1987 Mercedes Benz 300 SDL - $5600 (Clayton, DE)

This car I found out is located in Philly which is closer than DC so I decided to go take a look at it this Sunday. The ad says NOTHING about the car, so I e-mailed Mike who told me to call him.

AT&T's horrible service mixed which his horrible service because he lives in the boonies here is what I gathered from our conversation.

He knows almost nothing about the car (awesome), his boss that owns the used dealership had this as his personal car. He had carfax information which had Mercedes Dealership service information from 2004 and 2007, this is what I got through the crappy cell phone call:

2002, 2004, 2007ish

• Drive Belt
• Tensioner
• Starter
• Battery
• Voltage Regulator
• Fluids (not saying much)

The car was bought October 5th 2007 (by his boss), car obviously was worked at exclusively at a Mercedes dealership (from what I gathered that's why the Carfax had service information on it). The car had 123,xxx miles on it in 2007 and now has roughly 13,xxx more on it (136,xxx).

From what I gathered right before the call ended, it is located at Debo Brothers Auto Sales in Philly.

What I noticed from the photos (sixtwo I can thank you for this skill although someone may find more interesting finds). The passanger fog light lens is cracked (I'll probably end up replacing the whole headlight assemblies), the paint looks good all around except for on the bumper where it appears someone forgot the SDL had 4 more inches when backing up.

I asked Mike if he could find out through his boss what cooling work has been done to the car in the last 5 years (fan clutch, radiator, water pump etc.) and if to his knowledge has the car overheated? To which he did not have an answer for.

What do you guys think? I value the opinions of you guys highly as you already know.

EDIT: I want to thank James for hooking me up with his meticulous checklist he created; I converted it to a Google Document and made it editable so the collective knowledge of this forum can add/edit/amend it.

__________________
'87 300TD Estate (Panzer Wagon, Sold)
'95 E320 Estate (Sabertooth, Sold)
'94 E500 (Stark 1, For Sale)
'04 VW GTI (Rhino, Sold)
'12 VW GTI Autobahn (Shadow)

Look for oil under the hood. The cooler hoses leak and can lead to serious engine damage (personal experience). If you are serious about the car take a sample of oil and have an analysis done. This will tell you almost anything you need to know about the condition of the engine...coolant in the oil...metal and what kind (indicates where it originated from)...etc etc. Wheeler Cat does it locally here in Salt Lake..the test runs about $15.00 and is usually done in the same day. Just cheap insurance in my opinion ).

@Scruffyguy1981 - Wow, I never thought you could get an oil analysis done? I am going to look into that now! Thanks for the tips

UPDATE:

• Blackstone Laboratories ($22.50)
• Amsoil ($32)

but any O/A is a good idea. As with any 603 engine the trap ox, #14 head check, look for oil in water and vice versa and radiator hose squeeze test ....

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1987 300D (230,000 mi on a #14 head-watching the temp gauge and keeping the ghost in the machine)
Raleigh NC - Home of deep fried sushi!

Try some of your local heavy duty diesel service shops. Some may be able to do it right there. At the very least they should be able to point you to someone local they use.

Check, check and check! I am probably going to call the guy and ask him to let it sit there overnight if he can. For $5.6k I am thinking I should see some service records!

Going to see if I can find any diesel shops in the area that do testing, can't seem to find any that easily on Google at the moment though.

__________________
'87 300TD Estate (Panzer Wagon, Sold)
'95 E320 Estate (Sabertooth, Sold)
'94 E500 (Stark 1, For Sale)
'04 VW GTI (Rhino, Sold)
'12 VW GTI Autobahn (Shadow)

Look for RUST in the backseat under the carpets....under the car.....look for clean hood hinge pockets....and no leaves under the battery tray nor under the fusebox....

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daw_two
Germantown, TN

Links:
Sold last car --- 05/2012 1984 300D Light Ivory, Red interior
No longer selling Cluster Needles Paint
No longer selling New Old Stock (NOS) parts

Past:
3/2008 1986 300SDL "Coda"
04/2010 1965 190D(c) "Ben"
& many more

Howdy -

I'm in the process of purchasing a 1987 300SDL myself - I've started a thread not too long ago and the members here have provided a lot of great responses - so check out my thread here:

Will be driving it for 13 hrs...

Based on my own limited experience here is some advice: don't fall in love with the car and have a local independent mechanic do a pre-purchase inspection for ya. The $5600 is probably too much - I paid $4500 for mine and it has 127K on it, so inspect it, make a list of things to check for, note your concerns and if you like the car then point out your concerning areas and make an offer based on it.

When you get serious about the car don't bother dealing with 'proxies' - insist on talking to the real owner of the car. Be courteous, and business like but firm.

I've made a check list of things to look for courtesy of all the great people here - if you want it I'll share it with ya. Best of luck -

__________________
1987 Mercedes 300SDL; SOLD
1985 Mercedes 300D; SOLD
2006 Honda Pilot - wife's ride; 122K;
1995 Toyota Land Cruiser - 3X locked; 182K

@MercFan - That is funny I drove 9+ hours to Ohio to pick up my 1987 300TD and also have a thread for it on things to watch out for. Most of the things I am aware of, if you want to send your checklist send it to beloved.openhand[at]gmail.com or here I appreciate that. BTW I agree with you, I need to talk to the owner and get real information; when I asked if all the electronics work including the seats/windows/sunroof/cruise control I got a 'yes' that sounded automated (No offense Mike if you read this).

I got an e-mail with scans of the Carfax which are unreadable (ugh) and this reply from Mike:

=/ I don't know how I feel about that ATM

A guy from Maryland picked it up yesterday. If you are from these forums, cheers! =)

come buy mine, southern car, perfect shape! everything and I mean everything (that includes the sunroof!!) works **(needs a cruise amp though for proper cruise operation)

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/cto/1444122128.html

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Paul
Benz-less
I need an SDL !

Just about everything in the attached guide by gsxr and Dr. Booth apply to the SDL.

Sixto
87 300D

Attached Files

124.1x3_buying_tips.txt (18.7 KB, 260 views)

@Paul - Can you e-mail me @ iamfrankstallone[at]gmail.com? I would like to talk to you more about this; I saw your listing on Craigslist too. =)

Big thanks for this Sixto

Back to plan A) For fun I am going to go take a look at this car and although I don't think I am going to be able to give him what he is asking I might go with my Flip Cam and at least my camera and take more photos for people to see and help him get rid of it.


The guy e-mailed me and told me it is stick, confirmed by the photos attached. Should be fun. =)

Some one needs to chime in and tell me what color this interior is ....

__________________
daw_two
Germantown, TN

Links:
Sold last car --- 05/2012 1984 300D Light Ivory, Red interior
No longer selling Cluster Needles Paint
No longer selling New Old Stock (NOS) parts

Past:
3/2008 1986 300SDL "Coda"
04/2010 1965 190D(c) "Ben"
& many more