Post: #1

In Alberta I am going to pick up a diesel car or truck. They last longer and get better milage.

I know that 200,000km on a diesel is basically just broken in but what should I look for when buying one?

Odd smoke out of the pipe?

Certain types of leaks etc.?

Post: #2

Mostly, just that it's been run right. Diesels, and even petrol, truck engines last pretty much forever. Check the belts, make sure it has a timing chain or gears and not a belt, should have no smoke. Turbodiesel is a plus, they get good mileage.
I'm not really well versed in TRUCK diesels, but I worked on larger and stationary diesels quite a bit in the past.

Post: #3

There used to be a bar down the street from where I lived where diesels hung-out. Scary bunch of women.

Post: #4

If you go the car route, consider a '77-'80 Mercedes 300SD. My old beast ran like a champ for 10 years until I drove it up a mountain with the temperature gauge pegged and lost compression. I then bought another one.

They are underpowered. You are not going to pass someone going uphill. You can read a good book in the time it takes to get from 0-30. But they last for half a million miles and you can get gas mileage in the 30's. And they are a damn fine looking ride:

http://www.motorstown.com/imgs/37808-mer...116-6.html

The early 80's models (and some of the model year 1980's) have the same engine with a bit more horsepower; the 81's on have a more contemporary look:

http://home.concepts.nl/~vlimmere/images/300SD.jpg

There will be more noise, smoke and burnt bacon smell than you're used to from a gas powered car. You might have to listen to a few different cars before you can tell the difference between a poorly-maintained one and just normal diesel noise, which can be a bit loud but should sound like a strong, fast rhythmic rattle. When you floor it, you will leave behind a cloud of smoke. Again, you might have to look at a couple and pick the less smoky one. But for the most part the Benz engines are usually in decent shape. You have to worry about other shit, like how good the trans is. They're almost all automatics. The car should shift like butter at the hashmarks on the speedometer and downshift when you floor it.

Small oil leaks are normal. Transmission & coolant leaks are not. If little shit is broken, like the power window regulators and sunroof, it's often a pain in the ass to fix. Getting the door panels off is a bitch. But parts are easily available online EXCEPT:

The heat and AC goes out a lot on these cars and the culprit is often the Automatic Climate Control Servo, a big robot-looking box on a pipe with multicolored wires coming out near the firewall on the passenger side. If it has any rust or wear on it, it's gonna break soon. This is a hard part to find and thus expensive. If the car you're looking at doesn't have working heat and AC, don't pay a lot for it.

There's also the smaller 240D and 300D without turbo, which I haven't driven, but I wouldn't want to fuck with any less power than the 111HP the SD is putting out.