It is my daily driver AND my hobby/passion. I will restore this car as I have done others.

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1984 300D Turbo Sedan (Hilda) 272,115 miles.....
Anthracite Gray/Palamino Leather, I am 3rd owner

2001 Dodge Stratus (Silver) (wifes) 55814 miles...

1982 280TE Wagon Astral Silver Metallic/
Anthracite Velour
260,512 miles (Eva)

1969 230 Sedan Olive Green/Black MBTex
4 Speed Manual
84,213 miles ????
Haus Frau


2004 Boreem Ninja Pocket Bike
Highly Modified 49cc (Ling Ling)

Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit

My '76 300D has never tasted winter road salt and never will. Also I work from an office in my house, so I don't have to depend on it, but so far, she's never let me down. In non-winter months however, I will LOOK for reasons to drive her daily!

Hobby car. I'd rather have a newer car for daily use, that way I know the care it gets, and I don't have to give up every weekend to get something else fixed. I've tried having an older 240D as a daily driver. Either I keep finding the basket cases, or my patience isn't up to the levels required to keep them up as daily drivers. However, when I can play with them, and walk away when I get mad at some stubborn part, I can have alot of fun playing under the hood.

My 85 300D is my daily driver and one of my hobby vehicles. Until recently, I had two Mercedes diesels, but got tired of too much work on them. So, I bought my wife a new Highlander and now the 85 300D is my daily 20 mile each-way commuter. It has just over 200K on it, 70k since I bought it, and has never let me down.
The other Mercedes, a 240D conerted entirely to a 300D-T, I sold to a good friend at work for 1500. It was doing great for him for a month until the key tumbler failed and I helped him saws-all the old ignition lock assembly out (thanks to the advice in this forum) and sold him the one in my 85. Then, I bought myself a new assembly and tumbler w/ ignition switch to avoid that problem.
My advice on this issue is, as others here have suggested, if the key is getting finicky, order a new tumbler without delay and avoid a huge hassle.
Have a good weekend, Adam Bush

All three of my 'runners' are daily drivers (Nellybell, the 115 gets driven infrequently but is the sole source of transport for Thing Two who is away at school with it) but I do have the TOAD as an extra vehicle in case I have a repair that takes several days.

Sometimes, I think it would be nice to just get in a car and go but that's just a fantasy too. I've probably had more new (<100,000 mile) vehicles leave me stranded on the side of the road than the battleaxes I'm driving now. And, there's the whole aspect of being upside down and in debt with a car that is depreciating so damned fast you can hardly calculate the rate of change.

Plus, I'm running them on an alternate (insert the word CHEAP) fuel source and of course, there's the whole 'therapy' side to it too...

I'll take my 'ol Benzos anyday.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Folks,

We are a 2 driver - 4 car family... going into transition. Up until now I have been a believer in buying good used cars and running them forever. Between my wife and I we average 50-60,000 miles a year. This is consulting commuting to where-ever, my wife on kid duty and working part time, and trips. So each of us has a primary and a backup. Current fleet as of a month ago is:

87 SDL - 270K, my daily driver for the past 3 years now
92 Mustang - 150K, was my daily driver for a long while, but I've only put
5000 miles on it in the past 3 years.
93 Lincoln MVIII - 125K wife's primary ride but aging.
96 Ford Coversion Van, 135K - trip mobile, soccer mobile, sometimes daily
driver

So now the Mustang and the Lincoln are about to go for their own reasons. We bought a Nissan Murano ( first new car in 18 years for us) for my wife's primary vehicle. The van will stay for now.

I'm debating on the SDL - whether to upgrade to something newer. My available playtime to keep it running and in shape has been reduced due to work and family commitments. The SDL has been pretty good so far. I trust it to go anywhere, but still want a backup around for any downtime needed.

Chuck

80 miles a day-5 times a week

It left me stranded once by my work. The starter decided not to work anymore so I replaced it with a 300D starter. What the heck do I pay AAA for ?

