As often as these odometers get switched, junkyard-swapped, broken for 1000 miles and then fixed again... I find it hard to believe that so many are ready to head to court over it.

Very often this happens so far back in the chain of owners that you have no idea.

Right now I've got 3 diesel MBs (only 3 I've ever owned) and all three of them have odometer inconsistencies.

The 300SDL shows 362,000 miles which I BELIEVE to be correct for the car body; however the engine was replaced, at 284,000 on the real odometer, with an engine that had "oh, about 160 or 180 thousand" on it. No records.

The 300SD odometer was replaced by the previous owner's non-MB-proficient mechanic with one that was within 10,000 of what the old one said --- but it isn't the same rear drive ratio so I have no idea what the true value is. I know that to go 65 in that car you have to make the speedometer say 68, but I have no idea how that transfers to the odometer if at all.

The 240D came to us with a speedometer/odometer that had ULTRA different paint color from the other gauges on the dash, and the speedometer didn't work. So it had quit working on the previous owner, and he replaced the instrument with one of a different reading and that didn't work either. We fixed it by replacing the cable, and it lasted all of about 200 miles before the gear in the transmission that turns the OTHER end of the cable came discombobulated, and we decided it was too much work to fix again at least for the time being. So I've driven that one probably 15,000 miles without any odometer movement, but it doesn't really matter since the odo isn't original to the car and we have no idea what the original should be.

Its all so old anyway, it makes little difference. I wish the 240D was counting SOMETHING just so I didn't have to rely on calendar months to figure out oil changes, but otherwise... it's sort of a shrug-and-move-on for me. These are all such high mileage by comparison to nearly every other car around that whether it's 300K or 400K matters very little.

__________________


~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL