Stomach is the key word. You will leave your house and gaze at your car. How will you feel? You paid a little more, could well afford it, really don't care about incidental problems - it (looks) close to new, you don't mind putting whatever into it to return/keep it in the condition you want AND love driving it.

OR

Other extreme - Hate it every time something breaks and are reminded constantly how much it costs AND feel like you over paid. It is all about your perception.

More has gone wrong with mine than I expected. I now attribute this to deferred maintenance. Even wealthy people begin to do cost benefit analysis when deciding how much to repair an old car that isn't their toy.

3 of 4 vehicles are my toys and an engine swap is considered maintenance. I look for good (and cheap) parts cars. 78 Datsun Z waiting for megasquirt & turbo engine, 00 diesel ram - needed to tow my 4000# boat once every 4 or 5 years, 300SD daily driver & road car. 4th is 97 Saturn I got because my new wife owned it. The Saturn always starts & sips gas.

Bottom line: if you want it, are satisfied with price, willing to do or pay for the repairs, get it.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

That's why I told him he is looking at a $15,000.00 car. It WILL need parts/service/labor to keep it on -the-road.

Let me put it this way - if I only had $15K to spend on a car, I would put that money in the $10K car for sale, before I would put it in a near-new, loaded Ford Fusion in the mid to high teens.

I'd look for a $4000 car because I had a car that I over paid for and reminded myself every time I looked at it & got ready to drive. Money wasn't the issue. The car wasn't in the condition I thought it was & I had STUPIDLY bought - like it was the last of its kind left. It took the fun out. Never again.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

if you like the car and can afford 15K, then go for it. 79K is low, but like has been said, city short hops do not a great car make.
the interior should be MINT, the timing should be verified on the cam, and the a/c should be FIXED for this kind of money.
thoroughly inspect the suspension. VERIFY all the joints are pristine. if any are cracked, (they likely ALL are cracked) have them replaced as part of the sale.

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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!

What's the difference; once you own it, it no longer matters what you paid for it? I'm sure we've all wasted the cost of many, many cars on "stupid" stuff over the years; I've probably spent enough at starbucks to buy a new car. I don't even want to think about the stock market over the last couple of years. What's the point of worrying about it after the fact, just drive the silly thing?

Is this on the east coast? (NC)? I like my SD, it is not perfect but I like it. I bought it and paid too much for it. The owner said it ran great,rust free and ac worked. Well I replaced the engine repaired the ac and live with the rust. But I still like it. point is it will be your car and you Will have to repair/replace something. Call it a learning curve or a hands on education. The price seems high to me but I am cheap! have You seen the 300D in the classifieds "Ol Turbo" or something like that,beautiful car! If not for the SD I would be interested in the 300D. good luck in your search.

I'd be worried about the transmission. The seals inside and out are bound to be brittle and I would expect the clutch discs to be glazed. Take the car for a brisk road test. If the car doesn't shift perfectly, especially fully warmed up, run from it.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

As Dave Ramsey stated about himself; "I've done stupid, with zeros on the end of it!"

Me too in only making partial investments, my choices made have thus far missed an additional $6 million in actual personal stock net worth gains......but I've been lucky in my auto purchases. Somehow, I feel I'll survive, despite my miscalculations in purchases.

I feel for you Brother.

agree with all that's been said so far and am probably repeating some of it here.

At that price you want to see complete repair and maintenance records from the day it left the showroom. Aside from regular valve adjustments and changes of oil, tranny/brake/diff fluid, coolant (is it green or amber? green is a red flag -an indicator of not by the book maintenance) these must also show renewal of key suspension/steering rubber, oil cooler lines, CCU, CCA, and AC vacuum pods.

If AC was kept R12 and Compressor is recent you might get away with a leak fix and recharge. If it's been 134'd get ready for recurring (hot when it's not working, warm when it is) expensive grief eg 3 comps on my 83 and the 85's sounds like it's grinding rocks.

Tires (if not Michelins - another indicator of not OEM upkeep) recent? Or old, still with plenty of tread and dry rot?

All the above are not whether but when items. And when is usually not long after you bought it. Leather not supple but dry and taut? Cracks are next.

If it is indeed cosmetically pristine (and you keep it that way) and all the big ticket items had been taken care of, the only thing weighing against being able to resell it at that price or even more will be the miles you put on and the accident record as minor as they might have been.

