Best Guestimate on 200D Barn Find Value?
 

I know these pics are not the best, but anyone care to chime in what they might offer on this '68 200D "behind-the-barn" find? Any help appreciated.

$300, $500 max, maybe a little more if you can't live without it. Remember this is just the initial investment, quite a ways from the final cost. These models are barely a blip on the collector car radar, which means they can and should be had cheap.

Looks like rust showing above the right headlight, which means there is more elsewhere (check rocker panels, floor boards, and rear fender wheel). Who knows if there is anything wrong with the engine (why was it parked). Interior looks halfway decent. Expect to spend some $$$ just to get it road worthy. Looks like a fun project, but also a lot of work.

Thanks! - The non-collectible factor will certainly assist in the negotiations!

If you put $5,000.00 into the car, you would not have a car worth $5,000.00. The car probably has value of 300 to 400 worth of parts on it.

Unfortunately, rust is a killer. I'd only buy it for parts. Find out what it is worth as scrap & add $100 if he helps you load it. Perhaps he'll give it to you if you'll fix it. Current owner obviously doesn't have a use for it.

Too many older cars actually have a negative real worth to be fair. There are a lot of things to consider. The strong point on this one is probably the seats and dashes general condition look pretty good. Or at least far better than one would normally expect to find on this model if it had been driven to death.

I really feel you cannot value something like this all that easy. In a way it is what it is worth to the beholder. I have seen sellers trying to get ten thousand or close out of far worse. You have to just leave them in their dream world.

Total restoration of a car is very time intensive usually and can be expensive. So never wear rose colored glasses when looking. There is a workable equation that can be developed usually.

I will suggest that you would really have to be in love with that particular model to want to get involved with it. You are going to be putting a lot of work into it. If I loved that particular car, I wouldn't care so much what the market value was. But if not, I would look for something else.

Richard

RML offers some wisdom here. If you're just completely smitten with the finbacks, then paying a few hundred for this car and pouring your heart and soul along with part of the family fortune into it may very well bring you satisfaction.

I lived in Germany from 69 to 71 when these cars were a dime a dozen on the used car market. At that time they were just old enough that there were lots of them around and were just old used cars. I never could get excited about the finbacks, but I knew several people who thought that they were the best looking car ever. It seemed as if it was a "love it or hate it" kind of car.

The good news about it is it's simplistic four speed manual and four cylinder diesel. If there is no cancerous rust and you are one to do a restoration yourself, it could be a very satisfying project. There seem to be only two reasons to take on a restoration project; love of the car you're restoring or profit. It's very clear that profit could never be the motivator on this project. Do you love this car? If the answer is yes and you undestand how much work and time are involved in car restoration, then I say go for it.

If you've never restored a car before, it is not simply a project. It's a marriage. It will consume you and your time to a level that you have no way of understanding until you've done it.

Best of luck with your decision.

Since you don't know the quality of the drive train or the condition of the frame and rockers, probably the most valuable piece will be the tranny, since it's a floor shift model.

The whole thing? 300-400.

I fully expect that the vast majority of small diesel MB's of that era were manual transmission cars.

You might look around for something more like this:

http://orlando.craigslist.org/cto/1830944552.html

Sounds like it may have been cared for by the description (sniff)

Heh. This guy thinks his is worth $15k... "Professional Thai mechanic"

Thanks folks. Thumbs down on this one. Too much rust and the seller thinks its worth $1K.

On to the next one...

- Geoff

Yeah, there's a reason why you don't see restored 200 D's from the 50-60's. Not much demand in the collector market for small diesel powered cars. Even those with the bigger gasser motors would have a hard time fetching $1,000 if in the same condition as this one.

You'd really have to love these old cars and have a weird affection (affliction) for small slow diesel power to really spend the kind of money this car would need to be a driver. Not to mention a full-resto, etc.

I've been a car nut all of my 61 years and I've seen this mentality for all that time. People have some old car that's rusty or crashed or run down, and they hear of someone else who sold the same make/model for X dollars. Of course the one they heard about might have been absolutely pristine, but they think since theirs is the same make and model, it's worth the same X dollars. Very frustrating.