As long as there's a diesel version available, I don't even look at the gassers

Despite the injection pump timing in early diesels, that not every mechanic has the skill to tune properly (then leading to the smoke-belching issues), they're way easier to mantain. Also, comparing to a carburettor-fed gasoline-powered engine, it's cheaper to keep a diesel running and their longer-lasting overcome the higher cost for an engine overhaul.

Newer-generation CRDi's share those advantages with the older all-mechanicals, but its injection setup is not so hard to deal with as a gasoline EFI setup would be.

Okay, I must confess I'm really partial to diesels...