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Audi TT

Hobby. I only drive it on weekends and never in the winter. But again I only pay $75 a year for insurance. And that's in Jersey!

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Toblin

'79 300D, "Liesel von Diesel", 235K

I kid proofed the house....but they still get in

I drive mine exclusively and if the others are down mine are the reserve cars too. They have never been down. The Gassers fail and need reapirs but the diesels are always ready to go!

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Tom Engel
***********
83 240 230K Manual (8/2003)
83 300D 265K (3/2004)
Just a Driver!

My first 300D only left me stranded twice (alt went out and had to get a jump, master cylinder seized; locked up and destroyed the rear brakes). That was over a period from 1988 to Jan 2004 of this year (357,000 miles). It was my only car and I drove about 25,000 miles a year in outside sales. The car was very clean and I would take clients out to lunch in it. If the car needed service or repair that was beyond my level of skill or I just didn't have the time, I would rent a car for the day.

My current 300D is also my only source of transportation during the week. Its also very clean, has lower miles than my other car and I prefer its Orient Red paint scheme to the deceased puke yellow. It had to be towed once due to plugged fuel filters from an algae attack (AAA thank you)

My wife drives the Explorer. We have two kids at an age where we are hauling the kids and their friends around, going to afternoon activities (soccer, gymnastics etc) and the Explorer works well for this purpose. We also take the Explorer on vacation. Its a 2002, 2wd V6 and gets about 22mpg on the road. Around the hills and back and forth to school the mileage really sucks on that (12mpg the way she drives it)

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84 300DT Puke Yellow. Totalled after 438,000
84 300DT Orient Red. 169,000 (actual mileage may vary)
2002 Explorer EB (wife's)

82 300TD is our main car.
88 560SL is for when the top can be down, but right now its out of service, power steering leak.
Daughters 240D, only car.
Sons 65 Mustang Fastback, only car.

Dave

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1970 220D, owned 1980-1990
1980 240D, owned 1990-1992
1982 300TD, owned 1992-1993
1986 300SDL, owned 1993-2004
1999 E300, owned 1999-2003
1982 300TD, 213,880mi, owned since Nov 18, 1991- Aug 4, 2010 SOLD
1988 560SL, 100,000mi, owned since 1995
1965 Mustang Fastback Mileage Unknown(My sons)
1983 240D, 176,000mi (My daughers) owned since 2004
2007 Honda Accord EX-L I4 auto, the new daily driver
1985 300D 264,000mi Son's new daily driver.(sold)
2008 Hyundai Tiberon. Daughters new car

My mood dictates which MB to drive. I love my cars to death but they are old. My 300 D would not start one day and I used the 500 SEL till the weekend. On Saturday I got the 300 D running again and that’s the car I use the most because it uses less fuel and the interior is indestructible.

My 300D is my main transportation - granted it is a 124 so about 10 years newer than most posting here. I did drive it 500 miles per week during the summer, but it is more like 250 miles/week now. So far it is very reliable.

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John Gillespie
1988 560sec - 192k miles
2006 CLK500 - 40K miles
1995 E300 - 202k miles

Mine is a hobby. I love diesels. Daily driver: Volvo 740 / Toyota Tundra V8 (Smooooth engine BUT thirsty).

Whatever I drive, its got to be rear wheel drive - summer fall winter spring.

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1981 300SD 118K
2000 Toyata Tundra 64K

I drive and depend on my old smudgepot because it frees up my time for hobbies.

Advantages:
No one wants to steal it.
It gets good fuel economy and runs well enough to keep bugs from smashing themselves against the REAR windshield
Easy to repair and parts are reasonably inexpensive.
Damn near invisible to the "revenue generators".
DEPENDABLE !! Once I got everything working the only thing I have to deal with is normal maintenance.

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You can get farther with a smile and a gun than you can with just a smile.

1984 300D
1985 300CD
1980 300SD
1993 SL500