I'm looking at a 390,000 mile 300TD that has a four speed manual and manual windows, the seller is asking $1900, and isn't too flexible about it. It also comes with extra parts: replacement rear hatch, another engine, disassembled but with gaskets and presumably everything needed for reassembly, as well as a slew of other random parts. Owner says that the diff was replaced with a lower mileage unit and one of the axle shafts was replaced. That seems a bit odd to me. Blows heat, but the fan is only high or not at all.

Needless to say I'm assuming that this must have been imported at some point, I don't believe that this was ever offered in the USA.

I have a 1982 300TD that's an auto, I'm pretty familiar with the car, but I don't know much of anything about the manual transmission, or of the electronics and smog systems on the euro version of the car are much different.

The interior is quite worn, but matches the interior of my existing car which is almost perfect. From the pictures theres a little rust in the rear wheel wells and jack points. The rear sags a bit, we'll see if it lifts when the car starts or not.

I'll share some pictures when I have them. The price seems a bit steep, but if the body is not all gone, the rear diff and transmission are as advertised, then with some work it could be a great daily driver manual wagon, which sounds like paradise. My car can feed parts as needed, my suspension, brakes and a bunch of other stuff are new.

Somebody talk me down...

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1982 300TD 300,??? miles, daily driver turned donor
1982 300TD, 184,000 miles, daily driver

... what's the seller address and phone #...
that will make it easier for you to pass on it.
it'll end up in my driveway.

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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!

Any serious rust and the very high mleage might bother me.

Otherwise, first check with your insurance carrier Some won't insure a grey-market vehicle.

If that works out, make sure the seller's title VIN matches the one on the vehicle, including the WDB prefix. Especially if your seller is out of state.
I had this problem when purchasing my Euro 5-speed'84 TD a few years ago because, while the VINs matched, the missing WDB prefix on the Maryland title was rejected by Virginia DMV for insufficient characters - after 1980, the VIN is supposed to have at least 14 I believe.
Eventually this was resolved by myself and the seller going back to Maryland MVA to have an officer inspect the car's VIN and have a corrected Maryland title issued, which was accepted by Virginia DMV. But it was an extra hassle that took a couple weeks.

And recently, someone on this forum also reported problems trying to register an older Mercedes with no VIN on the windsheild pillar. Typically, grey-market cars like mine only have the VIN on the radiator support and firewall. It wasn't a problem in Virginia, but some jurisdictions require a pre-inspection of the VIN on the actuall vehicle, and may require a VIN-tag visible on the pillar or dash before the car can be registered.

As far as your current TD donating parts, most likely the manual TD is non-turbo. Much will interchage. But some parts will be different, like the radiator, climate-control, oil-pan gasket, etc....

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

I think thats a good price if the car is not that rusty. Im not surprised about the diff, I did the same thing with a 300D that I bought that had 320,000 miles on it. The diff was making a howling noise at highway speed, and I switched it out for a lower mileage quieter version. Same on the axle shaft, not unusual to replace one and not the other.

With all the extra stuff you get with the car, plus the manual transmission and probably euro features, seems like a decent price. My #1 concern would be rust on that car, if it wasn't rusty, then its probably worth it.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

So, like most everything on these cars, it's going to come down to the rust. Seller said that the jack points have rust, but are still structurally sound. Rust in the back wheel fenders, and the back hatch. According to the seller that's it, no rust on the floorboards, suspension points, etc. If the rust is under control this might be a nice restoration candidate.

I'm assuming from the lack of response that the manual 4 speed transmission is fairly bulletproof, assuming that it shifts well, etc.

I did not know that the climate control, radiator and other such stuff are different. Can I take a turbo motor and put it in a non-turbo car if I've got all the bits and bobs on it? Just looking down the road, with that many miles, I don't care how amazing these engines are, there can't be more then a year or two of reliable service left.

Now I wait to hear back from the seller. When I visit, regardless of whether I buy or not I'll make some pictures and post them here for everybody to see.

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1982 300TD 300,??? miles, daily driver turned donor
1982 300TD, 184,000 miles, daily driver

methinks you will be surprised at the longevity of the motors!
I've got over 490K on my 82SD, and it's still the strongest runner I've got.
MAINTENANCE is key with the motors. proper valve adjustment schedule, proper oil change interval and proper air and oil filter choices.

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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!

I was wrong! I hope that this car was maintained, finding out soon.

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1982 300TD 300,??? miles, daily driver turned donor
1982 300TD, 184,000 miles, daily driver

Personally I would pass up a car with rusty jack points unless you're just planning to drive it into the ground as a beater. It's very hard to treat rust in that area. But I recognize that this would rule out 90% of the cars in the Midwest.

They are bulletproof, and even if it is a bit grumpy on the shifts, it can be smoothed out some. Mine was a bit touchy shifting from 1-2, so I drained it and refilled with Mobil1 synthetic 10W-30, per the owner's manual and it is very smooth now (though some of that is learning the peculiarities of MB manual transmissions - I find they are not as refined as Japanese ones - even my father's 2002 C-class MT is sort of stiff compared to my experiences with Japanese MTs).

Others really seem to like the RedLine product for the MT - do a search and you will find it. Can't speak to that as I have been very happy with motor oil in my case.

ymmv
Sounds cool -
I often wish for a MT in our TD

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Current Mercedes
1979 maple yellow 240D 4-speed

Gone and fondly remembered:
1980 orient red 240D 4-speed

Gone and NOT fondly remembered:
1982 Chna Blue 300TD

Other car in the stable:
2013 VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI / 6-speed MT

Visited the car today, it's garbage. The body is rotted pretty badly, hit a deer and the body work on the front end sucks. Car wouldnt start, the glow plugs are new but the relay wasn't ticking over. Lots and lots of spare parts came with it, but he was not going to move on the price, and this is at most maybe a $500 car.

It's on the grand rapids craigslist if anbody else wants to check it out.

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1982 300TD 300,??? miles, daily driver turned donor
1982 300TD, 184,000 miles, daily driver

so sad

seems to be the fate of so many of the cool grey market flavors

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Current Mercedes
1979 maple yellow 240D 4-speed

Gone and fondly remembered:
1980 orient red 240D 4-speed

Gone and NOT fondly remembered:
1982 Chna Blue 300TD

Other car in the stable:
2013 VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI / 6-speed MT

Hopefully he'll sell me the car for $400-800. I'll take the tranny, pedal box and final drive and put them in mine. The rest of the car is garbage. Too sad.

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1982 300TD 300,??? miles, daily driver turned donor
1982 300TD, 184,000 miles, daily driver

Maybe save the manual heat-AC, SLS parts, and any other wagon-specific items you can reuse or resell.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

manual heat controls are sought after?
um. all the 240's have them right? I have two 240's with it... and my two euro's also have it.
anybody wanna make an offer on them?

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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!

With all the threads and posts I've seen on these forums about faulty monovalves, pushbutton controllers, vacuum pods,Chrysler servos and amplifiers, you tell me.
NO ACC was one reason I bought a Euro TD (The other was the factory 5-speed!)

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW