how long DO YOU plan on owning your diesel benz?
 

I know, it's kind of A stupid question but the disposabal lifestyle that we live in now days, where everybody lease's their car,[ I think of it as long term renting], and then getting A new one. Not just cars either every thing now days has A certian lifespan and then it's obsolete no longer of use just throw it away,wait maybe I can rebuild it, sorry sir they no longer make replacement parts for that model. It's like you have no choice now days, luckily mercedes is not like that but theres tons of other products out there that are. So any ways back to my question, I plan on keeping my 82 240d as long as possible hopefully many more years to come, whatever maintence there is, it's still cheaper and eaiser than A car payment.

Forever. I plan to be cryogenically frozen in my 300SD when I die.

Well I now own 4...
 

If one dies just jump in the other one...

I hope to have the new SDs for a long time. Going to sell the 240 and the 300D.

I am getting ready to unload the SE. Time for a different MB as I have had this one for almost 6 years.

400 can stay for a while.

Keeping my eyes peeled for a 116 car.

Untill diesel breaks $2.25 a gallon and I start driveing VW diesels again..

Until they eventually turn into a wispy pile of iron oxide dust ….
 

:D

As long as they keep running and the bodies hold up, we will be driving these TD's. My father has 330,000 miles on his '85 300D, We only have 202,000 on our '83 TD. At the rate I am driving, 10,000 miles a year, it will take another 13 years to match that. At that point my W123 TD will be 34 years old!!!. My wife's TD currently has 166,000 at the same rate, it will take 17 years to match 330,000. At which point that car would also be 34 yrs old. I am making it a goal to hold onto these cars as long as possible. Actually in 5 years when my daughter starts to drive, we plan on giving her the '83 and "daddy" gets to buy a R107 SL :))

Until the egine blows up or the body rusts away, whichever comes first.

If the engine dies first, I'll start looking for the mystic SDL or "sporty" 190D 2.5T I've been dreaming of.

If the body goes first, I'll pull the engine/trans and have a something to play with. :D

For as long as it will be technically and financially possibel.
I have the opportunety to drive regularly different MB's, older and newer ones. But untill now, only the W 140 drives better than my W 124 300 TDt.
I hate the idee of having to change...So from next year on I will start looking to buy a second one ( and even a third ) as close mechanicly speaking as possibel.
Let's keep up the good work on this forum !

Danny

How long do I plan on owning my diesel benz?
 

...until they pry my cold dead fingers off of my 17mm metric open end.

Meanwhile, I intend to collect engines, parts cars and enough other spares so I can do my level best to keep these cars running as long as I can.

Every time I turn a wrench on one of my cars, I'm reminded of just how remarkable these 123s truly are. Oh sure, there's some stupid stuff (Mickey Mouse and Einstein design team things like that ACC and power antennas) but overall, the fit, finish and depth of the engineering is awe inspiring.

As of tomorrow I will own my first Mercedes Benz. :D I plan on keeping it until it is no longer possible to find parts, financially maintain it, or it simply falls apart. This is exactly the MB I have always wanted and I am going to build it a garage since it has been kept that way since day one. It`ll get a car cover until the garage is finished.

Looking forward to many years with this magnificent German motorcar and this wonderful site of friendly and knowledgable folks.

I am pretty sure that I will be the last owner of my two diesels. Wait a minute, how long will a mechanically sound, rust free, freshly painted '87 SDL last? I will die sometime.

Blown engine combined with other major stuff or a major wreck are the only reasons I can see to quit driving mine.

Although Ol' Silver is not currently on the road, my goal is to get it back on the road after I finish my shop building. In fact it might be second in line, but anyway I plan on it going back on the road and I plan on owning when I die.

Have a great day,

I have 293,000 on my '84 300D. It will stay in the family until it totally dies.

Judging by the way the last 2 years and 60,000 miles have been since I bought the car, major failure seems a long way off.

400K is my goal, 300k will happen by the end of the year and it's not breaking a sweat. Wonderful car!!!

Until some idiot hits me in rush hour traffic. That's the real reason I own these beasts.

until rust do us part.1980 300sd

If that's the case for me I'd be looking for a turbo :-)

I'm curious as to how many miles I will rack up on my E300

Until some idiot hits me in rush hour traffic.
 

