I had my heart set on a used Audi A4 quattro. The one with the 1.8 liter turbo-charged 4 cylinder and sport suspension. Learning to drive in Michigan winters taught me the value of all wheel drive. The prospect of Willamette Valley Oregonians, many of them transplants from fairer climes, driving in snow makes me chuckle. The car nut in me mandated at least an acceptable level of performance in whatever I purchased.

Then I ran into Tomas Endicott from Sequential Biofuels. While Tomas never really preached that I needed to make the switch, I started to look into biodiesel and became interested in the concept as a novel idea for someone who was really committed. But wouldn’t that require buying a diesel car?

More than 30% of passenger vehicles in Europe are home to diesel power plants. Not so in North America, whose passenger vehicles are comprised of less than 3% of the higher mileage diesels (“European Carmakers Bet That the U.S. Is Ready for Diesel,” The New York Times, September 12, 2007). Like most Americans I am still frightened by memories of that 1982 Oldsmobile Delta 88 diesel. General Motors did more to dissuade the American public from buying diesel passenger cars by actually making one, than it ever could have done by actively campaigning against them.

When I started work as a renewable energy marketer and was in a position to buy a car, my thoughts returned to the Audis. About that same time I hired Jon Kenneke in Albany to help with our Willamette Valley marketing efforts. Jon had been home-brewing and running his own biodiesel in a VW Westphalia and Mercedes 300D for 10 years. Jon sang the praises of used fryer grease and started me thinking seriously about buying a used diesel car. The emissions were significantly cleaner than standard diesels, the mileage better than gasoline powered cars and the CO2 output halved by running biodiesel. When Audi won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2005 with the diesel-powered R10, my thoughts on diesels began to change. Audi has since won Le Mans in 2006 and 2007 and makes a diesel A4 quattro for the European market.

I started doing my homework to find a newer, used VW that would provide modern car conveniences but still allow me to run biodiesel. Finding a used VW TDI was the challenge. After a month of scouring Craig's List and autotrader.com, and after several failed attempts at connecting with owners of used TDIs that had 3 offers on them, I found a 2001 silver Jetta in Vancouver with only 67,000 miles. I drove the car and offered the owner a fair price that he accepted. I knew that I would need some conversion work and that the Sequential employees took their cars to VW and diesel specialists Rich and Marcel at Fix-Um Haus (7104 N Lombard (503) 286-0903). Soon after purchasing the car, I discovered www.stealthtdi.com. The fun begins.

Next week, Part II - From Oil Burner to Performance Tuned Euro-ecosedan