After 240k miles, my 96 Grand Marquis is on it's way out. It still runs strong but has been gulping down coolant regularly lately. This was my grandparent's car and my parents got it in 2006 after my uncle was driving it through South Georgia, had some mechanical trouble, and declared the car was too worn out for my grandparents to continue driving so they bought a 2006 Grand Marquis (which we also now have). That was at 110k miles, and he wasn't totally wrong. My grandfather had it religiously maintained at the Ford dealership but when it got to our mechanic, he found that many of the services my grandfather had paid for were never done. It had supposedly had the transmission fluid changed just 10k miles before but the fluid was brown and the screens in the transmission were completely gummed up. He got it driving again and we drove it another 130k miles after that. I think we were hoping for 250k but it's probably not going to happen since it goes through a quart or two of coolant every other day and burns a quart of oil a week, and we're only driving it about 15 miles a day.

So now we are looking for a replacement. Budget is about $4500 or so.
If you can see my signature, I'm pretty well versed in 80s and 90s Mercedes. I'd prefer to stick to 90s and newer because the W123s, W116, W126 are all great cars but dinosaurs in terms of refinement. I also will rule out W201s because I already have too many and want something bigger than a W201 but not an S class. I also don't want any M103 car unless it's a 24 valve. At the moment, I think I want a W124, maybe a W210 if I skip the early years. I could be convinced to look at others though. I'm willing to do some work to get the thing going, not a ton. If it helps, I do have a decent amount of AC equipment including R12 machines and flushing tools.


I'm looking at a few cars in my area. I'll say this for all of these: pictures look great, clean interiors and paint but I can't guarantee that's really the case without seeing the cars

1991 300SL 5speed with 165K miles for $4k- Not sure if it's the 24 valve or not but manual SL sounds fun and collectible though I'm not sure I want another CIS car.

1991 300D 2.5 5 speed with 260k miles for $4200- Supposedly had suspension overhaul recently, brakes done, tires, water pump. AC leak- so potentially evaporator job. Not too scary to me, I have an air conditioned garage to do it in now. Price may seem high but manual and recent work (if done with good parts) would make the premium more than worth it.

1992 400E with 160k miles for $2200- Needs AC compressor, comes with new one. 2 new tires, Michelin.

1999 E55 with 161k miles for $4500- New tires, clean car fax.

2002 E55 with 200k miles for $3200- Needs motor mount "highway miles".

So ideally, I'd be looking at a W124 wagon with the M104 but none are for sale at the moment. That or a diesel swapped wagon would be my pick because of how useful they can be. I'm not a fan of the W210 besides the E55 really but maybe a E300 wouldn't be so bad.

So of these models, what should I be looking for in terms of expensive problems? Consider that I do most of the work myself. I like the 300D 2.5 (though it will be slow) and 400E (torque) the most to be honest but the E55 (even more power) is intriguing. Anyone have any experience with the M119 or M113 to say they aren't what I should be looking at? Afaik, the M119 has less issues than the M103/M104 in terms of reliability and the M113 minus the supercharger is a fairly simple engine. I have experience working on the OM602 NA, which is my favorite design for a Mercedes diesel in terms of servicing it. I know the crossover pipe gets a bit in the way on the turbo cars but it isn't too difficult to deal with. Again it is slow, but with the manual it should get good economy and be pretty fun to drive.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

Reading your post the car gave you good service . Before you turn your back on it .Have you thought about K SEAL for the coolant system . If the engine is taking in a lot of oil its ready for retirerment now .So what have you to lose .

Hi, I have a 1990 300 2.5 smoke silver with tan interior, 260,000 miles. Strong motor and trans, rebuild front end, interior good shape. I'm looking to sell quickly. I was getting ready to list it on here today. Moving soon so need to trim down the fleet. If you are interested I can provide more information.

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85 250D euro
87 300D

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New information on a couple of cars:

1991 300SL is the 24 valve with the dogleg transmission. Interior needs some work, possibility that the top leaks, possibility that the roof bar has issues, would have to inspect it personally.

2003 E55 is being sold by the second owner after 5 months of ownership because his wife is pregnant. New tires, says original owner was older man who took care of it but no service records. I'd definitely have to take it to a specialist to have it looked over.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

The R129 manual trans car is more of an oddity than a collector car. If you are going to get one, go for the 93 ish to 97 SL320 as it will have a M104 with electronic FI. 97 gets you the electronic shift 722.6

I'm thinking the E55 is being flipped. $ 3,200 is hardly enough $ to be worth selling after 5 months and the story is classic, all it needs is " oil changed with synthetic every 3,000 miles, always premium fuel , always garaged " . Run the guys phone # and e mail to see if other cars pop up, check the title to see if the car is in his name. I'd also want to talk to the original owner.

