can'thelp but gag when I see new VW's. I was always a VW guy, but that nowonly includes 1975-1992. Sorry, folks, I can't deal with the expectations of owningan OBDII VW, or a VW thats packed/loaded with electronics that theJapanese do better. Lets face it, Germans never did electronics well,and in the age of computerized autos, this doesn't bode well forGerman reliability. I'll keep the 'rocco (forever) and buy a newerJapanese car - unless they release the Polo over here. But they can'tpossibly sell the Polo without Nav system and big brother electrics.More is less, and VW/Audi hasn't figured this out yet........

Allvehicles from 1996 and up are OBDII... that's a federal thing. Have you looked at the New Rabbit with a price of about 16K? It's a basic VW.

How can we get the Polo over here ??

laura halliday 18 years ago

Passing on a two-lane highway requires a different technique, that's all. You get used to leaving lots of space between you and the car in front so you can see around them.

I knew from the start that there might be issues, and was extremely picky on The Subject in my test drive - if I was going to pay that much for a 1992 vehicle (thanks to the demand for them here and the yen exchange rate, Delicas are not cheap), it had better be perfect. It was.

The Delica is a tall vehicle with a very high driving position. You can see right over top of most cars, so left turns aren't a problem. As a result of the height, though, underground parking is generally a non-starter. The heavy stuff is very low in the chassis, so they're not as tippy as they look.

It's also not the fastest vehicle (mine cruises nicely at

100 to 110 klicks, but clearly doesn't want to go much faster), so passing people is rarely an issue. They pass you. There are many reasons to buy a Delica, but speed isn't one of them. :-)

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Non sequitur. Your ACKS are Grid: CN89mg uncoordinated." ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Nomad the Network Engineer

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Matt B. 18 years ago

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'll bet that's because diesels (which many people associate the soot/particulates with greenhouse gas problems) actually produce far less CO than comparable gas-engined cars, no? That's probably why. Apart from the soot and particulates (which on modern diesels are trapped in filters and/or have catalysts applied to them unlike old-school diesels that pumped it all right out the back), diesels are actually fairly clean and environment-friendly.

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Joseph Meehan 18 years ago

I had a 1970 and the dual master failed at the same time. I hope they figured out a better design later.

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laura halliday 18 years ago

Diesels run extremely lean, so I'd expect zilch CO and HC, but possibly some NOx. Smoke happens when the driver pushes the accelerator, pumping more fuel in, but the engine is running at a slower speed than the throttle setting calls for. The excess fuel has to go somewhere.

Modern diesels can do something about this with their engine management, compromising what the driver wants with what the engine can actually do. Old diesels can't.

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Non sequitur. Your ACKS are Grid: CN89mg uncoordinated." ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Nomad the Network Engineer

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