I am considering buying a 96 E300D with 175K on it. The guy is asking 2300 bucks for it. I test drive it last night. It made a sqeeing noise. Sounded like it may be a pully from the serpentine belt but was hard to tell.

It does have rust all around. The usual for a NE car.

Also, i floored the car and it did not have a lot of power. I have not driven a car like this in a few years to really remember, but it would rev to 4500 rpm and stay there. It would not shift unless i took my foot off the pedal. What I am thinking is that the fuel filter might need to be changed and the EGR needs to be cleaned. I am thinking that the engine does not have enough power and the transmission does not shift because it never gets to the rpm it needs to.

What do you think? It only happens when the car is floored. It does shifts when driving normally, but not very smooth.

The rust isn't going to get better in New England, but it doesn't sound like a bad price. There may be EGR or resonator issues which are limiting power, but it doesn't have a turbo, so it's a bit anemic from the factory. Usually once you get above 2500 rpm it pulls away. If it's still anemic up to 4500, I'd look at resonator first. You can bypass the EGR with a small airfilter (search on this site) to gain a little power. 606 is a nice smooth motor.

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Mark in MA
05 MB E320CDI 402k Granite Grey Metallic
05 MB E320CDI 267k Black
05 MB E320CDI 232k White
05 MB E320CDI 209k Tectite Grey
99 Dodge 2500 Cummins 5sp 148k
62 Jeep CJ-6 120k

Fuel filters, fuel filters, fuel filters. Change prefilter and main filter and it should rev to ~5000 rpm and shift right there. If AC works and you just want the car for an everyday mobile, I'd say it's worth $2300, offer$2K.

Rgds,
Chris W.
'95 E300D, 356K

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