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Unless you have someone that will work on it for you I would pass on the whole diesel adventure. I currently have one in the line up and once they are dialed in they are pretty good little cars but finding someone to work on them who really knows what he is doing can be tough. Parts availability is still there for them. Starting cold, well I have lived in So. Cal my entire life so I am not the best guy to answer that one. I can tell you from the techs that I have worked with that have lived in cold country (Deleuth to be exact) that the diesel will not even consider starting in the winter unless all 6 of the glow plugs are in tip top shape. They do take awhile to warm up, even here in sunny California so I would think that it would take something like a small enternity in Michigan. They require valve adjust twice as often according to the factory, every 15K instead of 30K, they go through air filters faster for sure, they all seem to benefit from fuel additives (it kills the bacteria that grows in diesel fuel), the 75K is the big service on that car where both of the timing belts and the water pump get changed out as well as the valve adjust and the rest of the service. They will absolutely destroy the cylinder head when and if the belt goes. The turbo charged 700's are not too bad and once spun up to speed on the highway they are pretty darn nice but are a bit on the doggy side from stop light to stop light. An M46 5 speed car huh? That is kind of a rare one, I have driven and worked on a few back in the day and they seemed to work ok. I'd prefer an auto though. Strange as it was the ZF auto transmissions that were so bad in the gas cars seemed to work just fine in the diesels, go figure?
More or less that is it in a nutshell, unless you have either the tools and the know how or a compentent Volvo diesel mechanic at your disposal I would be more inclined to pass on it.
Good Luck,
Mark
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