I don't like the amoeba headlights of the W210 however, 96 has the M104 / hyd shift trans and 97 is the last year for M104, first year for 722.6

Good point. He did say his "cousin owns a place to get a tag", so I did find a used car dealership that had pictures of it on Facebook. Proceeding with caution.

There's a shop I've been to that's not too far from the E55 that specializes in AMG service, especially pre-merger stuff (obviously not relevant to this car but cool since there aren't many pre-merger specialists out there). I think I'll have it inspected there if I even go look at it.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

This is where the "seller" hands the title to the tag person and completes the transaction without you seeing it is still in the previous owners name or has had many owners.

I always look at the physical title to verify the VIN and story I'm being told. In my state, it shows the original date the car was titled in my state. If it came from out of state as a used car, it shows what state it came from. For cars titled in my state, looking at the last 4 characters of the title number will show how many owners it has had in state.



The AMG place might know the car lot so watch out for that. There can't be that much business in pre merger AMG specialist service unless cars are being shipped cross country so I'd be a bit wary of them pending independent verification.

For this car I'd have someone verify the engine is still AMG not a regular replacement. I "think" AMG cars had an oil cooler coming off the oil filter housing and standard engines didn't. This isn't a 100 % test but it is a quick tell tale.



There is always the chance the story is legit but it too many things line up in a bad way, run.

I run away from car flippers posing as "I'm selling my car" , there is too much drama waiting to unfold and I refuse to help them make a buck.

Great advice. The shop is Blue Ridge Mercedes, last time I was there they had several pre-merger cars sitting outside, though I will have to find out if he has the time as a few complaints of "he's very busy" or "he takes a long time" have come up on Benzworld but otherwise seems to be well respected, does have cars shipped to his shop.

Did some more digging on the seller as I found the facebook ad for it as well. His facebook profile picture is him holding his wife's belly that has a noticeable bump, and he does work at this used car dealership. I have asked for the VIN, I think I'll ask him to take a picture instead of typing it out. As long as everything lines up, I'll go look at it then figure it out from there. Fortunately, I have other options if this falls through.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

When I hear complaints of "he's very busy" or "he takes a long time" and no complaints of poor quality quality, I consider them likely to be a good shop. So a big plus there.

The " I bought this 5 months ago and now have to sell " story could have some truth. Good detective work!

Well, seems like the car sold this morning. Thankfully, I have found a 1995 E320 wagon about an hour's drive away but it does have 235k on it and seems like the harness is original. At $1k with a 95 sedan as a parts car (hit a deer, replaced all parts with parts from parts car or new), doesn't sound like too bad of a deal. Recent brakes, recent fuel pump, AC works, SLS looks like it is working.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

AMG guy called me, it is actually still available, would be fine with taking it to have it inspected, said he's just put a new Behr radiator in it, but it does have 250K miles. If it passes inspection then maybe but I think the wagon is my top pick.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

I'd go for the wagon / parts car, at 1K it is practically free and is a much more useful car than the E55. And you southern state guys don't have any idea how badly cars rust in the winter salt belt. I'd hang mechanical parts on a car all day long over fixing rust even if the interior is baked out.

Used uprated engine harnesses pop up on this list for about $ 250 .

Yes, that's my feeling as well. I can tow my trailer if I can get the OE hitch (4200 lb limit) and also carry some of my watersports (canoe (lightweight), kayak, or paddle board) stuff on top as well. Parts car will have to be stripped and sent off quickly as our insurance company wants the other parts cars we have gone (I have 3 +1 that's not ours almost ready to load up and take for scrap). Guy says the tires on the wagon are new and good on the parts car.

My brother, dad, and a friend went and looked at the 1991 300D 5 speed today, said it was running as bad as my 190D that had a blown headgasket and cosmetically was crap. Not worth anything near $4400.

My brother and the same friend looked at a nearly mint 1990 LS400 last night, looks like a viable option but he said the driving was very uninvolving, numb steering and brakes, seats aren't as good as the 90s Mercedes seats. Good car to fall back on but I'm sure something better will come up, and something may have with a 1994 E420 that looks to be even cleaner than the LS400. I'm still feeling the wagon idea but E420 would be fun.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

The LS400 is a luxo barge more than a ( MB ) road car.

The M104 makes nice sounds when leaned on and has enough power to pull a 4,000 lb ish R129 SL around. Off the line it is a bit slow but once the engine gets over 2,200 RPM it pulls cleanly to red line. I went south to get my SL and driving back over the mountains it ran 70 - 80 and wasn't running out of breath. Overall it is enough.