I own an 83 300TD purchased from essentially the original owner about 3 years ago. Came with ALL service records. PO spent a lot of money on it, even had the engine rebuilt at one point. During his last 2 years of ownership: rebuilt transmission and diff, new springs and shocks, rebuilt SLS, new front end, etc. The only thing that don't work on the car are cruise control (no big deal) and AC (a big deal in the hot months up here). I don't drive it in the winter (rust belt), it's rust free except for a few spots on the hatch.

I test drove the other day a 1999 Land Cruiser 100 (similar to Lexus LX470) with V8 engine. Smooth, comfortable, working AC, roomy, tough as nails. Under the cushy soccer-mom interior, the LC is overbuilt for 3rd world usage.

Both vehicles have over 200,000 miles. 300TD gets much better fuel economy, of course, but I'm retired and don't put on many miles anymore. I've owned earlier diesel Land Cruisers which were much more truck-like, all had manual transmissions. This 100 was very impressive to drive in, could hardly believe I was driving a 16 year old truck with 200k miles given the smooth quiet ride, floating over the potholes. If it was diesel it might be perfect.

I don't think I could justify owning both vehicles, but part of me is leaning to the 100. When I drove the 300TD the other night, after test driving the 100, I thought "why am I still driving this?". I've owned W123's for over a dozen years, but maybe the time has come to move to something else?

Pondering...

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1983 300TD 240K - 1982 240D 215K - 1996 Dodge Cummins 70K