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Old 02-12-2001, 03:24 PM
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dtanesq dtanesq is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Northern California/Western Washington
Posts: 386
My 300E now has 114,000 miles on it. Nearly every one of them has been sweet.

When the clock ticked over to 110,000, I did the following:

Replaced rear subframe mounts, rear differential mounts, rear suspension links, rear shocks. Replaced front struts.

Also had to replace: fuel pump relay.

I'm going to replace:

The exhaust system (has some small leaks).

Headlight system. I'm much too vain to accept the facial creases that I'll develop by squinting in the dark. The real reason is that I often travel in the early evening or at night either in the Central Valley of California (breadbasket of the world) or in the Sierras (the Sacramento, Tahoe, Chico triangle), where it's REALLY dark at night and where the deer think they're playing chicken.

Speaker system. I replaced the Becker paperweight with a CD player/receiver and now the speakers simply can't hang.

The gas mileage isn't stellar, but when the car gets to stretch its legs, it becomes quite good (around 25 highway, only about 21-22 around town. Everything else about the car is stellar.

Do the maintenance religiously. In the end, compared across the board, annually it's cheaper for me to run my 300E than it is for my wife to run her Honda Civic Si and the insurance rate is only $10 a month higher.

I think Americans are programmed early in life to accept engineered obsolescence. I used to have a real emotional barrier about crossing the 100,000 mark in a car. I then owned a 300D which I parted with awhile ago, running as strong as the day I bought it and over 200K. With the 300E, it doesn't make any sense to think in terms that short. In reality, the car doesn't even LOOK old.
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David

His:
2003 Dodge Durango SLT
2002 BMW E39 530i Sport
1988 Mercedes 300TE
Hers:
2003 Chevrolet Suburban
1999 E430
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