One For Classic Car Fans.....

[Profpointy]

Three-cylinder, six-piston engines to be precise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposed-piston_engine

The ultimate version of that kind of thing has to be the Napier Deltic

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_Deltic

and I can't find it now but some model engineer had made a miniature one which really was an amazing feat of skill and patience

 

[tyred]

Spotted a Peugeot 305 while out on the bike today. Probably the best diesel car of all time.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Spotted a Peugeot 305 while out on the bike today. Probably the best diesel car of all time.

My vote would go to the Citroen Xantia but they probably share the same XUD9 engine

 

[tyred]

My vote would go to the Citroen Xantia but they probably share the same XUD9 engine

I've never driven a Xantia but would imagine they'd be pretty special too. I have driven a BX turbo diesel quite often when my uncle owned one and they were definitely a great car once you got used to it.

The 305 had the n/a version of the XUD but in a light body it was super economical and felt lively and had the wonderful French magic carpet ride but handled well too. The n/a version of the 306 had the same engine but never felt the same to drive, it was too heavy and sluggish and not especially economical. The 306 needed a turbo.

I know someone who ran a 305 diesel van to over 400,000 miles on the original engine (and it was used to tow trailers).

 

[gbb]

My vote would go to the Citroen Xantia but they probably share the same XUD9 engine

While I'm no lover of French cars, I used to get access to a Xantia 1.9 ( I think)auto, cant remember if it was a turbo but it was a lovely car to drive, lovely. You almost laid prone in it as I remember.
At the other end of the scale, around the same time we had an Ford Orion diesel, non turbo. Without doubt, the very worst car I ever drove, by a country mile.

 

[Cavalol]

Seem to recall the Ford 1.8 diesel engines of that era were supposedly based on the XUD. If that were the case, they clearly needed a new boss in charge of the motors, because they were dreadful units.
Slow, wheezy and gutlesss hardly come in to it. The Escorts were horrible cars, the Orions slightly better, but if you ever had the misfortune to drive one of the Escort vans then you had truly hit rock bottom. They drove badly, smelt badly and were just misery on wheels. I could still get into an Escort now blindfolded and tell you what car or van it was just from the smell of the cheap plastics used in the cabins.

I still maintain that the Focus was such a success/highly rated because all it had to be was better than the Escort, a task it could not possibly have failed at.

 

[gbb]

I likened driving the Orion NA diesel to driving on an elastic band.
Noisy, clattery, when you pressed the accelerator....nothing happened for a couple seconds, nothing.
When you decellerated....nothing happened for a couple seconds, the engine didn't seem to respond.
Like driving with an elastic band for throttle linkages. A truly awful car / engine combo.

 

[cosmicbike]

I likened driving the Orion NA diesel to driving on an elastic band.
Noisy, clattery, when you pressed the accelerator....nothing happened for a couple seconds, nothing.
When you decellerated....nothing happened for a couple seconds, the engine didn't seem to respond.
Like driving with an elastic band for throttle linkages. A truly awful car / engine combo.

My Dad had 2 of them as company cars. The first blew itself up, the 2nd faired a little better. IIRC got changed for an XR3i. Diesels did get better, we had the Vauxhall 1.7TD Astravans at work in the late 90's, they went very well.

 

[Cavalol]

Those Astras are legendary, ditto that engine. I'd love an early Combo (the 'proper' one with the roof pod thing) as the diesels went like hell and they look great, imho.

 

[tyred]

I used to service a 1993 Escort van for a neighbour. Not a bad piece of styling but the early 1990s MKV Escort diesel must surely have been one of the worst cars of modern times. They were a sturdy old workhorse to be fair and they had fixed the rust problems which had blighted the '80s Escort but dynamically they were horrible - a sluggish engine which refused to rev, a vague notchy gearchange, chronic understeer, steering which was really vague and low geared low geared and seemed to need about 6 turns lock to lock (and the steering lock was pathetic. You need a ten acre field to turn one). They also had a cheap plasticky interior with unsupportive seats and were appallingly noisy once you went about about 30MPH. The MKII Golf or Peugeot 309 were so much better in every way. Ford clearly a lack of respect for their customers by expecting them to buy a vehicle that was probably inferior to every other car in it's class

Oddly enough I did drive one of the later sporty versions of that Escort with the 16v engine and it was unrecognisable. They had somehow managed to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. It was much faster as you would expect but they had tightened up the handling and fitted a faster steering rack. It drove really well and was a perfectly competent car. Whatever they had done to it should have been done to the base models too.

 

[tyred]

My Dad had 2 of them as company cars. The first blew itself up, the 2nd faired a little better. IIRC got changed for an XR3i. Diesels did get better, we had the Vauxhall 1.7TD Astravans at work in the late 90's, they went very well.

That 1.7 TD Isuzu engine was a great powerplant. I've just always had mixed feelings about Opels, they are generally well built and very reliable and easy to maintain and drive well on main roads but their suspension struggles on the minor rural roads around here they pitch and bounce all over the place. You can see why a Golf costs more as they clearly put a lot more R&D into their suspension.

 

[oldworld]

Seem to recall the Ford 1.8 diesel engines of that era were supposedly based on the XUD. If that were the case, they clearly needed a new boss in charge of the motors, because they were dreadful units.
Slow, wheezy and gutlesss hardly come in to it. The Escorts were horrible cars, the Orions slightly better, but if you ever had the misfortune to drive one of the Escort vans then you had truly hit rock bottom. They drove badly, smelt badly and were just misery on wheels. I could still get into an Escort now blindfolded and tell you what car or van it was just from the smell of the cheap plastics used in the cabins.

I still maintain that the Focus was such a success/highly rated because all it had to be was better than the Escort, a task it could not possibly have failed at.

Those diesel escorts were truly horrible but I think the Focus was a great car. Even the boss of VW at the time told his engineers the Focus was the car that VW should have made.
I had a 2000 TDi estate and only got rid 2 years ago with 250000 miles on it. It was economical, nice to drive and apart from a clutch and new starter it never went wrong.

 

[tyred]

I see this Triumph quite regularly as it seems to be in regular use. Not immaculate by any means but I prefer to see things being used and an estate is quite rare.

 

[Ian H]

...the early 1990s MKV Escort diesel must surely have been one of the worst cars of modern times...

An acquaintance of that time was sales director of a firm I dealt with. In a fit of parsimony he replaced all his sales-people's cars with shiny new diesel Escorts (he drove a hot Subaru & was famed for the size of his expense account).
Our salesman turned up a few weeks later and related how he was so embarrassed at having to park this on his driveway, where others could see it, that he 'obtained' a boot badge from a better model to replace the offending one. I had to keep a straight face.

 

[oldworld]

I see this Triumph quite regularly as it seems to be in regular use. Not immaculate by any means but I prefer to see things being used and an estate is quite rare.
View attachment 568328

I had the saloon version in the mid 80's. Nice car even though mine had some holes and rattly main bearings. Nice to drive and the Odrive was a bonus. Not bad for £100