If you are going to use it as a daily driver you will agonize over every scratch and parking lot ding. In which case you might be happier with a clean well maintained car with twice or thrice the mileage at, respectively, half or one third the price.......and still agonize over every scratch and parking lot ding.

On the other hand, "You've got to be digging it while it's happening 'cause it just might be a one shot deal."
-- Frank Zappa, Waka/Jawaka

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'83 SD, 2x '85 SD
You are entitled to your own opinions, you are not entitled to your own facts.

Although you are correct about the "Starbucks comment," regarding your purchases there, you are dead wrong in spades about the "stock market over the last couple of years."

Your comment about the stock market reflects that you are not paying attention, to have NOT NOTICED the 35%+ upside gains the stock market has enjoyed "the last couple of years." And it is still smokin' hot in returns. You may be one of those that ran to CDs in 2008 or 2009? I don't know. You have my condolences if you did.

Genuine, gift horse, stock market opportunities/run-ups like this don't happen into perpetuity. Just every few years.

Your comment shows you are unaware of one of the biggest 2 year upside gains in recent history.

FWIW - I would never spend any of my on-the-road beverage money at Starbucks - not one chance in Haites.

You have hit upon a purl of wisdom here - a massive purl of wisdom.

Friends of mine here in Dallas, Texas - somewhat wealthier than me, bought the same exact car as my sig. car brand new at the same exact time I bought mine new. Right down to the color combo, with the exception of heated seats.

In June of this year they sold their's for $12,500.00 on Ebay with 87K miles on it.

Mine with 122K has been ignored at or near the same asking price, because it has 30K more miles, however mine has had $5K +/- parts replacement done to it - where my friend's E300TD had NONE of the wear and tear parts replacement done to their's.

This family is worth $7 million, give or take - and did not give a hoot about parts replacement in any of the Mercedes-Benzes they have owned over the decades. They aren't stupid people to have amassed that kind of wealth - but they are down home, self-employed folk like me.

Some guy from Fort Worth, Texas da#n near broke his neck to buy the car, all with NO maintenance done to the car for 11 years. He was so fixated on miles, he had no idea of how much money that $12,500.00 car is going to cost him to drive normal miles in the near future.

Lessons learned in used car buying - is what I call it.

This has been an eye-opening thread for the wife and me. We now better understand what we're getting into.

We are going to get one of these cars (W123 or W126), but

I am taking Junkman's, Skid Row Joe's and others words to heart along with all the great tech tips in this thread. If the seller is reasonable and willing to pay for obvious work that the car needs, then I'm his Huckleberry. Otherwise, I'll happily let this SD/money-pit go and wait for one that makes better sense. Times are hard, and I think there are fair deals to be had.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

MANY THANKS!

I agree with almost everything Skid Row Joe has said including the stock market.
I recently bought an 84 300SD with around 97000K. The car was pristine, no rust, one parking lot door ding, well cared for and maintained. I now have about 9000.00 in it.
Even with less than 80000k there will be some things that either need or soon will need attention. Fuel hoses and seat electrical connections for starters. Like Joe said, I expect I may have to put at least 2K more into it soon, but can always hope.
Having said that, I love the car because it is, and does what I want in a car
like that. It is not my only transportation, however.
A 25 year old car is a 25 year old car.
bill

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85 300TD

88 560SL

05 SL65 AMG

while I don't know what area you live in, I've found plenty of 126 and 123 cars in better shape with a minor problem for under 500.00 if you are patient, and you look in papers, and craigslist and also drive around, you will find several for sale. also, if you know of a MB service station, usually there are several for sale, but not advertised in the back...

for a first car, the MB has a steep learning curve, but once you have a handle on what to look at and what to look for, you can spot a gem and that lump of coal will happily float off your wish list.

I think the low mileage is being over-emphasized. I would rather buy a 200K car that the guy just climbed out of after a 1500 mile trip than a 78K car that had been driven 1500 miles over a several year period.
The question is: How much will you drive it? If it's 5-10K per year, you might as well spend under $4K on a 200,000 mile car and expect (with proper maintenance) to never wear it out. If you are going to drive 50K miles per year, you would soon have a high mileage car that you spent too much for. And, a 25 year old car might not be the best to drive that much.
Either way, this car is too expensive. Heck, I have a 1981 300SD for sale in the "Cars" section for 17% of the asking price of this one. It does need work but your total cash outlay would be much less.
Good luch in your search.

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1983 M-B 240D-Gone too.
1976 M-B 300D-Departed.

"Good" is the worst enemy of "Great".