Talking about diesels and not mention Mercedes is almost criminal, even more being in the 1990s! I know at this time the W124 was already old but the 300D Turbo was still a nice performer

Diesel will never catch on. Just like that computer internet thing. I’ll stick to my fax machine.

My wife had a Rover 220SDi, I used to love borrowing it. All that torque in a little car is so much fun and it never got less than 50 MPG.

Diesels have really gone far within the last 30 years both my Grandads 120d and now his 435d ( it can do nearly 60 mpg on a motorway) are much more refined than any of the diesels featured here, the only problem with modern diesels is when they go wrong they go wrong and be very costly to repair.

I have a 1994 Citroen Xantia 1.9 TD, even today it’s still able to keep up with modern traffic admirably. Great old engines!

Those who bought 110hp AFN GOlf 3s Passats and B5 A4's have made an excellent choices back then. Those cars were relevant until start of the 2010's pretty much. VGT turbos, remap possibilities, indestructable and brutally economical

1.9 pd engines are really Good. My 03 golf was running 220bhp with a hybrid turbo and easily did 650 miles on a tank on the motorway. Probably around 60mpg and easily one the most reliable engines around with oil changes at 5-8k. I've now got a 435d and has effortless power everywhere

The HDI engine in the 406 proved to be absolutely bulletproof. Many taxi firms taking them to 250K miles and beyond. You can still see them fairly frequently on the roads in Europe.

1:21 he really pushes the revs to the limit:D

Nothing is dying, my e39 diesel still going strong with excellent millage.

330d. brilliant engine/car e90 range

1.5 tdi nova was my first turbo diesel and I couldn’t believe how quick it was !!!hooray for turbo diesel

The BMW 325 diesel was amazing when it first came out.

I recall not being able to shake a Skoda Fabia vRS off my arse when I was driving my Honda Integra Type R in 2004. "I can't beat a Skoda Fabia!?" I mused. After researching it and discovering that the Skoda Diesel could in fact be remapped to more bhp than what my Integra had was a real eye opener. I eventually sold the Teg due to being sick at filling it up every other day and so bought a 1.4 TDI VW Lupo which I remapped and had loads of fun in it. Ever since then I've owned nothing but quick remapped diesels which never fail to put a smile on my face with monstrous torque levels. Ended up owning 2 modified vRS Fabias one after the other a few years ago. Magnificent engines.

I had the creme de la creme of TD's Perkins powered Maestro. Sounded like a tractor but on the motorway got rarely less than 70mpg. I paid £2600 for it at 3 years old and 60k. Budget motoring at it's finest!

Mondeo passed its last MOT on 22 October 2007 with 142,842 miles, Citroen XM failed its MOT on 9 February 2009 with 168,250 miles, Peugeot 406 passed it last MOT without advisories on 11 April 2007 with 135,915 miles, ROVER 220 passed MOT without advisories on 20 April 2006 with 164,753 miles, Golf passed it last MOT on 6 November 2007 with 102,991 miles, AUDI A4 passed MOT on 19 September 2015 with 168,510 miles, couldn't find info for BMW.. So Audi stayed on the road longest ;)

In 98 I got taken for a spin in a new pug Dturbo S. it was nothing like ever before. I’ve never owned a petrol since, that was 1998. The trouble is now there’s too many sensors, filters and “brains” in diesels which obviously fail EGR, DPF, SRT…. The list goes on. I miss the years of shortening the turbo actuator rods and winding the fuel pump up 💨💨💨💨💨

I have had 3 VW diesels - all Golfs. They've gotten progressively better over the years. My mk1 made 52hp while my mk7 makes 150hp and 71 ft-lbs vs 236 ft-lbs. What a difference 35 years makes!

Turbo diesels are my favorites.

The song is Deep Blue Day by Brian Eno

Fiat introduced the common rail diesel in 1997 on the Alfa 156. Which transformed Diesel engines refinement and power. Pre CDI diesels are very agricultural.

They didn't even mention the E class Merc with the legendary 3.0TD engine :D

I've had quite a few diesels, both NA and turbo, even a 2 stroke Detroit Diesel. As long as you don't mind the slow acceleration, absolutely nothing can match the reliability of the old mechanical injection diesels. I drive over 70,000 miles per year, sometimes close to 100,000. No gas engine can come close. My favorites are the Mercedes OM617, the Nissan RD28 NA and LD28, the Isuzu 1.8 from the Chevette, and the Oldsmobile 4.3 V6 (the V8 can also be fine if it has head studs). I don't mind timing belts, particularly if it's a rear wheel drive car. Changing it out every 60,000 miles is pretty cheap and easy if you do it yourself compared to a timing chain on an OHC engine, when it inevitably decides to stretch or wear the guides. RD28 timing belt only takes about 1-2 hours to change. I am not a fan of VW diesels however. They seem to have more than their share of problems, both the old IDI's and the TDI's. I'd rather have a Chevette with the Isuzu 1.8 than a Rabbit with the VW 1.6. Much more reliable engine, rear wheel drive, and a pleasant to shift 5 speed. Also the timing belt is not jammed up against the wheelwell. As for truck engines, nothing beats the 2 stroke Detroit. 53 series is a fairly straightforward swap into a pickup, and then it's smooth sailing for many hundreds of thousands of miles. When it comes time to rebuild, just pull the head and the oil pan, and pull out the removable cylinder liners, pistons, and rods, and put in new ones, pre machined to work. All set for another million miles. The newer diesels can be fine too, but the emissions systems are too fussy for my taste. I prefer reliability over speed. I did have a BMW 335D, and while the engine and transmission were reliable, just about everything else in that car broke, particularly emissions and electrical. Sometimes I would go outside and the car had rolled all it's windows and the sunroof down by itself. Other times the stupid little shutdown throttle valve would get stuck and the engine wouldn't start until it cooled down. What a nightmare. Give me any old mechanical diesel over that thing. While I have never driven one, I think the original BMW 524td would be wonderful. Mechanical turbodiesel and no emissions systems.

The MK3 Mondeo TDCI was when Ford diesels came into their own, I had the 130 hp as a taxi and it was incredible compared to the old Sierra diesels.

German diesels are hands down (in my opinion) are legendary, especially in the late 90's. VW and their 1.9 PDI BMW and their M57 straight six and also I know Mercedes had something good around that era which unfortunately I hadn't experienced. I mean even Fiats 1.9 JTD was bloody awesome until it broke....

My old diesel frontera from '92 (100hp for almost 2tonnes) keeps up with the "modern traffic" perfectly well... As people keep their distance seeing the immense smoke and noise it produces 😂😂😂

Little did Jon know how legendary VWs 1.9 would become. One of the best engines petrol or diesel ever made or likely ever will be made. 60mpg with easily 200bhp and they last forever and a day

90s peugeot diesels are now worth a lot of money, especially the 306 d turbo 1.9

I had a golf 1.9 TD as my first car. It was my parents old car and had all the get up and go of a slug.

I sometimes drove a Peugeot 306 turbo diesel L plated pool car in 1995/96. Got to be honest it was pretty quick for a diesel at the time and a pleasure to drive.

In this country where petrol and diesel cost the same had me laughing 😅

1996 - "In this country, where petrol and diesel cost the same". 2022 - Petrol £1.65/L, Diesel £1.79/L 😒

Old (old) Top Gear remains underrated.

I have a mondeo mrk1 1.8diesel i love it that thing keeps going and its not slow i have tuned my diesel pump and its now at 100hp its not much compared to new cars but its fun to drive

I’d be almost certain some of the Diesel engine noise had been dubbed in and sounded notably rougher than the actual car sound?

I would choose the XM straight out. But the not the estate and definitely the V6

I owned a similar Audi A4 diesel with 110 hp and was the most reliable and economical car I had, nice to drive...perfect car for its era.

Why does this video have the same background music of when Renton dived into a toilet to collect his suppositories.

Just one year later Alfa Romeo introduced the first common rail in 156 2.4 JTD.

Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI - legendary OM648 diesel engine, 3.2L straight 6, turbocharged, intercooled, no DEF, no DPF, rolls for half-million miles on routine oil changes, gets 42 MPG on a highway, and still can burn rubber if you tell it to. What's not to love?

Only managed 45mpg from an A4? My mk3 golf shares the same engine and I rarely see less than 60mpg combined and 70mpg on a run. I know the a4 is heavier but that shouldn’t make for such a decrease in mpg

Back when Top Gear was fun :)

Nice take off at the end

I love the trainspotting soundtrack they used in this

My Dad raced and had some quickish road cars but for some unknown reason, he had an early Mercedes W123 200D for a while. It was so slow it was ridiculous. I believe it had 60bhp.

We got a 1991 mercedes sdl 350 in my driveway rn an its probably one of the best cars ive ever driven or even rode passenger in

Had they tried the Alfa Romeo 156 2.4 JTD they would have found a superb car with a superb engine that could deliver 50mpg and excellent cross country performance. I still miss mine. And it was the first production car with a common rail diesel, invented by Fiat/Alfa.

If this article was published in Belgium it would be something like: The BMW is great, because it's a diesel... Or the VW is nice too because it's a diesel... Oh and hey, you're retired and looking for a reliable classy car? Look no further, here is a Mercedes diesel... 🤣

I grew up in Minnesota, and diesels were out for a simple reason: Cold Weather Starting, or rather, the lack of it. That's probably also why they smoked so much in cold weather -- unburned fuel going out of the tailpipe. I never knew a happy diesel owner in the 1980s and 1990s.

Nice use of "Deep Blue Day" by Brian Eno

525 TDS might be an old engine But I really enjoy how it drives and sounds

I remember going on holiday to England in '93 when I was 14 and a dashing young executive who is a friend of the family picked us up from Heathrow in his Citroën diesel. I couldn't believe it was diesel when he told us as it looked and sounded like a normal car. I was quite naive back then!

Wow I wasn’t expecting Deep Blue Day in this lol

And to say that until today those 1.9 tdi motors deliever excellent performance and are heavily tuned to 400-600 Nm :)

The songs in the background are used in trainspotting.

What a great gadget

The 406 was a very good car

Had the producer for this, just bought the Trainspotting soundtrack or something 😂

I had a Peugeot 205 1.8 diesel. It was excellent for mpg. I would get 70mpg easily. It was cheap to buy diesel then too. Now I drive a Mercedes E350 cdi sport. Its 3.0 om642 engine is incredible - particularly as it's been remapped.

I hope my first car would be a skoda octavia 1.9tdi 👍🏻

This aged well lol

Todays Diesels are really fun to drive. Especially V6s are really fast and still incredibly fuel efficient. Even the engine sound got better (when flooring the gas pedal). Too bad Diesels still have nasty noises when idling or driving slow. Somehow Diesels have this strong contrast between being ultra modern and efficient and sounding like one of the first engines from the early 1890s, while idling... I wish there was a technical solution, besides using embarrassing sound generators!

That's a rude syrup, Andy.

Diesels are so great

Imagine spending your own money on that Citroën! 😂😂😂

I drive a Class A180d for my driving lessons and when i hear my old mechanic teacher telling me that he was driving 205 diesel i'm thinking that even in just 30 years we went from so far with 60 hp diesel engine to 120 hp diesel Before reaching 90 jp with a diesel you would saber the champagne now it's the norm it's insane

An interesting historical document, this was before the 00s deluge of TDIs being the standard and then subsequent collapse following emissions gate

Funny to see diesel cars being shunned back then in the same way Dave down the pub shuns electric cars now.

ROVER 200

I can imagine bad diesels. How the world has changed. My 2l 16v tdci cmax, 185hp, 0-60 very fast indeed, would do a 150 and gave me 55 to the gallon. And it never broke.

Very happy with my diesel DS3. Averages 61mpg on my 30 mile commute. Just wish diesel wasn’t £1.78 at the moment 😂

You missed on the OM606 came one year later

I had a 1993 Mondeo 1.8td from new. One clutch, three pairs of wishbones and an airbag clock spring was all it needed in 250,000 miles.

Did they just use the train spotting soundtrack for everything back in 1996

Vauxhall cavalier 1.7 td (isuzu) fabulous engine.

I have an Isuzu 3.0 direct injection diesel 4 banger the only thing that could possibly be the death of it is the German Bosch VP44 fuel pump

Had 2 B5.5 VW Passats 1.8T and 1.9TDI and i loved the diesel more than the petrol

Someone likes the Trainspotting soundtrack I think.

1:19 watch the REVcounter :D

I have a Mercedes 190D 2.0 and it‘s the most reliable car that I ever owned

@3:30 Brian eno: blue sky, off of apollo

Anyone know what the song is from 4:05?

I had a 2008 kia ceed 2.0 crdi and it was gutless under 2000rpm I now have a 2012 Ford focus 1.0 ecoboost and it would tear it apart

Anyone know the song at the 4:35 mark.

Are they using the Trainspotting OST for a reason?

The best diesel from the 90s : vw1.9TDI and Mercedes 300TD the 177hp version.

I remember it was BMW who came up with the Diesel game changer in the early 90's with its 2.5 engine.

People are pulling these old cars out of the weeds.

Anyone know the songs they played in the background? I know perfect day, but not the others

I own a indirect injection 1.9 turbodiesel. With some tweeks it goes good! I blocked off the wastegate, added some fuel, by turning the screw at the bosch ve pump. added a big front mount intercooler, and my zero to 60 times is 6,9 seconds in a great run without missing a gear and 7,3 seconds when it's heat soked. in a indirect injection diesel! i knocked 9 seconds off between factory and tuned. If you leave it stock, ofcourse it takes 16 seconds to go to 60mph

My 99' w202 c220 cdi is doing 6.5l/100km so...

This Bentley guy.... Swiss Toni much?

Anyone knows the song at 0:25 ?

Who'd have thought the Rover would be more expensive than a Golf!

What's the song at 0:30?

I remember Peugeot’s 1.9tdi Engine fast as fuck and strong as a donkey

The Citroen ZX Volcane was probably the best early fun diesel you could get. It had only 90 horsepower but it only weighed 1100kg which is less than a Fiesta today. It was set up for enthusiastic driving. After that BMW made the best 'fun' diesels and still do today. The E36 325tds was ok, but the E46 330d was the boss. They did a 180bhp version in 1999 and it was more than a match for the most common petrol motorway barges of that era in performance. Economy was excellent and refinement was good.

Rover used BMW diesel engines during that time.

1:30 - Normally aspirated wig?

hes wrong