is your diesel your main/only transpo or is it a "hobby" car--
 

The stress is off and I have a new 04 Toyota Corolla albeit my wife and kid have first dibs on it.
For the first time if I dont have a repair finished I can sleep all night and even wait until the weekend.
WHAT ARE YOUR SITUATIONS?

My personal experience was for a while I was running three cars, one with 170K; another at close to 400K and another at 230?K as my sole transportation.
Invariably one was in repair, another running great and another running conditionally. Other times, one was running conditionally and two were in repair.
On rarer days, three were running great.
I had a monster commute which occupied one car. That left whatever else was running for my kid and wife.
That made a hobby into a job. I was a motorpool mechanic not someone doing this for fun.
Invariably repairs got rushed and got made at funny times, like 1 am on a weeknite after I came home and took a nap. Mistakes didnt show up on a casual testdrive--they showed up on the Turnpike at 5 am on the way to work. Missing Tools showed up in funny places like the engine compartment
The killer was the last several months. My wife took the 91 Volvo into Manhattan and the catalytic got plugged. I had to spirit the car out of town at 2 am before it got impounded. :)

I will have to say this; the W123 300D is an indestructible, tough and forgiving car that is still my favorite and the one I put all my time into despite having a showcar 87 300D. Its saved me in incredible situations and still doesnt lose a drop of oil and runs smoothly despite mistakes I've made.

Everywhere I go is in my trusty '82 300SD. Its my only car to use personally....my dad switches around between the van and his '83. I have been driving mine over a year as a daily driver (all over the place) and it has never once let me down, not even in the worst of winter when I had to drive up my street (a hill) in amost 18" of snow.

Look at my signature. I'm a true believer. Only been stranded once in 5yrs and that was the Jetta. Bad starter, wife couldn't get it started so I "rescued" her, rolled and bump started it and all was well. The only gasoline powered stuff I own is lawn equipment and model boats. It takes a lot of attention to preventive maintenence to keep 3 vehicles, 2 of which have over 200K, running perfectly. Its not difficult or particularly time consuming but I do make sure issues are addressed long before they become problems. RT

My mom had an '83 300TD(maroon/palomino tex) since '87. Sold it in '97. Not once EVER did she have anything stick her on the road. AC never failed either. Car was basically perfect all the time. She put on about 80K miles in 10 years. My God, what we took for granted. I couldn't understand why everyone was so impressed that my parents drove Mercedes. Their reaction looked similar to as if I were a multi-millionaire and themselves impressed with my wealth of assets. Those were the days.:o

Now that the pressure is off...
 

I would like to post a picture of my 300D 85 W123.
I am starting to restore it vice just maintain it and drive it.
I am very proud of how I didnt give up on the engine after I accidentally plugged the breather hose and ran it to 1 quart of oil after a rushed 11pm repair. After that it sounded like it had a carcked exhaust manifold.
Everyone told me the car was toast.
I stuck a new Ip on it last month and have been tuning and tweaking and have optimized my timing after adjsuting it five times and even have been adjusting and even rotating my injectors every few days and have done the Lubro Moly thing.
TODAY I got my reward when a dealer mechanic said it sounded like a NEW ENGINE :D :) :D :) :D :)

I drive my 300D about 4 days a week now that I own it. The other few days I drive my other other vehicles. Pair of trucks and a car. :)

i drive mine every day.to and from school,work,and anywhere else

My 300D is my daily driver. She has her share of issues, to the point where I'm very seriously considering saving up the $$ to replace her with a 126 300SD. But, even given that, this car has never left me on the side of the road. I've had a few issues that I had to jury-rig on the road, and once had to take her out of service for a full month (and now that the truck's done, I may need to do so again to catch up on missed maintenance!), but she's never not done anything I've asked of her (which, with my commute and free time {or total lack thereof}, is quite a bit)...hands-down, the best vehicle I've ever owned. I just hope the 126 chassis follows in the 123's footsteps :)

Where do I start?
 

My '84 190D and my '85 300SD are daily drivers. My '82 300SD is a stress relieving project, no tags or insurance or else it would be a daily driver. My '79 300SD is a long-term project. It will be sometime before I have it on the road.

