I finally found one!
 

I've been looking a nice lower mileage MB diesel locally for some time and I finally found one. I found an '85 300 SD with just only a little over 100K original miles and the car is immaculate. It's smoke silver metallic with a burgundy leather interior. Everything works in this car, including the cruise control! It's only the second time I've been in an SD and the first time was around 1982 and that was in a show room. I'm picking up the car on Saturday! I thought I'd never find something so nice locally! Now the only problem is that I have to sell off a couple of other cars that I have. It was the only way I could convince my wife that I could buy the SD but I think it's worth the sacrifice.

Score!:D

My first benz was a 1985 190E and was Smoked silver with Burgandy interior. I think back then had the car been any other color, inside and out, I might not have bought it! I love those combinations and bet your new SD is awsome!

Sooty

Sounds familiar:).

Way to go - you will like the SD ALOT everytime you have to travel the interstate on a long trip.

This from a person who was ready to dump his MB Diesel a few short months ago. Glad to see you keeping the faith. :D

Is this the Portland, OR car? If so... I looked at it and found several things that weren't quite right.. The seller's story kept changing and that really scared me.

Pics please!!!

Hey DJ, Congradulations on your 85 SD..Best of the Best.. Does the car have all the service records with it as well? I hope so it'd be much more worth the purchase if you did. I saw a 85 300 Turbo Diesel at my local MB workshop the other day in imaculate condition with only 78k miles. Man it was awesome. Good Luck

This could very well be the same car but the seller's story seemed to check out. Maybe he got his story straight with me? The car checked out OK as well, but it did have some repair work done to the front left fender and hood but they looked good enough for the price we negotiated to. The damage was only to the sheetmetal.
I still have a chance to back out as no money was commited or deposit required.
Marcb if you have anything to add please PM me when you have a chance.

A disappointing turn of events...
 

Today I went back to the seller and when he brought out the title it had the worst branding you want to see on one: Reconstructed Title / Totalled.

So much for the find.
So if anyone else comes up on this car in the Portland OR area, beware of title.

A reconstructed title may or may not be significant. A damaged car can be totaled by an insurance company simply because the cost of repairs is about 80% of the fair market value. If you are buying to resell then the reconstructed title would be a deal breaker. But if you are buying for a daily driver, it really depends on what the damage was and whether the price is right, IMHO.

Re: A disappointing turn of events...
 

Well, congratulations on not getting a nasty surprise after buying the car. It hurts not to get the car you wanted, but getting the car you don't want could be a lot worse!

Good luck with your continuing search...


-- eskimo

Yeah, Congratulations on not getting scre**d in that deal! I have just confirmed that my car is a piece of S**T and it's because I believed someone that was obviously a good liar! It sucks to be in this situation and I'm glad you didn't have the same thing happen to you.

The car otherwise looked really nice. I was really looking into keeping the car like for a long time, with low miles like it has (103K), it would certainly be around for a very long time. What would be the most that I should offer the guy? I would have paid around $5K if the title didn't have a totalled brand on it.

Sorry I haven't had a chance to reply just yet... was this the car in the Clackamas area? If so, when I looked at it I could readily see the new paint on the car and the front fenders just didn't look "right". He told me on the phone that the car was owned for several years by his father who had moved from California. Funny enough... he also told me his father couldn't show me the car personally because he was a pastor at a local church and church was in session. After looking at the car, he couldn't locate the title and he told me that it had a "rebuilt" title because the engine had been rebuilt. Huh?

Either way, sorry to be the bearer of bad news... I was afraid it might be the same car...

-Marcb :(