W123 station wagon for sale - can this be true??
 

Some guy locally is selling a W123 diesel wagon. Asking price around $7500. Apparently belonged to a car aficionado who passed away 5 years ago. Car originated in FLorida. Before he passed away, he apparently (can this be true?) spent $40,000 on a restoration! (stripped to the metal, full refurbishment - apparently records to attest). Then while driving on freeway the timing chain broke and the dealer replaced the engine. It's been driven only seldomly since the owner passed away and is now being sold. 2 hours away or I'd be tempted to go have a look at it... DOn't need another Benz now but this sounds like a possible deal. Thoughts?

If.....
 

IF I were only 2 hours away.....
IF I only owned 1 MB....
IF I had $7500...

Screw the IFs; where is the car? I'll start pricing transports.:D

pics of all of the receipts plus the same day news paper in the shot as well

Yeah, good advice :D
I just can't believe someone would/could spend $40,000 restoring one of those cars!:rolleyes: Would they???:eek:

Two hours away isn't anything. Crap, I've driven 4 hours one way to Dallas just to look at certain cars (after having talked to the owner, I'll add). For $7500, if it's what they say it is, it might be worth it.

Go look at it
 

2 hours away in NOTHING


I drive further than that just to meet the women that I date, this year.

Mystery car?????
 

Stranger things have happend. I once bought a Chrysler station wagon that looked like new. It was 20 years old and had 56,000 miles on it.

The owner, an elderly man, took it in for repairs. The repairs took a long time. During this time the old man died. His heirs did not want to pay for the repairs so the shop owner kept the car.

He parked it in the back of his shop so it was always inside. Years later the shop owner died and it took several years to clean up his estate.

After getting title to the car the shop was auctioned off and I bought the car.

It was a really nice car, but from haveing sat for almost 15 years it had so many electrical problems I could never find them all. The relief valve in the oil pump also stuck and this blew off the oil filter. I finally sold it to a guy with a big family and a lot of time on his hands.

The bottom line is that no matter what was spent in the past you have to ask how well is it working now?

I have seen Mercedes from the 50's that were still a basket case after $15,000 grand had been laid out for engine and transmission repair. This was one of the big ones and still had wooden braces inside the doors. The cost of the wood work was estimated at $8,000, so I passed on that deal.

Look at this as any other Mercedes. If it is worth it then I would buy it. It could be like new when you see it. If so then it would be a deal.

Pooka

driving.....
 

I drove more than 5 hours just to meet Jimmy, Tyler, and some other fine Texas GTG folks.

I drove 2 hours in Los Angeles and travelled about 10 miles.

Sixto
87 300D

Driving isnt bad in an old merc. I just never get uncomfortable and I never feel like im inside a tiny box

Thanks, good advice! At this point, I'd be just curious to see what "$40,000 restoration" buys you in a W123! And to have a look at paperwork and photos attesting to someone loving one of those cars enough to supposedly restore it to "concours quality".
Well, I'll think about taking a drive, after I get sent some pictures and receive confirmation that all the records have been located (they were in storage). Nice autumn scenery makes for pleasant drives at this time of year up here.
Cheers!

Just realize that it could have been restored by overpriced hackers, hopefully not. Quality materials, + manual labor for body work can add up. Take good pictures to share with us.

2 pictures of the car
 

from the ad, here are the front and rear pictures of that wagon. I've asked for more so will see what else I get.

What? No crossbars. Oh ya, it has leaves on it too! :)

I saw Elvira's old TD wagon on craigs list a while back. northwest body, $12k, young engine.

Excellent, the value of my white wagon just went up!! :cool:

I guess I could sell Chameleon and double my money, right?

I looked at the pics and saw the pass rear window trim looked like it was coming up a bit. The drivers door was ajar or it's misaligned by looking at the bottom of it. 84 and 85 wagons had the stick-on luggage strips and the cross bars. Previous versions did not have these IIRC. I like it when people try to sell wagons for anything north of $10K- God bless their hearts.

Doubt the ad, ask for more pics, then doubt the ad again. Then maybe go look at it.

40k and he didnt even get new rims ,ITs a sign that its to good to be true .Will he have the mechanic available to varify the work? That would help the sale along if I was the buyer.

Thanks for additional thoughts and insights.
Have not gotten a single pic through email, that I asked for. THey've given me the name of a mechanic who maintained the car the last few years (though not the person who "restored" it within an inch of its life...)
Indeed, "doubt" is what's called for here, until more info/pics start rolling in that start making this a plausible scenario. Then again, someone may have gone up there this weekend and bought the bloody thing. Will keep you posted if I find out more, the mystery continues, stay tuned...

Forgot to mention: in the guy's ad he mentioned something like "John Lennon used to own and drive one of these wagons". As if that's going to make me rush out and buy it!!!! :rolleyes:

Then when I expressed surprise at someone spending $40K to "restore" a W123 wagon, he retorted "well I suppose you've never loved a car so much to restore it to concours condition". I felt like saying "my 82 240D may not be concours condition, but it's a completely rust-free Arizona specimen with original paint, very clean interior, and faultless mechanicals. Maybe that's not concours-grade, but it's a damn fine car, and I sure as heck wouldn't need to spend 1/20 of $40K to fix the few little things on it, so I wonder what was the original condition of your concours grade wagon, prior to the $40K investment!" ;)

Some interesting things out there.... (oh and yeah, no pictures nor additional info - yet...)

Sounds like a bunch of hoooey.

Oh yeah, and after the $40K restore and then engine overhaul (broke the timing chain on the freeway apparently!), the "concours" wagon doesn't have working AC, and the vacuum-operated door locks don't work! I pointed out to the seller that my non-concours 82 240D has both working AC *and* door locks, so there!:P ;)

Front door isn't closed properly!!!

$40,000 to restore a car and the rims are that filthy?