I had two Olds diesels, but the more rare 4.3L V6 version. One in a FWD '83 Cutlass Ciera (41 MPG Hwy.) and one in a RWD '82 Cutlass Supreme. The aluminum head FWD version was much quieter. The iron head RWD made horrific diesel clatter.
Neither version was a real powerhouse, but in the Ciera, the only other options for engines were the 2.5L 4 cylinder, or the 3.0L carbureted Buick V6. Both of which were less powerful than the Olds diesel.
I enjoyed my Ciera. It was a total grampy car, but was so clean that you couldn't not like it. It was Medium Garnet Red metallic with velour interior, wire wheel hubcaps, and all the power options except, oddly, power windows. Even had a (functional) power antenna! The power was adequate, the mileage was incredible, and at the time there was a vast difference in the price of gasoline compared to diesel. I owned it about the time of Desert Joke, er, Storm. Gas was approaching $1.50/gallon, and people were complaining miserably then, but diesel was still right around 80 cents a gallon, and I laughed all the way to the bank! I could drive 100 miles on 3 bucks worth and have fuel to spare! It only usually took 10-12 dollars to fill the tank. Even less when I filled up at my buddy's farm.
I think people just didn't know how do maintain or drive diesels back then. There were as many GM diesels that got a long service life out of them as there were those that puked at 20,000 miles. The ones that got lots of miles put on them tended to last a good long while, but the ones that got putted to the grocery store, shut off, then putted back home died premature deaths.
You see it with all diesel cars, even Mercedes and Volkswagen. Diesels need to be started and run to temp, not babied like you can get away with in a gasser.
I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon throwing the GM diesels under the bus, as I personally don't think they were all that bad. The car-dumb general public was clueless about them and blamed the manufacturer instead of taking even a small part of the blame to themselves.