Kevin

Six registered vehicles in the yard with three drivers. My '87 300TD is the one I head for most of the time. It took the place of my '77 VW bus (Type 2). I am still working on the '84 and it is not yet to a point I want to drive it much. The newer vehicles . . . if I have to. Acutually, I even like to hop on th Kubota (all-wheel drive) for the short drives from the house to the barn (shop). It is a diesel and I guess I have become addicted to the diesel smell.

I have been asked many times why the hoods are up on the MBs so often. People must think they are broken all of the time. They don't understand it is satisfying to sometimes just gaze under the hood and wipe some fuel, dirt or dust. Sick bunch we can become. :D

My wife can only drive automatics (so far) and her 300D had been the only one of those we had. I always feel pressure to make sure that one is up to snuff and when it needed work I had to give it priority. We just bought a W116 300SD that will serve as backup and take that pressure off. It probably wasn't anything like Carrameow's , though. I never lost any sleep over it because my wife stays at home with our 4 year old. But then the little one would miss out on pre-school and ballet...

I made the mistake of driving my SD everyday in the summer. I left my '91 Subaru sit all summer and now the SD is going into storage for the winter and I have to get the Subaru back into shape.

The 240D is my sort of daily driver. I may drive it one day, then not drive it for 2 or 3 days as I'm retired. The wife's Jetta TDI is driven daily by her and we usually take it on the out of town trips.

At the current rate of mileage being put on the Jetta (20k miles per year), it will pass the '83 240D in about 6 more years. :eek: The 240 just rolled over 150k miles last week. :D

Mine isn't really just a hobby. I have a fleet of cars driven just by myself and occasionally by my girlfriend who lives with me. But I drive about 700 miles a week doing consultations with businesses. About 400 of those miles end up on my '84 300SD. The other 300 typically end up on the BMW. So I guess my 300SD is my daily driver. I bought it for that purpose anyway. Still haven't sold the Avalon though. :p

all diesel, all the time...
 

i often wondered the same thing.. if others drove their cars everyday. i drive my 78 300D 65 miles roundtrip everyday. my son drives a 91 Jetta 80 miles everyday. we have a Toyota pickup for backup... seldom used.[/FONT]

Both ????
 

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

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.

daily, with a backup
 

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 ? :D

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! :)

Daily Driver and Pinch Drivers
 

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!

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)

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

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.

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.

Hobby?
 

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 :D
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.

daily car, i want either a miata or a 914 for a hobby car. however being in school doesn't allow me to have that yet.

I run about half-Jeep and half-300D, on a daily commute of 22 miles one-way. I've been driving the Jeep all week while the 300D is being looked at by my guru :) Once the last of the front-end issues are taken care of -- shocks and tie rods! -- the 300D will be the daily driver, and the Jeep used only when needed to haul stuff or lost of people.

I used to be closer to half-motorcycle, half-Jeep, but the 300D has supplanted the motorcycle as the fun thing to drive for now :)

I run 98% with the 300SD then 2% on mama's red bullet van.

Hey Webwench...just think....maybe very soon it'll be 33% Jeep 33% 300D and 33% 300SD!

My SDL is my daily driver for now, I drive it about 400 miles a week but constantly fixing things is starting to get to me. It handles it great and is a blast to drive. Next summer I will be buying a newer Saturn/Toyota/Honda, to get to school and replace the SDL. I will keep the SDL but only drive it everyday when I'm out of school and on weekends until it snows. I'm getting to the point where I have to much time and money into it to risk it to salt/school. (mostly school) Also with these old cars it is nice to have another means of transport so you can take your time on repairs. But I don't have the time I once did and want somthing that I can just drive.

I am looking forward to a car that I can just turn the key and add gas! :D Toyota I am coming back!

Wouldn't that be great :) But lack of progress is discouraging, the current owner is attached to it, and who can blame him :(

I'll just answer Carrameow's question for you Hattie:

Your SDL is your daily driver and it is additionally your "hobby" car.

Two vehicles in one. :D

My SDL started as a hobby, now it is more of a lifestyle! :D

I run my 300td 90% of the time. The only time I don't drive the td is when I need my pickup to haul something and for winter use.

