1999 VW Golf TDI greasecar
This car is cool. It runs on used vegetable oil that I collect from restaurants and then filter. I'm now filtering most of my grease at our collective at Hampshire College, the HCAFC or Hampshire College Alternative Fuels Collective). I got the kit from greasecar.com, which I knew about because Justin used to go to Hampshire College, and I met him there, but I guess now he's kinda semi-famous or something. Heh. I've earned back the cost of the kit by now (100K miles later), and now the car is starting to pay for itself, monetarily anyway. I do have to put a fair amount of time into collecting and filtering grease. It might actually be more cost-effective in the long run for me to just buy it from Justin for like $1/gallon or whatever he sells it for, but I like feeling self-sufficient. Mostly I did this for geek factor. It just feels cool to be driving all over the place running on used vegetable oil. Kiwi and I went across country this summer, stopping and filtering grease with my 12v diesel transfer pump from Northern Tool (piece of junk - I had to rewire the whole thing because the wires melted, and I've had that thing apart more times than I can count. Buy something else. A gear pump would be more appropriate) and inline whole-house water filter... not the best way to do it. Heat and a better filter and a better pump would do better.
There's some detailed pics of the car and the install here
My stepmom found this car for me in central NH, at a car dealer who didn't really know what he had. I paid $6450 for the car, and it had 137K on it at the time (now it has 236K). I love the car. It's been good to me. It's had a few problems, most of them common (MAF Sensor, plugged pick-up in the tank, sticky VNT mechanism). It gets 48-55mpg on diesel, and I don't know what on grease, but around 45mpg, I think. It's starting to blow oil out the top of the motor - it might be time for a rebuild someday soon. It handles well, rides well, brakes well, and has nice stock speaker sizes, so that you can put really good speakers in stock locations. I like that. I also like the split fold down rear seat that folds down flat. I use this car like a truck a lot, (though now I have a truck as well) and it takes to it well. I gig with it, and can fit a big Hartke bass amp, a fullsize 88-key keyboard in case, a bass, and a full 5-piece drum kit in the back. Not bad for such a small car! I'm hoping to get 400K miles out of this thing - we'll see. It is built to last, what with stainless exhaust and a diesel engine and galvanized body panels (though it's rusty anyway).
This car is the super-base model, which is nice - less stuff to break - but it still has cruise control, power steering, A/C, power remote door locks and all of that. I don't miss power windows at all. I love having A/C - never thought I'd say that. It's relatively guilt-free in this car, running R134a and being powered by waste product, so I use it regularly.
There's a gas station in Brattleboro, VT - the Shell station by Exit 1 off I-91 - that sells B-100 in the summer, so I've been running that in the main tank recently and getting a kick out of a diesel-less diesel car.
Check out this really neato project to connect people who have grease to share with one another: www.fillup4free.com