more E300 buying questions/ cost/mile calculator
 

Total mercedes newbie here- I think I want a 95 E300D, i like the huge tank, the reviews are good, seems to be the best value for money.

I've searched the whole country, ebay and craigslist. They seem to average about $4K. People ask a lot more for cars with lower miles but I don't know if they get their asking price. NADA and Kelly seem to be out of touch.

I have a car dealer friend who will get me one wholesale, probably under $3K but probably without a bit of history other than carfax.

What kind of risk am i taking with a totally unknown car if i get a good enough deal on it?

I've factored in the potential issue with the wire harness and the AC evap.

Are there other big potential surprises i should know about that don't show up on a quick inspection??

Are there many problems that are beyond the capabilities of the average backyard mechanic?

OK, now if you'd read this far and haven't lost interest, I would love feedback on my car cost/mile calculator


THanks

Glow plugs can snap off in the head causing repair headaches...

Will you have a chance to run through this - http://www.w124performance.com/docs/mb/articles/124.1x3_buying_tips.txt before - buying?

* 14 doesn't apply
* 15 is a different ballgame
* 16 is far less an issue than with the 603
* John mentioned 22
* 23 is fuel system leaks
* 24 is intake manifold resonance flap actuators

The general thinking is you end up paying the same for a used MB in given condition. Pay less up front then pay to get it into shape, or pay more up front and have less to pay for going forward. Unless you know the model well enough to author a buyer's guide, either get a car with known history or invest in a pre-purchase inspection by a knowledgeable technician (vs the random AAA or lemonsquad.com hack).

That said, the '95 E300 is a fabulous car that has a good blend of being refined and DIY-able.

Re your cost/mile calculator, why is there a $ sign with expected trouble-free miles? Did you mean expected maintenance cost? Also, the fuel-saving add-on section should allow for a different fuel price so WVO'ers can quantify their efforts. There are additional collection and filtration costs, and reduced mpg as economic factors.

Sixto
87 300D^2

Thanks. the $ in the calculator is an error. I made it in Excel and paid a kid to make the javascript.

Were you able to come up witha cost per mile for your car?

I don't want to know :)

Sixto
87 300D^2

I was in your boat this time last year. I now own five Mercedes circa 1986-1995 (one parts car).

One calculation you must, I repeat must consider is:
1. You have a fair amount of free time and willingness to learn how to fix the car yourself or
2: You have lots of cash and access to someone you trust to repair the inevitable.

I absolutely love my 95 E300d. It drives like no other car. That said, I spend a bit of time fixing this and finding that. Look for rust, especially near the jack points and rear end. You should take the car and spend a considerable amount of time slowly looking underneath it.

These are bench classic fabulous cars, but be prepared to spend money, lots of money to repair them. I only use OE/OEM parts with the exception of filters.

Look for a car with a history you can verify. My car had 25K of service done on it since 2001 by a MB dealership. You'll really want to know what has been done. If you don't, it's like playing russian roulette. I've already spent an additional 4k on mine (2k was lower body cladding paint), and that doesn't touch hardly anything mechanical.

Hope that helps a little. There are far more qualified & wonderful folks here than me.

Used cars
 

Most of the important things have been said in the earlier posts. These cars can be money pits if they turn out to need a lot of work and you have to pay someone to do it for you. OTOH, they can be a lot of fun because parts are available (although they can be expensive) and you can learn to do most of the work yourself.

1995 was the last year of the W124 so it has all of the upgrades and improvements. Many folks consider it the last "no expense spared" Mercedes. Even then, there are a few items where the factory cut costs but not in really significant ways.

It's worth paying more to get a car that has had recent maintenance rather than getting a "bargain" and only later discovering the long list of necessary work. The best car is the one with the most complete service history.

Jeremy

Look for rust under the air filter and under the ASD tank (if equipped). Also check the front of the rear wheel wells around the drain plugs, or whatever they are. Be prepared to take the intake manifold off anytime you do anything to the left side of the engine. The E300D's 722.435 transmission is said to be weaker than previous MB automatics, but mine had 247k on it and for the most part worked fine.

These cars can be money pits if they need a lot of work and even if you do the work yourself. They can also be very time consuming, but generally worth it in the end.

Try to get a Special Edition model, they have a 6 disc CD changer, nicer wheels, sometimes heated seats, and burl walnut wood.

I work in military aviation so i know a bit about what "maintenance intensive" looks like. But I don't want to own an airplane.

I would have to do the work myself as I am many miles from a Euro wrench of any kind.

Thanks for reviving this thread, I still have questions.

Can i own this car for $.10/mile? That's my criteria, cost per trouble free mile, not counting routine maintenance. That's the cost for basic transportation and it has worked out on almost every car I've owned.

So, i can look for one at $4-6K with decent records and less than 200k mi or maybe my friend can find me one that looks good but has NO info for as little as $2K.

I don't mind if oil changes take several hours for other routine maintenance. Guys on this forum and others talk about putting lots of miles on these cars and I've never seen an one on the side of the road.

thanks

I have on of these, and they are about as expensive to maintain as an 87 300D, You have to get used to how it drives, it does not have a turbo punch, its a DOHC head with 4 valves/cyl, the higher it revs the harder it pulls.

I have slowly been ironing out problems (goofups or left out jobs) in my car. One was a cartoonishly setup vacuum for the HVAC. one meter vacuum tube, 5 minutes to install and all was good. Locating this in the manual or asking here (2 to 3 hours)

I got a new engine wiring harness with the car but it had a very very odd problem which was not harness related at all. And it would send anyone chasing their tail for ages. my A/C works perfectly, but have had to oil the blower motor recently (no biggie now).

I drive it daily for 75 miles and have an organized budget of repairs, it has never failed me and once you get yourself around how it works - its pretty dead simple too - put aside 100 bucks each month (as E300D payment) and use them later for repairs - no car runs maintenance free - not even old japanese cars.

Re cost per mile, in 2003 I bought well-maintained (always taken to MB dealer) 1992 300D with 137,500 miles on it. At the time of purchase, I didn't know how to do ANYTHING on it, so I paid a mechanic for everything done. Over the course of the last nine years, I have learned how to do a lot of things myself.

But, over the course of nine years and 100,000 miles, I have spent....drum roll please....18.4 cents per mile on maintenance and repairs. That's everything other than fuel, insurance, and painting a hood.

My 91 300D, purchased in 2009 with 77,000 miles on it and driven 26,000 miles, is currently at 16.0 cents per mile.

18.4 cents just on maintenance? My formula includes the cost of the car, minus what the car is worth when i sell it and not including consumables like tires, oil, brake pads, etc. And doing all the work myself.

So i can't tell from your example if this car would qualify.

I also expect to buy at the peak of depreciation. $2-4K for a car with so much life left in it leaves a fair bit of room for future repairs.

The question is, which really expensive parts are likely to fail, and is the repair within my skills level?

thanks

But with barely 100K miles , it's still worth a pretty good bit. What's your cost per mile if you subtract its current value?

What exactly is "maintenance?"
 

I looked into this cost-per-mile thing awhile ago and concluded that there are many different classes of expenses that one must consider as being part of maintenance (or not):

• Depreciation (if you were a business you'd do this calculation)
• Regularly scheduled routine maintenance -- oil changes, etc. (but are you conservative, doing changes relatively often and with expensive synthetic oil or are you cheap, stretching out the intervals and using the cheapest oil you can find at the discount store? This can make a difference in $/mile.)
• Long-term maintenance (tires, brakes, etc.) Same comment applies here.
• Repairs that the PO should have done but didn't -- motor mounts, shocks, rear suspension bushings, etc. Should these go on your tab?
• Repairs that could be ignored (oil leaks, radio, climate control, broken tabs on 3rd brake light enclosure, etc.)
• "Real" repairs, things that can't be ignored any longer -- burned-out glow plugs (well, maybe one), alternator/regulator failure, starter motor failure, etc.
• Appearance items -- paint, trim, cracked/broken rubber and plastic items, torn seats, stained carpet, cracked dash, car washes, detailing.
• Improvement items -- stiffer sway bars from an E500 you found at the DIY wrecking yard, better stereo and/or speakers, larger wheels/tires.
• Legal requirements -- insurance, registration, taxes, etc.

All of these items are intensely personal (to include or not) and I argue that one could add more or eliminate some of them and still claim one is deriving an honest cost-per-mile number. What it comes down to is that my number is not your number -- so it really doesn't matter.

If you really love your Mercedes and want it to look and perform as good as possible you'll do what it needs and hang the cost. Perhaps you minimize the expense by buying used and/or online new parts when possible and doing the work yourself but you still do anything you can to make the car look good. OTOH, if you're like a friend of mine 20 years ago, you can buy a Honda and do nothing to it at all, just to see how long it would last (he got to at least 50,000 miles with zero spent on maintenance).

Jeremy