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Old 08-07-2005, 11:58 AM
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diametricalbenz diametricalbenz is offline
The Crowbar of Embriage
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Marietta, GA
Posts: 3,511
What would you drive, a 243K W115 240D (4spd) or a 127K W116 300SD?

I need some opinions.

I drove to San Diego (260 mile round trip ) yesterday to check out a 1979 W116 300SD. Anthracite charcoal paint is excellent other than some fading on the sunroof. It has a nearly perfect black interior except for one tear in the driver seat side. The climate control unit is non op. Rear window motors are spinning but making clunking noises. Right rear door lock doesn’t open from the outside. Some of the wood varnish is cracking and the dash has a single large crack in it. Radio has been removed. Vacuum locks are non operational. It seems to have some sort of vacuum problem since the engine does not shut off with the key. The manual stop lever must be used to cut the fuel supply. Radio removed. Tires are good. Vacuum leak somewhere so the Engine started after one cycle of the glow plugs in about 2-3 cranks. Nearly no blowby. Odometer reads 127K miles. I am skeptical of such low mileage but the odometer and trip meter work so I am led to believe it is true because of the books since it had the service log stamped at only 60k miles in 1990. The tachometer doesn’t work.

It is worth $2400 being such a low mile car despite the problems?

I am torn because it is a low mile dent and rust free car with only one leak around the valve cover. (I presume it’s just the gasket). The catch is that I am required to sell my W115 240D which has a very good interior and no body or jack point rust in exchange for the 300SD. The car seems to be so rare out on the west coast (unless I am mistaken) that I would be sad to let go of it. I love driving the 4 speed and I know I would miss it despite being the slowest car on the road.

What would you other forum members do?

Here are some pictures that I took (sorry some are blurry, the camera doesn't have a wide enough lens or manual F stop setting )

300SD
Front Seats
Console
Right Side
Rear
Back
Left Side
Instrument1
Instrument 2
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