Originally Posted by 300SDog

Y'all tellin me that nobody wants to buy it for $200 - $300 and clean it up?

This configuration of 300SD is rarest MB diesel. Was built only couple of years and USA export only. At the Australian 116 forum there's folks in Belgium and Netherlands calling it their ultimate dream car, same as we might look at 4-spd w116 3.5

Personally I'd like to grab every 1979/80 w116 300SD knowing they will go nowhere but up in value over the next 5 yrs. Its a damned shame to see em parted out and taken off the road.

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

Getting it reliable enough to be a driver is going to cost a bit.....

Originally Posted by lietuviai

The old saying,"Nothing's more expensive than a cheap Mercedes Benz", really applies here.

Originally Posted by 300SDog

Nah, from what the seller says its in drive away condition. Haint no more reason to expect it needs anymore mechanical work than yer typical fleabay $2.5k MB diesel anyhow. Everything else it might need just looks like elbow grease to me.

And yes, spit'n polish would make this one helluva fine daily driver. I aint goin after it just because it'll set me back at least $900 to snatch and drive to Kentucky - darned tempting though.

Folks, am thinkin y'all are suffering from "too low price syndrome" where everybody gits squeemish about picking up and driving home $300-$500 vehicle, dunno why.

Heck the most economical MB I've ever owned was $500 New Jersey 240D that finally rusted to smitherines more than 100k miles and 4yrs later, after hitting a deer too. Yet its still fully functional with excellent mechanicals even to this day.

Originally Posted by P.E.Haiges

jshadows,

I bought a 300SD parts car with a body worse than that but it was in good running condition. Even had new pads and rotors on the front. So I took off the rotors and put them on my better 300SD.

It ran so good I started driving it as a winter car. It lasted 8 years and ~80,000 miles and I spent next to nothing on it to keep it going. I finally had to make it a real parts car because rust weakened the body too badly. Its still has many parts left but the engine and trans have been installed in another car. The car was well worth what I paid for it.

I never had any plans to restore the parts car. It was way beyond any economical body repair.

P E H

Originally Posted by TylerH860

.... It will be a few decades before taking on a restoration project like this one will be financially prudent.

Originally Posted by barry123400

If the milage where true could be a real good parts car. Seldom is though. The more time I have in with older diesel mercedes the more suspicious I become.
Even the ones I think might have accurate odometers still leave me Wondering. In the car world it is a well known fact you cannot put miles back into a car.
Might be possible with excesss spending but even then it is not the same. I really believe there is not another brand of car out there with more odometer problems and manipulation in general than the 123 series has experienced.
Nice to see the liquid crystal type of odometers in later years on other models. . Even these are changeable. Fortunatly the device to do it has been expensive and the risk greater if the new owner finds out. Hopefully this has slowed down the practice somewhat. Just do not count on it.
Check out any expensive cars background carefully before handing money over. I still have no clear picture of expected lifespan of the average 300d engine. All I suspect is it might be pretty high.

Originally Posted by TylerH860

Could this car have another 5 years and 100,000 left on it? yes. She's not a parts car quite yet, but I'd be scared to hit anything bigger than a deer.

I know there's a thread somewhere that shows how much rust some forum members cars has, and are still on the road. I can't find it, but there were a few VERY scary examples.

We're getting to that unfortunate point in time when many of our generation of Mercedes will rapidly disappear; leaving fewer and fewer examples for the future. It will be a few decades before taking on a restoration project like this one will be financially prudent.