Daily Drivers - classics
 

I was just wondering how many of you use one of these older diesels as a daily driver?

I've been driving my 85 300d as a daily since 2016 and love it. I drive between 35,000KM-40,000KM per year. I pay a little bit more in maintenance because of this.

I daily drove my '79 240D until the engine died. I'm swapping in a rebuilt OM617.952 into it, then it's back to daily driving.

I dailyed my SDL until it was totalled by an ******* driver, and once I get the SD sorted, I'll semi-daily it too. What's the point of having a car if it's never driven. Half the joy of ownership is maintenance and upkeep, or at least it is to me.

If I lived in a dry warm place I'd own a W124 or W126 diesel to use year round....unfortunately the winters, roads, and salt here demolish them pretty quickly.

I moved onto newer vehicles but do plan on getting another diesel W124 at some point possibly....probably when my W210 dies, but so far its beating the odds.

My GLK diesel and Metris are so awesome I haven't really missed the older ones. :D

I drive my 1980 300sd almost every day 272K and she just purrs

Good point - I live in Toronto and we get snow, sold for about 4-5 months out of the year. To avoid the body rotting or rust starting, I bring it to Krown (oil spray) once or twice a year and wash the car at the self/wash places with high pressure hoses once a week. I keep the salt off and oil on the metal. I don't have a spec of rust.

I love driving this old diesel in the snow and cold with 4 winter tires.

My commute changed to stop and go which the ‘83 SD doesn’t enjoy.

Sixto
98 E320a sedan and wagon
02 C320 wagon

I drove mine as a DD for about 4 years. Then it went to get body work on it. I'll have it back on the road in a month or so. I do plan to use it as a DD. Sort of the better mileage vs cost of diesel offset each other. I have a Volt now. So the mileage is better there. I did take it off the road from first snow to last. Then a rain or two to wash the salt off the road. Mine was nearly rust free, accept the damage just under the rear window. Or just surface rust.

Full time daily driver for the past 10 years. 7-5k per year. Another year and a half and I'll have to let it go unfortunately before the move to Italy.

I don't daily drive the W123 since I got the S124 last year. Until that, the W123 went everywhere I did, from my 20 mi round trip work commute to 2600 mile roadtrips. Same with my previous W123. Before that I daily drove my Vanagon with a manual and no AC, so the W123 was a major upgrade.

These days I work mostly from home so all three cars get far fewer miles now.

I certainly do. It's great.

I drive one of mine each week, daily doesnt get it anymore... service van needed to haul the parts and tools.

Unless you count my 03 sprinter...

I've daily driven my 1980 W116 300SD with 347,000 miles as my only car for about eight years. I've used it to daily commute over two hours a day in stop-and-go Phoenix traffic for over a year without really even opening the hood other than an oil change, and taken it on multi-state trips several times, once carrying a heavy load from Washington to Arizona. It only let me down once when the battery ground cable which was installed by a previous owner came loose and the engine wouldn't crank over.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/q0...Z=w800-h453-nohttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/aT...w=w800-h600-no

Of course, as I was able, I've repaired or replaced almost every part on the car and currently am rebuilding the entire front and rear steering and suspension.

Before this I daily drove a 1968 W110 200D hard for a couple of years and loved it (but parted it out due to extreme rust and a leaky engine). And then before that was a 1979 W116 300SD (sold for too cheap because I was trying to buy a 1967 W111 230S which never happened).
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/cU...8=w800-h600-nohttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/yr...g=w693-h519-no

I have no plans to drive anything but vintage Mercedes diesels for the rest of my life, though the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center is no longer restocking critical parts, and even the top brands like Lemförder are now made in China and Taiwan, so we're forced to degrade the quality of the cars to less than the standards to which they were built.

Daily drive the 78CD, over 25K per year. Last week temp of -31F for three days in a row. CD would not start even with lower radiator hose heater plugged in. So, from now on will drive the Duramax when the temps get below -15F. The CD with studded snow tires actually gets around quite good, until the snow gets deeper than about 8 inches.

1995 W124 E300
 

My daily driver of choice is my 95 E300 (W124). I have 304k on everything original but the waterpump. Its a joy to drive, gets me 31mpg always and the AC cranks as nice as a new car. Everyone kinda makes jokes about my car but its leak free and just flat out comfortable.

Engine uses no oil so I have no idea how long this car will run for but its really strong.