Well part of the reason probably is the fact that the 300SDL's you are looking at for examples are serveral years older and been on the road for much longer... and MB sold many more of the older cars than the newer diesels....you can apply the same principle to the E300 turbodiesel...not many of them sold...thus you see far lass for sale and since they are newer you see car cars with far less mileage.
As for the 10K repair bill...I agree it would be crazy to spend that amount on a car that is worth 12-13K....but on the other hand would you spend $2500 for a new head on a car that is worth 4-5K?

same difference it seems to me



Warren
1992 300SD 174K
Columbus Ohio