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Old 10-11-2004, 10:56 AM
miktvk miktvk is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 165
We bought our green '95 wagon with 105k in 2001. Car now has 133k. We really like this car.

Official warranty records from dealer reveal a lot of annoying and scary repairs before 87000 miles.

However, it has required the following since:
differential mounts
rear axle seal
wire harness (did it myself)
rear main seal (starting leaking very soon after switching to synthetic...hmmm...)

suspect the following will fail within the next 30k miles (but not sure really):
radiator neck
water pump?
transmission (feels a little lazy these days)

A/C still blows very cold, and rear suspension accumulators work just fine.
MB-Tex upholstery still like brand new--whole interior like new condition.

Its not particularly quick, and rolls quite a lot on fast corners, but this is an awesome New England workhorse, very useful. We got rid of our Ram 4x4, as we just didn't need it anymore, just taking up space in the driveway. With proper snow tires, car has no trouble snow-wise. For speed and handling, we hop into the 328i (with M3 suspension).

The paint finish is 'old school': that is, it seems to be very tough and hard compared to the soft paint on newer german and japanese cars. The paint on the front has very little road rash for the mileage. The car looks like new when waxed, draws a lot of admiring looks and comments. It really is a handsome vehicle, with timeless styling. Also, they are quite rare, its hard to find the figure on the official MB site these days, but for each year 93-95, they only sold about 3700-4000 in the US, something like that.

As I understand it, Volvos are VERY expensive and somewhat difficult to work on, and parts are just as, if not more expensive than equivalent MB parts. So I would ask around about that. We had also shopped against an older but very nice V70 AWD, but decided against it for that reason.. also because the 124 chassis is actually a pretty easy car to work on oneself, if you are handy enough, with the right tools.
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1995 MB E320 Wagon
2001 BMW 530i
2007 MINI Cooper S (!)
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