I am always advocating the purchase of an '87 300d. What a great car for the highway. Smooth quiet and powerful. And before anyone mentions it.. I got the 14 head.. NO problems.

Size does matter too....

I am 6'7" and my w123 drives me nuts at the 2 hour mark. The SD is great for long hauls but I hate that 3500 rpm at 65mph. I had a w201 I drove from Va to Indianapolis and it was a tight fit. My '87 w124 fits me very very well.

'87's pop up more than you would think too.

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08 R320 CDI current

Past
95 E420
87 300D Turbo 5spd
90 300TE
83 300SD
85 300TD
92 400E
85 190D

So you are looking to put about 30000 miles a year on a 1500 car, with 200000 on it already.

I would prepare to spend a minimum of 2500 and up to 5000 a year in repairs on a car like that.

What mpg are you looking for?

Look again - the budget stated is "1500" not "2000......"


I've never seen a 1500 car that wouldn't need at least 2000 to 3000 put in it the first 12 - 24 months - especially if you're trying to drive it 500 or more miles per week...

In '91 when I bought my used '83 300SD - wish I'd of known to look for an '87 300D. I didn't even consider one since I had the hots for the SD body style - and there were tons of used SDs available in Dallas, Texas at the time...

Vehicle for everyday use has to be reliable and cheap to maintain to make sense for us. Our everyday drivers are all front wheel drive for inclement weather. Get mid thirties to forty miles per imperial gallon on the highway and besides tires,brakes and oil changes seem almost bulletproof. The gas engines are never a concern starting in the cold either. Hyundia, toyota seem to more or less meet these standards.. Honda might be included in this mix but a lot of people have been complaining for the last while about them. All others seem to fall short in our experience.

I do not want to waste my time keeping daily drivers running. Your problem would be to find a low milage example in your price range. The car auctions might produce one.

If used cars are expensive as I have heard in the Ontario region the auctions here are generally cheap. A 2006 hyundia went through the other night with 70 thousand klicks or 42 thousand miles for less than two k. It was the elantra with the overdrive automatic. It was very clean with no dings. Possibly 30k klicks still left on the powertrain portion of the warranty.

Something like that might have served your purpose well. I had already purchased my quota that evening and really I went to buy toyotas but they all went too high. Those hyundias will reach usually fairly high milage before serious problems develop. Resell is on the rise as the public have discovered they are vastly better than they were. Or that american big three cars are far worse. Take your choice.

I consider a hobby car in an entirely different light. They almost always need something. The problem is if that is not fixed before long something else is added to the list. This may be because true low milage examples are almost impossible to find. Plus they are very old.

You almost cannot beat the crash protection in a jetta and maybe a golf but they can become problamatic and expensive to service and seldom cheap if good.

Most current american big three cars have good front collision ratings but overall are deathtraps in rollovers. Almost all that are on a flatbed that have rolled around here have roofs badly depressed and serious passenger compartment distortion.

A causual friend of mine was killed a week ago when his 2008 pontiac g6 rolled. The front corner of the roof collapsed and destroyed his crainial area. He may have been banged up in a jetta and any other car that still had some structural strength in the roof but he would not be dead. Word of how light structurally these cars are will eventually get out. The big three are consistant in not bothering to fix design and reliability problems quickly.

The very low milage ford focus models I ocassionally purchase cheap for example still have the same problem areas they had many years ago. These companies strike me more as marketing giants than true car builders. They need serious leadership they are not likely to get.

It is pretty bad when I consider a kia spectra a better car overall than any of theirs in a simualr price range. Even the spectras still seem far better at twice the accumulated miles. That is the part that is really sad.

Reciently I have started to buy the occasional one of them. No disapointments so far. I am starting to think they may be as good as hyundai is soon. The same family produces both brands in korea and kia has poor resale value currently.That is reflected by almost giveaway prices on the auction circuits. Just do not take a newer spectra for a drive. The car has attained a certain amount of sophistication since 2004.

