Renault Diesel - any good?

[Siegfried]

Hello all,

 

I will be on the market for a pickup soon and was doing research on Comanches... I like the idea of having a diesel engine for these small pickups, I imagine you would get better fuel mileage while having good torque, so I wanted to get some opinions on the Renault turbo diesel that was available in Comanches.

 

Are these engines any good, ie dependable? Good enough to haul things with? Did the diesels come with 4x4?

[Zebvance]

I don't own one but from reading on here. I get this impression.

 

First off. Don't buy one if you have limited knowledge on diesel engines.

 

They are a PIA to find parts for.

 

They are nit picky engines.

 

Also you can't act like you have the choice to buy one if you want because you most likey don't. They are VERY hard to find in the states still on the road. If I remember right someone on here said their were prolly less than 40 in the us.

 

And last if I was to get lucky enough to find one that was in good running order it prolly wouldn't ever drive it because of the rarity....

 

 

I want to say about 4 guys on here own one. I think one of them is automan2164.

[Dillithium]

It depends on what you think is good. I've driven Defenders/series with similar diesels. Horsepower/torque wise they were fine to drive. The problem with renault in America is lack of parts, I think over here I would have more luck finding timing belts, gaskets, or other miscellaneous parts. If you look at buying a used car, especially one that will be at least 25 years old, your number one priority should be ''How easy is it to maintain/fix up?'' Because it will need things fixed.

[JENSSEN]

I recently aquired a 1986 Metric ton 4x4 Comanche; Parts wernt that hard to find VIA rockauto, got a whole gaskett kit, timing belt in a few days and at a good price. Parts shipped from great britan; as for working on them keep in mind mine has yet to run but with my limited diesel knowledge its been pretty smooth.