Input please...79 240d....I am looking at buy
 

ing one of these from the original owner. It has all books and records. It is in excellent condition.

The car has 300,000 miles on it. I was wondering what I should expect from this car (best case scenario) in terms of gas mileage, maintenance and upkeep, reliability, longevity, etc.

By the way, the asking price is 2K. Would this be a wise purchase?

Where do you live in country? Incorporate it in your heading unless you are in the witness protection program or have women chasing you for alimony. :D Maybe you are in rustbelt? Rustfree car always generally worth a premium. Anyways has owner made an attempt to keep up with everything over the years or just let car decline is going to be a big factor. The body condition is perhaps one of the important factors as well. Another item is automatic or standard transmission. The automatic is worth less in my opinion. The manual transmission model is not exactly happy cruising at 70 mph although it may not hurt the car. I think the automatic would struggle worst but to be fair I have never owned one but it would have slower acceleration for sure. If the car is one of the rare ones the owner has really cared for and taken care of at say a mercedes dealer or good mechanic it does make a big difference. I own two standard 240ds and you should get quite a few helpful ideals in next few days. One of mine is even a 79. :)

"The automatic is worth less in my opinion."
I can not imagine anyone argueing with that...

" The manual transmission model is not exactly happy cruising at 70 mph although it may not hurt the car."

I have a 1980 240 manual and it loves to run 75 .... and wants to go faster..
maybe you had one that was not ' well '....

Stephen,

Gas mileage: Infinite.

Diesel fuel mileage 26 to 30 MPG.

P E H

Leathermag is right again. Drive the car to see how you feel about it. I have one exceptional one and one possibly below average. The one perhaps below average was purchased about four months ago and I will soon check it over as the weather is warming up now. One of my problems I freely admit is an abnormal sensitivity to engine rpm. Usually when climbing out of a mercedes into my more regular transportation car the engine turns about 2500 rpm at 70 mph where the 240s are turning about 3400 I think was mentioned at 70. If I drove a fast reving gas car (buzz box) the 240 would seem far more normal to me. :)

Sorry, it is a manual, and I live in Jackson, MS
 

Is the 26-30 miles per gallon for a diesel accurate. Someone listed gas as infinite. These must be backwards.

"abnormal sensitivity to engine rpm."

Consider renewing your hood pad .... it makes a lot of difference in percieved noise inside the passenger compartment on our 240's....even in place they can get degraded over the years. Mine has none at all... so I know how loud they can be.

Remember that the smaller the squirrels the faster they have to run.

Mine gets 24 mpg...

PEH was referring to you using the word gas instead of fuel.

Fuel milage seems to vary on many factors. Since it is a standard it is worth considering at about price your talking if truly in good shape. In excellent shape probably worth more in my opinion. Milage seems to vary from car to car and some of it is related to driving style but not all in my opinion. The area of country you are in indicates the body is probably good and that is very important. I believe this model is a once in a lifetime thing that should not be missed. The 300k is not partiicularily upsetting as i believe most lower milage models currently available really have simular or greater milage if their odometers had kept working contiuiously since new. Milage in the 24-29 range seems plausable from my limited experience on this model. One of mine gets 25 in cold weather. The exceptional one will be a subject of a post once I find out a little more.The biggest benifit though is with these cars you have a choice of staying out of the loving embrace of service shops with a strong site like this. :D More than a few shops unfortunatly are not satisfied with only the embrace in my opinion. :D A pretty easy and straitforword car to work on as well. Really easy in comparison to present day cars and most the parts are availible quite reasonable in comparison to other cars as well. Leathermag, thanks and will try the new hood pads. :)