240D Complement
 

Sometime in the near future (hopefully at least) once I have the space and money, I'd like to find a car to complement my 240D. It's main purpose is to be there once my 240D needs some sort of large repair. Can be MB or not (although MB is preferable since the special tools and designs could overlap), gas or diesel, automatic only if it can be converted to manual.
Needs:
-to be able to be driven daily for up to 6 months including NE winters

Prefered
-reasonably fuel efficient
-better highway cruiser
-more power and/or better performance
-visibly pleasing
-not japanese
-easily be able to make it over 200,000 miles

Right now, I'm looking at 190D/E, but like to know what people think. I've also got soft spots for a few, hmm, less reliable or practical cars in my heart. It's really supposed to be a back up/toy.

I always found it a good idea to have access to a late model reliable car when trying to use a 20 year old Mercedes as my daily driver. Quite a few times this saved me.

I'd recomend a late model 4 cylinder Japanese car, for when you need something to get you to work or on a long roadtrip. Accords are nice.

Japanese cars are hard to beat. a lexus would be good for what you are looking for.

Right now no american car company, As for european, the bmw 3 series are supposed pretty good in terms reliabilty, perfomance and durability.

Jap cars are one of the top sellers in the world for a reason because you get a lot for your money

Just pokin around craigslist, this hit the soft spot hard. http://boston.craigslist.org/nos/cto/1361236289.html

Shop your local lemon lots. How much do you want to spend? Other than all being factory slushbuckets, anything in the Ford Panther platform meets all your other requirements and can be acquired cheap. They can be converted. Box (79-91) bodies with the 5.0 take the T5 out of a V8 Mustang fairly easily. The later 4.6 cars can be converted also (again with Mustang parts), but this can be a little more involved. See www.crownvic.net for specifics.

You could also snag a Ranger or S10. They can be had for cheap if you look around, are pretty easy to work on, came with real transmissions, and will last if you take care of them.

Can the crown vics really be converted? Would it be a column or floor shift?

You can buy a W124 for pretty cheap if you look around.

You might not go back to your W123 though.....

I 2nd the W124 idea. Preferably a wagon.

Ford F150.

I have no spare car....just a W126 and W124, with an anal maintenance regimen, failure is highly unlikely....and they will likely remain as much so or more reliable than any newer car.

Did you really mean this?!

Failure is likely. Hattie put lots of maintenance in his W126 and he still reccomends a newer backup. I had lots of maintenance on mine and failure was quite often.

The problem is things break, or you run into problems fixing something...and the parts stores are closed...and you need to get to work/school at 7:30 the following morning.

I was very glad I had access to another car when I had my SDL. I would have not kept it for long if it was the only car I had access to.

A little young to be starting an anal maintenance schedule, aren't we? I thought I didn't have to worry about that until about 40.

Not looking forward to that in about 15 years!:eek: