History of the diesel car issue as a lot of diesel fuel contained water and also high levels of sulfur at the time. The engine was later revised into the DX block and most of the issues were fixed, a V6 version displacing 4.3 litres and a smaller 4.3 V8 were also offered around this time, mainly for the downsized front-wheel drive models of the mid-1980s and although they were much better in the reliability department, the damage had already been done and the North American diesel car market was severely crippled as a result, despite the best efforts by Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW, Peugeot, VW
History of the diesel car them. The interesting features of the engines were the tunnel-bore block and separate cylinder heads to allow for expansion. VM engines were marinised by BMW and sold as BMW stern-drive packages. Mercury Marine also used the VM engines. As they have aged in car applications, they have developed a reputation for blowing head gaskets, due to the separate cylinder head design. In 1997, the first common rail diesel passenger car was introduced, the Alfa Romeo 156. In 1998, for the very first time in the history of racing, in the legendary 24 Hours Nürburgring race, a diesel-powered car was the