I saw a Mercedes diesel at the Detroit auto show a few years ago that had a little over a million miles on it. Nowhere did it say anything about how much maintenance this car had. I was wondering if anyone knows how many times the engine was rebuilt. It doesn’t seem as though it would have been possible for it to make it on one engine.

You’d be surprised at the number of “million mile” Mercedes Benzes out there. And there a innumerable more with in excess of a half million miles on them. And yes, on the original engine, although most (but not all) needed a valve job along the way.

I remember a few years back Road&Track did an article on a guy’s 380SEC with a TON of miles on it (I don’t recall exactly how many). He was a traveling salesman and all the mileage was well documented & verified. I remember that they said the car drove very well, with the exception that it probably needed new shocks – the originals were still on the car! (Credit Bilstein for this feat, Mercedes only specs them, doesn’t build them)

Now, I know that I will get flamed for saying this, but the aluminum V-8s were not exactly known to be as robust as the iron blocks used in the 450 engines (& 350’s in Europe). This combined with the notorious ill-fated decision to use the single row chain on the early 380s… Well, I don’t know for sure, but this guy must have been pretty lucky.

So if you can read between the lines here, this was accomplished with one of MBZ’s less reliable engines, so you can imagine about the fabled “long life” engines.


[Edited by RunningTooHot on 07-08-2001 at 01:11 PM]

Tasma,

I expect that the one you saw was a 220D. MB North America gave a fellow in Washington State a new 300SD for his '68 220D that he had bought new and drove every day on a 300 mile round trip commute. The car had one engine replacement at about 700,000 miles, otherwise the car is original.

The car was used in a TV commercial and other PR work throughout North America for obvious reasons.

My 240D still has 450,000 miles to go. I wonder if MB North America will give me a new car for it then.

Was it a dark colored 220D.

There was an article in the Star magazine about five years ago telling the entire story. You can get back issues of the Star magazine from the MB Club of America.

Have a great day,

I think it was dark blue or black.

I am quite interested in high mileage MB's and notice that alot of guys have 150-220k on them. I have been encouraged by Larry's comments on his vehicles but would like to see more in the 300-400k range. If I compare the compression of my (2) MB's to my Volvo, then I think that both will see over 300k on them in 6 or 7 years. For my Volvo is quite tired but will still probably make 300k.

__________________
DAILY DRIVERS:
'84 300DT 298k (Aubrey's)
'99.5 Jetta TDI IV 251k (Julie's)
'97 Jetta TDI 127k (Amber's)
'97 Jetta TDI 186k (Matt's)
'96 Passat TDI 237k (Don's
'84 300D 211k Mint (Arne- Undergoing Greasecar Conversion)

SOLD:
'82 240D 229k (Matt's - Converted-300DT w/ 4 speed

The Star magazine ran several articles on high mileage MB's including a high mileage contest. This was in an issue around May/June of 1996 if I remember correctly. It was the first issue I got after joining the MBCA. I did not know about it in time, or I would've entered my 240D.

The one I spoke of in my previous post was I believe Midnight Blue. You probably saw that one. In the Star magazine I mentioned is an article about that car.

The car in the Guinness Book of World Records with the highest mileage is a Mercedes diesel with over 1.2 million miles.

These cars are built well and when something does wear out on them, you can fix it and it will stay fixed. There are many MB's all over the world with more than 300 to 400 K miles on them.

Have a great day,

When discussing cars with others, I like to make the analogy that the old Mercedes Benzes are like an aircraft. As long as the airframe is good, all you do is replace some parts every now & then as they wear out.