> My neighbor across the street (railroad engineer) has a VW diesel 
 > and it seems he always has a 110 VAC power cord out to the car. It 
 > still doesn't start very well even in warm weather. I would suspect 
 > either bad glow plugs or a fuel system in need of attention.
Yup. It's easy to check the glow plugs; they should draw about 9 amps/each 
after the initial surge of 25 amps (or even more!). You use one of those 
little ammeters that slips over the wire; if it's below 36 amps, you have 
problems. Over-use will burn them out (letting them run way past when the 
light goes out) and the fusable link sometimes will burn in two. Either 
problem is pretty easy to fix except the glow plugs on #1 and #2 cylinders. 
You sometimes must remove the lines to the fuel injectors to change those.
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