High mileage SLs

[Boudreaux]

Buying a used MB or any other car is always a gamble if there are no maintenance records/receipts. My father just bought used '91 Buick Park Ave. with 97K miles on it and it needed a new air flow meter. GM price of the part is about $200-300; Mercedes price (remanufactured) $863.

My car is used mostly for freeway/highway driving so there isn't a lot of stop/start stress on the car, however, all of the repairs that I've done on the car say otherwise. It has also had two previous owners so I don't know if they just drove the crap out of it and neglected simple maintenance. I recently changed the cap and rotors and saw the date stamp on the old parts: August 1993. If you buy a used car you are buying somebody else's problems, period.

[HitParader]

Interesting point about checking 'round the airports for a pilot-owned Mercedes.

I agree that a buyer needs to be careful about the lease return cars, at the end of the lease often times maintenance is neglected. Still, with the glut of 129's on the market today, there are some real bargains out there. My latest '99 was a lease return, and yeah the front discs were way worn out and it needed new alternator bearings. But beyond that (and a small seatbelt problem) the body was arrow straight, the interior very good and the tops almost perfect. $1,000 to fix those problems and flush/refill every fluid in the car, it runs great. Just got back from a blast up and down the length of California with zero problems.

Here's a great used car buying tip - get an OBD II connector and diagnostic software (not expensive as long as you have a laptop) and read the output in front of the seller. You not only can catch any stored or pending trouble codes, a live metering display is pretty impressive and gives you leverage in the negotiation process. That and catching the bad brakes on this one saved me thousands in the purchase, which of course can be spent on accessories and sales tax...

I have never thought about cars being owned by pilots being good purchases but being from the areospace industry and the fact my father was a professional pilot I agree with it. Pilots and most aerospace workers tend to pay alot of attention to detail and also want max performance. I find myself paying more attention to detail then almost all automotive type places.Pilots also have to maintain a certain amount of mechanical/technical ability. Unfortuneatly my 380SL was not owned by my father very long maybe 2 years and he purchased it off E-bay sight unseen. It had a very nice cheap paint job on it and mechinally was a mess. There are about 4 years of missing records. Took me about 4 months to get it mechanically sorted out. I will have to say it is one of the toughest cars I have ever worked on. Many new words were created when rebuild the rear brake system. For what ever reason the previous owner diabled the parking brake by just knocking the lining off the shoes. took almost a entire day to get the parking brake rectified. One thing that is forsure if you want to own any old car you really should be capalbe of doing alot of your own work. In Waco there wasn't a body shop that would touch this car as a restoration project. Kind of why I have to do it myself. Since it was my fathers favorite collector car getting rid of it is really not a option. When I getter done it will be a very nice car.However I do see the light at the end of the tunnel. My oldest son moved in and has been grinding away at the car so at least I have some help

[Pili380SL]

Our 380Sl was bought with about 170k miles, and other having found where someone had unplugged the frequency valve to compensate for vacuum leaks caused by two broken thermo valves, the car was amazingly smooth and quiet. After fixing the afore mentioned mousing, it runs amazingly well for the amount of mileage. I haven't addressed the body mounts, which need changing, but overall the silky smooth and quiet ride amazes me daily. I'll take this high mileage Benz over any other car I've driven. I don't drive it on rain threatening days, and on those days I really appreciate what a great car it is.

[tan man]

if you put two sl's side by side - for arguments sake lets say 1985 380sl's - one with 50,000 orig miles and the other with 150,000 miles. both well maintained. my opinion: there is no practical difference in quality, driveability, or expected investment to upkeep. the only diff would be for a collector who prides in having a 50k mile car. and from that standpoint, there are no buyers/collectors waiting in line for a 1985 380sl with "only" 50k miles. therefor, the real difference is that one will cost you $14,000 to buy and the other will cost you $9,000 to buy (approx).

[KirkVining]

Originally Posted by PeteO

I have never thought about cars being owned by pilots being good purchases but being from the areospace industry and the fact my father was a professional pilot I agree with it. Pilots and most aerospace workers tend to pay alot of attention to detail and also want max performance. I find myself paying more attention to detail then almost all automotive type places.Pilots also have to maintain a certain amount of mechanical/technical ability. Unfortuneatly my 380SL was not owned by my father very long maybe 2 years and he purchased it off E-bay sight unseen. It had a very nice cheap paint job on it and mechinally was a mess. There are about 4 years of missing records. Took me about 4 months to get it mechanically sorted out. I will have to say it is one of the toughest cars I have ever worked on. Many new words were created when rebuild the rear brake system. For what ever reason the previous owner diabled the parking brake by just knocking the lining off the shoes. took almost a entire day to get the parking brake rectified. One thing that is forsure if you want to own any old car you really should be capalbe of doing alot of your own work. In Waco there wasn't a body shop that would touch this car as a restoration project. Kind of why I have to do it myself. Since it was my fathers favorite collector car getting rid of it is really not a option. When I getter done it will be a very nice car.However I do see the light at the end of the tunnel. My oldest son moved in and has been grinding away at the car so at least I have some help

You would not have believed the underhood detail of my pilot-owned 280SL. The car was 21 years old and 91k, but everything under the hood looked new. What wasn't new was whistle clean and polished. The under car looked the same way, lots of new parts, and real attention to detail on things like brake lines and hoses. The Tex interior got a once a week Lexol treatment and the car was waxed regularly -both he interior and paint are in almost new condition. This is the second used car I have purchased from a pilot, and the other one, a 77 280E sedan, was almost as nice, but this one took the cake. If your going to haunt the airports, be patient, it took me over a year to find this one.

[Steve Gutman]

It is my opinion that people are concerned about the major work. The motor can last 500,000 miles but you are probably going to have to do the heads. I understand that on the V8s you will change a tining belt at 120,000, heads at 175,000 and 240,000 another timing chain and at around 350,000 you may need to do the heads and lower end. The complete rebuild is expensive and not too many DYI guys can do a head, motor rebuild or transmission rebuild.