You have to spend pretty big dollars to get a car that feels and handles as well. As long as that remains unknown I will get lots of them for resale. All I tell people is take one for a drive. That usually sells them. My wife actually clued me in with the first one I brought home. She used it for a day.

I am not a true car dealer just find it a simple and enjoyable method of increasing our retirement income. If something does not meet my standards in a used car I simply repair it or put it back through the car auction.

I do not want unhappy customers. Try to actually drive each car at least a week to discover any deficiencies before reselling. That is becoming impossible so I might slow down the volume. Word of mouth that I handle good used cars at more than fair prices seems to be spreading like wildfire.

Some of the young fellows on this site should have a hard look at this area. It never hurts to have an extra iron in the fire. You have to learn how to spot good cars quickly though. Just do not become the average car salesman.This is avoided by truly meeting peoples needs in an ethical fashion. Your needs will automatically be taken care of then.

Yeah, the 190E 2.3's are pretty nice little cars....I have my sister's just about sorted out (still needs electric fan clutch replaced)....but it is a very nice car and it is quick! MPG's are good....probably around 23-25ish, better on the highway.

I need to find a 300D 2.5.....though my 300SD has been faithfully absorbing my 450 mile a week driving....virtually no issues in the past 4 months so far...just some out of balance tires and an oil change, thats it. My next project is to replace the steering components and the guide rod bushings. The 300E drives like a dream with the struts/shocks replaced....next weekend it gets all new steering components and an alignment, should be just about perfect at that point (aside from needing a re-paint)

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

On Kias and Hyundais.....there is a reason or two, they come with 10 year / 100,000 mile warranties.

Accident protection is pretty much my #1 reason for driving only MB's....I want the roof to not collapse and crush me in the event of a collision/accident.....I will never understand why people are not more concerned about these types of things. Its like they assume "being killed in an accident" is just a "normal" thing that happens to those unlucky enough to have it happen. Driving a solid German car this is rarely the case....

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Before you go for a repaint on your SD . . . . try rubbing it out. It's amazing how MBZ paint can come back to life. There were two 76 123s at the Florida GTG this weekend that were beautiful . . . the kids really put some elbow grease into them and they were stunning . . . just buffed out the original paint.

The 190D has a soft spot in my heart. If you get one that has the 5-spd (the auto will make you suicidal) and was well maintained by PO . . . it is a little tank with great fuel savings . . . I averaged 37 mpg for the 6 yrs I owned mine. And the engines last forever.

Enuf said.

Human nature at work. It is unlikely to happen to me for example. Or more likely just ignorance of the vast differences in designed structual strength
between manufacturers.

I actually started to notice some cars where getting very weak structually more than ten years ago. Some almost as thin as four wheeler honda and kawasaki 400 pound off road vehicles on close examination. They got away with it by claiming a reduction in weight gives better milage. Actually it does but far more milage is gained from better engine/transmission designs.

Its nice if you have a car with single stage paint like the older non metallic finish cars. Just buff it out and the shine and swirls are gone.

If you want to create a reliable commuter car for 1500 bucks out of a 20-25 year old mercedes, you better expand on that budget!

Even if you are doing all the work yourself, where you would save quite a bit of money, or if you find a real deal. Most cars around that price would be great around town for a while, but if you started to put serious miles on them, you will end up replacing most of the old drivetrain rubber, axles, flex discs, bearings and so on.

I bought my 83 300D for a couple grand, and drove the piss out of it. Over the course of 3 years and hundreds of miles a week, I put almost 5 grand into it just on repair with me doing all the work!
ALL that cost was in the first year as I brought it back up to a car that COULD do hundreds of miles a week without a problem. Just the breaks of owning a 25 year old car. The next two years were gravy, since by then it was basically a new drivetrain.

With 1500 dollars and a taste for an old car, I would start with a metro, an escort, or a civic for 500 bucks, and put a thousand into making it reliable with yard parts, and only new for the most important stuff.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

It's called Marketing. Marketing determines the warranties, based on sales potential, warranty costs are calculated into this but not the driving factor.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

OP, where'd ya go?
any feedback on our feedback?

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!