I see the forum mentions diesel engines but nobody has posted anything about them as far as I can see.

Does anyone know anything abut them? A url or anything?

Was the engine used in other volvos or renaults or something?

I guess the diff ratio was a bit different. Was the gearbox the same?

I hear about people running diesels on old vegetable oil, beats paying $1 (40p) a litre for fuel.

Does anyone in UK use LP gas? 35c a litre here

They are quite rare indeed...
I've driven one once, it had the bigger Renault 1.9 diesel engine.
It's the same engine, only the displacement is larger.
And they do run on veggie oils...

40p a litre, lucky! Its 84-90p here

I've seen a few posts on here about them, and from what I've read, they're unbearably slow and drink like a fish..

they're not thirsty, but for the lack of speed they're not super-economical either. however 20 years ago petrol was a lot more expensive than diesel, so the cost saves would have been cheaper

They are slow alright... but quite cheap on fuel. 1L/20km is quite possible, 1/17 when flooring it. (which you will be doing 90% of the time )

Today i received my Haynes manual, after 11 weeks sea mail from UK, bought on ebay for 99p + 5.50 postage (air was double). Good book, btw.

I see there is no mention of the diesel model. Was it never sold in the UK? Or NZ or Australia?

Was the 300 series sold in any other english speaking countries?

it was never sold in the uk. the 340 diesel was sold in ireland, which afaik is the only english speaking rhd diesel market