I thought I would share my over the weekend experience with my 1984 300D. I've had "Miss Doris" for two years now, I finally decided to take her for a long drive to TN. Those of you familiar with I-81 you can relate to the 6% upgrade. I average 34.9 mpg to and from Southern Maryland.

This is going 70-80 mph at times, I was very pleased with the performance. Now I need to find the leak that floods the passenger side when it rains.

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1984 300D, 1972 LT1 Corvette, 2014 Artic White 3LT/Z51 C7, 2013 650i Convertible BMW, 1994 Kawasaki Vulcan, 1992 Yamaha Seca II and 1996 Dodge Ram 2500.

The great thing about an old car is when you take the leap of driving it a long way, and you find that it delivers

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

That's remarkable fuel economy for that car. How many miles on it?

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14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 154k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 172k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver on Tan, 142k mi, wastegate conversion, ALDA delete

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

Longest I've risked was a weekend trip From Oshawa to Algonquin park via Barrie. About 350 km (220 miles) each way with a canoe on top, 2 parents up front, 2 kids in the back, and all our camping gear in the trunk.

I was quite pleased with how well everything went! Only issue was that my 'under-hood' canoe tie-downs put the straps exactly at teh wrong spot in my forward field of view for the trip up. Tied the boat down to the bumper for the ride home and the issue was solved.

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1981 240 D in the Toronto Area
Ivory with one black fender

There's 93K on the clock. I've been trying to do everything to make sure it stays running. The car sat for 10 years before I found it, sinking in mud in a storage lot. I did the valve adjustment several weeks before the trip

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1984 300D, 1972 LT1 Corvette, 2014 Artic White 3LT/Z51 C7, 2013 650i Convertible BMW, 1994 Kawasaki Vulcan, 1992 Yamaha Seca II and 1996 Dodge Ram 2500.

Funny you sharing how you took a trip with a canoe in tow, I was thinking of installing a kayak carrier to travel with.

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1984 300D, 1972 LT1 Corvette, 2014 Artic White 3LT/Z51 C7, 2013 650i Convertible BMW, 1994 Kawasaki Vulcan, 1992 Yamaha Seca II and 1996 Dodge Ram 2500.

nice!

for the water issue - pull the battery, and then the battery tray and look for holes. at the very least clean out the drains that are right to the left of the battery tray and make sure they are clear.

ive taken the 85 W123 on a 10k cross country trip for several weeks, on WVO, and had zero car problems. my wife and i will remember that trip for the rest of our lives. if you take care of them they take care of you!

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'85 300D, 'Lance',250k, ... winter beater (100k on franken-Frybrid 3 Valve Kit)
'82 300D, 'Tex', 228k body / 170k engine ... summer car
'83 300TD Cali Wagon 210k, wife's car

These cars are meant for cruising. There seems to be some reluctance to take them out on the open road for any distance, but if well maintained and you carry some spare parts and some tools you'll be just fine.

I built my MB diesel specifically for open road cruising...as you can see.

SL Diesel Road Trip

380SL Diesel Coast To Coast Road Trip

Diesel SL - Time for another Road Trip

We're considering taking it to Alaska next summer.

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Current Stable

• 380SL (diesel)
• Corvette C5
• Manx
• Baja Bug
• F350 Powerstroke
• Auburn Boattail Speedster replica

I'm sure you'll get the naysayers chiming in on the impossibility of that economy on the trip, but with 6% grade, the way back was likely above 100mpg...

I bet the way up was likely under 20mpg...

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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 am sure someone will chime in challenging those numbers, what can I say. I wait until I need to stretch from driving 150 or so miles then fill up, then do the math from mileage driven and gl consumed.

I figured the mpg is as accurate as they can be since every fill up revealed the same result. As I shared this is the first this was driven that long, the rest it's all stop and go traffic. For those driving it does get in the low 20's.

I will test those numbers again at the end of the month, I will make the same trip with this car.

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1984 300D, 1972 LT1 Corvette, 2014 Artic White 3LT/Z51 C7, 2013 650i Convertible BMW, 1994 Kawasaki Vulcan, 1992 Yamaha Seca II and 1996 Dodge Ram 2500.

Thank you for the heads up where to look for any leaks, I will definitely look at those area. One other thing to share, my wife who drives a 650i for daily driving. She even shared that she was surprise how comfortable she was the entire drive.

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1984 300D, 1972 LT1 Corvette, 2014 Artic White 3LT/Z51 C7, 2013 650i Convertible BMW, 1994 Kawasaki Vulcan, 1992 Yamaha Seca II and 1996 Dodge Ram 2500.