The td never leaves the stable until all of the salt has been washed off the roads. I've got one rust bubble the size of a pencil eraser on the drivers side front fender and thats it. Rust is your worst enemy and will do in a good running car plus they're too hard to find without the rust.

Cheers,

Bill

Well, my Mazda 929 is the daily when it was hot. I'm back to the 300D and 300CD for daily use now. The CD is used the most because it has an inspection sticker. The 300D will be this years winter beater, not because it's a crapper or anything, but it is the better of the three rear-wheel drive cars in the snow. If I continue to be employed, the Mazda will be replaced by a 4 wheel drive pickup which'll become the winter vehicle. It'll probably be gas since I really don't need a monster.

So far, it's been SDL unless it's in the shop. I have choices, as the signature shows, and I choose the SDL whenever possible. :D

Jim

My SDL started as a hobby, now it is more of a lifestyle!
 

My SDL started as a hobby, now it is more of a lifestyle! as posted by Hatteras Guy--

i definitely know aht you mean..its funny, with some guys and gals, its golf, others its cuisine, others its dressing nice and being a "girlie man"(btw,I dont mean this disrespectfully, I respect them, I wish I had some class and nice clothes and some nice lines), in deference to my wife's latest attempt to dress me up in Izod khakis and sweaters

with me its Diesels...Why i dont know,it defies all kinds of deep analysis, like did my Mom bring me home form the Hospital in a Diesel Taxi, or when I was 1 - 12 months old, did I live on top of a diesel garage? Or do we all share some wierd strand of DNA or chromosome, buried somewhere in the human genome map, that defines this passion?

Deep STUFF, and its not a male gene, even Webwrench has it.. :D

Hey whats wrong with Izod khakis? :D I like Dockers and Ralph L the best! :D
Well it is turning into a lifestyle I spend so much time working or cleaning the thing. But what else would I do? Make baskets? :D

Hey rmmagow-buy yourself a monster (preferably Dodge),then if you mercedes ever breaks down you'll have something to tow it home with(and the turbo sounds really cool too) :D :D :D

Daily Driver
 

My 84 is my only transportation -- about 400 miles/wk average. I've driven it 7000 since I bought it from an elderly lady -- and it runs better & better --- tho the front end needs a rebuild ... I have no hesitation about setting out for NC to see my parents (750 one way) ...

Mostly I run a very clean 86 F250 4x4 6.9 dsl pickup(180,000). Great truck and I've been messing with 4x4's for over 30 years and not to take anything away from the little 240D I'm just more of a PU guy than a car guy. The MB only has 135,000 on the clock so it's not really a hobby car...it needs nothing. With dsl going up I'll prolly be driving it more and more though but drive/hobby time is also split up between 3 Jeeps and 3 motorcycles so even a LOT of miles on the MB may be a max 5,000 miles a year...should last a long time eh? ;)

Two MB daily drivers that double as hobbies. '83 240D in the snow and an '83 300SD for every other day. It is good to have two, however, so when one is down for maintenance the other is available. It is also good to have a wife with a truck ('97 Expedition).

My 300SD is the only car I drive currently until the 69 bug gets restored. Then I may dance back and forth but for the 1.5-2hour round trip commute to school and back every day, I sure do like modern conviences like power steering and whatnot.
However the bug has its place...and I still love driving it.
If my 300SD was a stickshift, I would probably not miss the bug so much.
But I am a stickshift guy...luckily the benz doesn't act like a normal auto.

Speaking of daily commutes..
last friday 4 cars nearly hit me at various times and places (changing lanes into me, doing silly things) and I nearly rear ended one car! It was NOT a good day to be driving. The loud horn wins again!

...boy these cars can really get up there in your A list of issues in Life, like your Doctor appointment or son's cross country race or IRS tax audit, there you are wondering if your door straps need replacing...I hear Secretary of State Colin Powell ( Man I truly respect and admire) is a car afficiando too, I wonder if when he's in a top level meeting whether he's secretly wondering whether his injectors need cleaning...of course with his brain power he can multitask and hold a thousand issues up there anyway....

The 1985 300SD
 

is my prime mover.
Two domestic gassers under repair for resale.
Oh, my wife drives a 2002 Grand Prix, but I don't ride in it.

.........but, do you repair it?? :confused: