The Best highway mileage W124 is the 95 E300D able to go from Los Angeles to San francisco and back on single tank I own one with 360K miles and it's my daily driver and I drive 600 miles every week

Have you considered looking at VW TDIs? They are very complicated and difficult to work on, and take a lot of expensive tools and parts are not cheap, but if you buy a really good one, and just spend whatever it takes to maintain it properly and figure you will make the money back on fuel savings, they might suit your needs. I had one and sold it, but I know other people who like them. I would be afraid to pay much for a 95 w124, most of the ones i see for sale have major electical problems and the transmission is failing. I had a 300SD and drove it for years without too many major issues, but I wanted a nicer car that had working AC, so I bought a TDI jetta and put about 3k miles on it and sold it because I couldn'r afford all the work it needed. After that I sold the 300SD and bought a 98 E300D 2 years ago, which drives really nice and gets between 20 mpg (45 minutes of 5 mph traffic everyday) to 29 mpg (70 mph on the freeway), but I am about to list it for sale for several thousand dollars less than I paid becuase it has problems with the transmission electronics that are beyond my skill and budget to fix so its not driveable anymote, and likely buy another 300SD.

This is all from the new guys post.


Based on the details of your first post, I can tell.


Move. Really, at this point you should not have a bunch of stuff to cart around so relocation should be easy. If the job looks short term, rent.



If you get the 20 year old Mercedes, you will need a reliable second car as a back up. It could be the 01 Honda or possibly the Mustang but you will need something. Most parts for an older MB are readily available but probably are not stocked at the corner auto parts. This leads to a day or two of down time where parts for your old Honda are on the shelf.




An auto trans _car_ will last as long as a manual trans _car_ , same goes for a diesel or gas as the _car_ is largely the same no matter the drive train. An auto trans wears little on the highway but then at this point you would be looking at a high mile car, a low mile car is likely to have stop and go driving ( more trans shifts ) Regardless, internal and external rubber seals harden over time / thermal cycles so consider an auto trans rebuild part of the cost of ownership.

With the Mercedes remember you are dealing with nearly 30 year old technology and at minimum 20 years of calendar time. ( I'm also considering the design phase of the car you are looking at. )

I life parts on all the vehicles I own / care for rather than waiting for something to randomly break. I do this to the point of engine / trans rebuilds as I want the car down on my schedule so I'm not caught off guard.

In the end, if you have a few $ to spend, buy what you like, have at least one reliable car as a backup and drive on

97 SL 320: "Move. Really, at this point you should not have a bunch of stuff to cart around so relocation should be easy. If the job looks short term, rent. "

It's not always a commute to a fixed workplace. In the early '90s I lived a mile from the office and drove about 40K miles a year in my own car.

Sixto
83 300SD

Thanks for the info. Yes, asking about A/C system services and whatnot are on my list when I go look at one.

Yea, at this point, I think I'm ruling out a gas powered one. Having to run premium clearly makes a diesel more economical.

Haha, no offense meant. Just in my personal anecdotal evidence, an OBDII or later German car with all it's electronics, WILL give problems at some point or another. And honestly, it's not that that get's me; it's the fact that when those problems happen, the ONLY way to fix it is to take it to a dealer. No thanks.

+1. 96 or newer is out of the question. I really don't care for how they look.

That's awesome. 700 miles a tank is quite nice over the 400 or so I'm getting now.

Will do. That may be a good opportunity for me to learn a few things about these cars in general, too.

That's good info. It sounds like a gas W124 is pretty much out of the picture now, which only leaves the diesels. And honestly, I think a 95 E300 is the way I want to go.

I'm factoring the regular maintenance / aggravation into my decision. The biggest problem I have now is that I'm regularly working on a POS, ugly, boring Honda Civic. It might not be as big a deal on a little nicer car.

The other issue concerning me is that the Accord I'm looking at is fairly "modern" in terms of electronics and sensors. My current Civic is pretty basic, but the Accord has DBW and a whole slew of other electronic systems. That concerns me when talking about something lasting to more than a quarter million miles.

I thought about it, but meh. Once again, the newer ones (I think) are prone to big problems outside my ability to fix. And if the choice is an older VW or older MB, I'm going MB.

LoL! Am I that transparent?

Sorry. I get a little wordy sometimes.

It's kinda a long story, but that's not really an option. At least not for a few years.

I actually already own a house. The area that I live in is growing like crazy, with several big universities within a 10-15 minute drive, and LOTS of jobs around. The rental demand is HUGE. I'm still single, and have plenty of friends living in the area. So I bought a house, and living in it with roommates, who are paying more in rent than what my total monthly payment is. I don't see this situation changing for at least a few years, so I'm just saving up tons of money for a down payment on the next house. When I no longer have any friends in the area that want to rent with me, or when I am no longer single, I'll buy somewhere closer to work, and turn my current house into a full-blown rental, which at current going rates in the area, will easily cover the mortgage and then some.

So it's really a purely economical decision. While the long drive to and from work sucks, the amount of money I'm saving (both now and hopefully in the future) completely outweighs it.

And on the job side of things, changing isn't really an option either. If you would have asked me 6-7 years ago when I first started engineering school what I thought an awesome job would have looked like, I would have described what I'm doing now. Love it.

Those are all very good points. And I haven't really said or indicated this, but at no point have I planned on this being my only car. I've already learned that from the Civic. Life is certainly much less stressful knowing that I have another car to drive while working on the first one. I will actually be driving the Mustang this coming week, while I'm working on the Civic. Changing out the head (burnt valve).

I'm planning to get a diesel truck as a toy to play with at some point in the future. That would certainly be a viable backup option as well.

Good to know. I will plan for it.

Are there parts kits and/or write ups out there on how to do this?



Thanks again to everyone for all the help. I don't think I can ever remember coming to a new forum asking a question, and getting so many really helpful replies. Thanks a lot.

At this point, I think I've narrowed it down to a 95 E300D, if I decide to go the Mercedes route. There's a couple in my area that I'm going to look at this week when I get back home. Is there anything specifically that I should look for on those models? I already know to ask about the wiring harness and the A/C system. Anything else?

Sounds like you have things worked out pretty well. A few more points.

Being a landlord is lots of work, being one long distance can be an issue so take that into consideration if you move and rent the old house.

It's good that you are getting some $ from room mates but don't count on that income, they can leave in a split second and change your situation.

While not part of your original question it was eluded to in your above post. You are applying rational thinking to $ however here is another consideration. Given you lived like a poor college student in the past run the numbers at to what financial situation you would be if you continued to do so until your house ( and other debt if any ) was paid off early. Early pay off results in interest you don't have to pay.

Going into debt for a house is pretty unavoidable, however all other forms of debt are. Student loans , car loans, credit card debt are all things that will drag you down long term and are difficult to get on top of the farther down the line one goes.

I do NOT agree. My least reliable Mercedes ever, was within the first 4 years. It left me dead in a blizzard, had problems idling/stalling, went to the dealer multiple times for various issues, it was the one that made me swear off ever buying another new Mercedes.

OTOH, I like driving my '87 so much that I began using it as a (fair weather) daily driver. I don't put tons of miles on it, around 12,000/year, but it NEVER lets me down. I understand that many of these older cars have been through rough times, and maybe are not reliable, but so was my '87 when I bought it. However, I bought it knowing what it needed, gave it what it needed, and have driven it from under 200k miles to over 250k miles without any issues.

So my point is, these cars can be dead-solid reliable, or total money-pits. So can a 2y/o Jetta or Honda Pilot, it's all in the condition and care of the vehicle, and the OP seems fairly mechanical, I don't think he needs to be reminded that an older car needs to be in good condition to be reliable.

I was mainly refering to the earlier mk4 VW tdi (98 beetle, 99-02 golf and jetta), and yes, they are really hard to work on and the parts cost a lot of money, but you get 5-15 mpg better, and trade the disintegrating wiring, slipping transmission, having to pull the head and take it to a machine shop everytime you need new glow plugs, etc of the 95 w124 with undoing all of the stupid things whoever last worked on the vw did, and the complete suspension rebuild they all badly need after about 80k miles.

On the auto trans "" Are there parts kits and/or write ups out there on how to do this? ""

There are 3 auto transmissions for that era, others can tell you what specific one is used.

722.3 large 4 speed
722.4 small 4 speed version of the .3
722.5 large 5 speed version of the .3 ( not common, typically only found on the 300SL and 300 CE behind a 24 V inline 6 gas motor )

Taking an auto trans apart and putting it back together isn't terribly difficult for a mechanically minded person. There are some picture heavy threads on this site. Yes, there are lots of parts but then tend to be packaged in sections. There are some parts that can physically fit flipped over but will only operate properly in one direction so pay attention to disassembly.

The difficulty is in finding what _caused_ the failure and not just identifying the parts that were damaged. The upper half ( gear train / frictions. ) can be visually inspected, the lower half ( Valve body , governor ) is more subtle in failure and can cause failures in the upper half.

ATSG prints trans repair books that are used by professional shops. These books are ~ $ 20 + and are worth the purchase as they typically have lots of real world hints and info that can be difficult to find in a manufacturers service manual. The manufacturers service manual is a good idea too as not everything is in the ATSG manual. And, both manuals assume that the reader has some sort of trans experience.

Why do you have the idea that the diesels have slipping transmissions?

If you take care of it (20-25k fluid and filter changes with the right fluid) and make sure the modulator is properly adjusted and not leaking, you should expect north of 300k out of the original trans.

Absolutely no need to take a W210 to a dealer...any competent indie can do everything you need done.

A quick note on the Honda repair. While the head is off, consider changing the piston rings and rod bearings if you are going to keep this car any length of time.

There are a couple of things in play here as a mini engine rebuild will extend the overall life of the engine. Connecting rod bearings are the number one failure point on an engine. When you get a head on it with good valve seal, intake vacuum will now increase causing more oil to be drawn past the rings.

And, with new found power from good valve seal, floppy original low drag rings, the car tends to be driven harder but the bearings are worn to the point that the hydrodynamic wedge can't keep the bearing off the crank journal. The bearing touches the crank, material is rubbed off, oil clearance increases.

Aside from the fact that every single Mercedes diesel I have driven that was not a manual 240d had transmission issues of varying severity, I am referring to the fact that buying a 95 E300D on Craigslist for $3k likely means none of the gauges work, the a/c doesn't work, the transmission is starting to slip, it needs glow plugs and at least one will snap taking them out, etc. Pleasant surprises certainly may happen, but probably shouldn't be a part of deciding if you can afford it.

As far as the W210, I suppose that the dealer isn't necessary, but there is too much you can't do at home, and that's why I don't like them. The fact that i can't fix mine without having it towed to the dealer or other shop (which with the difference in distance would end up costing the same whether I paid in labor or towing bill) is why I don't want it any more.

Man, you have a dismal view of diesel 124s, I've had all good luck with transmissions.

Not true!
 

The 1995 has a bigger tank, something like 22 gallons rather than 18 in the other W124's. It doesn't mean it gets better gas mileage, it just means it stores more fuel.