Until some idiot hits me in rush hour traffic.
If the body goes first, I'll pull the engine/trans and have a something to play with.
For as long as it will be technically and financially possible.

All of my three W123's have AT LEAST another
 

ten years of daily driving (100k) left in them before a major refit...barring accidents. These are the last great all-mechanical cars ever to be built, and were designed to be maintained, not used up and disposed of. Don't expect the looks of these cars to become any more dated than the cut of a Brooks Brothers suit from the same era, and still giving good service.

Still have a '49 Packard (owned since early '80s) and a '73 VW beetle convertible bought new...neither of these cars is of the "disposable" ilk, either.

I repeat the lesson from childhood learned from "Mike Mulligan and his (Maryanne) Steam Shovel": "...and Mike took such good care of Maryanne that she never grew old."

Until Death do us part, etc.:
 

I'm into the '60s already, so the '85 300TD is quite likely to outlast me, at least as my daily driver, short distance car. Old Smoky just turned 333,333 yesterday (I took a picture of the odo, but there's a lot of glare from the flash). The only thing that might change this scenario is if someone shows up with the world's cleanest BMW 524TD and offers to swap even up.

My 1981 300SD has been a Northern California car all its life so there is no rust on it and it has 137,000 miles. Iplan on keeping it until I can no longer find parts to keep it going.

A friend of mine drove a 1968 VW bug for 34 years. Probably had 500,000 + miles on it. He just kept rebuilding or replacing things untill it was totaled on a SoCal freeway.
Now he has an 85 300CD. Unless someone runs over it, not much telling how long he will keep it.
I'm looking forward to a nice long life for my 84 300D too.

Mine's a dream. Not perfect, but not far off. I'm fickle, but I'm afraid I'd have to sell the truck I've been loving for the last 4 years before I'd sell mein golden fraulein. They're SO easy to work on... I R&R'd the tranny in the driveway _by myself_. That rules. My long term expectation is also what made me bypass the ACC servo and add a valve. I've also added a second, heated fuel system so I can pour in veg oil in the debt of winter. Muahaha.

Yo, OPEC: YOU CAN'T TOUCH THIS! Muahaha.

Cheers! Long live our MBZD's!!!:D

I'm with Driad_98! I bought the '84 300D on Ebay for $800 to use as my test mule for WVO. That was 40,000 miles ago - just turned 409,000 and the darned thing just gets better and faster..might be that vegetarian diet.

So, the kid just got it as his first car and I get the "new" '83 300 SD. It's absolutely spotless in and out and only has 302,000 on it...It'll be a vegetarian in a few weeks too. Why pay OPEC when you can grow the fuel here...? :)

Yehaw!
There's a coop here in Berkeley that's about to start selling filtered WVO for $1 a gallon. What a relief. I HATE filtering the crap. Go man, go!

Ash

I always comment to my wife that I will never buy another car. I have wanted an SDL for the longest time and mine is now about 90 mechanically perfect. I am going to get the IP pulled to fix a leak behind it and get it calibrated while it's out. Then it will be ready for a paint job, although it still looks good.

I do not like buying cars and making payments. When the I pay off her 2000 Jeep Cherokke, she has been told that she'll run it into the ground. We are real good about maintenance and at 90,000 miles, it runs great.

Sorry about the Jeep info, but I'll never sell my SDL. :)

Just bought my first MBZ, an '84 300D with 250,000 miles on the clock. I plan on keeping it for at least another 250,000, or until I can get a high-quality german diesel car that gets 45+ mpg on biodiesel and costs under $25k. Hopefully, that'll be sooner than I think, but I'm not holding my breath.

1) until it rusts out and the cost of getting it repaired is too much
2) until it gets into an accident not worth repairing
3) until i get a better MB.. ehhehe

I'll keep mine until it's either too expensive to fix or it gets totalled. Hopefully that will be a looooong time from now. Long live the Mercedes Diesel!

I'll just keep mine until it ends up costing me too much to fix.

I plan on driving this MB until I can get a dependable space craft. :cool:

I jaust had my second valve adjustment on a new engine, this engine came from MB dealer, I now have about 28K miles on it. I have a long ways to go with this engine before I give up the car.
The car has some rust but I plan on spending some $eriou$ money cleaning up the mess.
My only problem is the mileage that I get from this baby, I get about 31 mpg which is not all that good considering diesel prices of about $1.90 pg these days.


Thanks,
Vahe


1977 240D +/-350K

My car's staying with me until it either gets totalled, blows the engine, or until I can afford a 300TD (and then only if I can't keep both cars). :)

I got the feeling that the 83 SD will still be alive and well while two of my newer cars would be long gone.

Probably for the rest of my life...
 

I have an '82 240D I bought from my brother in law in CA 13 years ago after 300,000 miles. It has 380,000 miles on it now, with 5,000 on a rebuilt MB engine installed last year. No rust, and I store it in the winter. Since I only put on about 10,000 miles a year it will probably outlast me - I am 66.

I plan to give Smokeless I to my son when he is able to legally drive at age 16. He is 4 years old (2004).

how long????


as long i can fix it!!!! diesel da best!!!

Scary question for me. Original owner died (bought daBenz as a retirement toy). 2nd owner died (doing pre-retirement slowdown and died in his shop). Now I'm only a few years from calling it quits...

What exactly do you mean by 'calling it quits'?

Ash
(hoping you don't mean THAT)

driad_98, I mean from work. Now that I think about it, how's this for some math? 1st owner: 19 years. 2nd owner: 9 months. 3rd owner (me): 14 years. So the way I see it: I need to keep working 5 more years (yuk) and I can start my own streak (living beyond daBenz). I hope the plan works.

How long?
 

Till they quit makeing parts or the wheels fall off. Or untill hell freeze's over.
Charlie
PS: I know you guys up north thinks it already has.

That really is a good question. I have been able to make the mechanical maintenance jumps from my 1970 to my 1983 to my 1992 just fine. Truth be told, I have really been struggling with the 1996. The electrical gadgetry has been driving me crazy.

Although, if I still owned a 123 or 124, I would probably be cursing everytime I needed to replace another cracked plastic do-dad, rubber-connect-a-thing, or any of the other bazillion annoying pieces that go after a few decades.

Honestly, I will probably drive my 210 to 150-200K and buy a Lexus....

Sorry, MB. The quality just isn't there any more.

The plastic do-dads, rubber-connect-a-things, and any of the other bazillion annoying pieces still won't cost as much as a Lexus though. And guess what, you'll be doing the same thing with the Lexus because they're full of all those things you mentioned in the 123 and 124 that you'll replace. We had a Toyota (made by the same people who make the Lexus) and it was falling apart after 5 years. Toyota quality is all hype too.

"Toyota quality is all hype too."

-lietuviai

Check out the latest Consumer Reports. And please, save me the, "Consumer Reports is biased" argument.

Both the 300D cars are great drivers , but rust buckets ,, so when the body fails ............................... !
The 300sel I am trying to keep for good , just use it on trips .
The '40 Chevy pickup gets whatever it needs regardless of cost , that one will last my life out :D

300TD will live longer than I will. I'm keeping it forever.
300D has cancer (rust), about 10 years left to live.
MBs are the best - it's not just that they last this long, it's that we want to keep them this long... I see plenty of 80's toyotas on the road, but who wants to keep a 80's toyota? We all want to keep our 80's MBs.

I can't believe anyone that likes an MB diesel from two decades ago reads consumer reports..
That's just.. odd somehow..

I'll keep my Lexie/toyota comments to my self, time will show..

Slowmoe, I don't read Consumer Reports so I really have no opinion if they have a bias. I basing my opinion on Toyota's on that I have owned a couple of them. It seemed that after about 5 years they started falling apart. The engines started leaking as well, but otherwise they always ran good except until the multitudes of engine sensors started malfunctioning. No, no more Toyota's for me.

My Camry, which my sister drives, just hit 130K and with the exception of needing the strut pads replaced, it has no rattles and has never broken down. Doesn't leak any oil/tranny fluid and still has all original components except the brake pads and struts.


Timing belt was changes at 60k and will be done again in a week or so.

Still original hoses.....AC, starter.....alternator.

Great low maintenance car.

Plantman, I'm guessing you have the 4 cyl Camry. We had a V-6. We got rid of it when it had only 60K miles on it. Sorry to say but it was a big POS. Parts were expensive and serviceability was extremely difficult. Some of the most rediculous small things would break causing the need for the replacement of an entire component. I was glad to see it go.
I wish my 300D had less miles on it, it would have been a perfect replacement for the Camry