too many choices - ?!
 

Here are my questions, and below you will find the story to the questions:

1. do the higher mileage cars have interior noises like rattling or creeking?
2. would cars that were problematic when young have the bugs worked out once into the high mileage territory?
3. would older cars from the late 80's or early 90's have interior noises like rattling or creeking?

As you can see, I want a quite, luxurious car. I'm capable of doing some maintenance/repairs myself. And I enjoy cars with power.

Several months ago I started looking for a car. Work got in the way, so I continued driving my father's 1995 s320 with 320k miles now (I learned what I thought was a shade of pink is actually "garnet red"). This w140 has grown on me, and last weekend I took it on a 1k road trip up through Big Sur from so cal - damn thing is too big, but it sure was a comfy ride. I've become further attached after performing some basic maintenance by myself.

Today, however, I was passenger in the car, and I heard so many creeks, groans, and sound effects, it drove me crazy. The worst is this "paper rattling" sound coming from the doors. My guess is that the parchment between the facade and the interior of the door is flapping from some draft through the door.

That got me searching - maybe a slightly newer 140, like late 1990's, and I could get the s600, v12 woo! Searches showed early 2000's came with Navigation, too. That'd be nice. Then I saw w140 coupes - oooooo, I like coupes. There I went to the 500/560 sec's, which further led me to the CL class, I can't find any made in the 90's for sale, but plenty 2000-2006, cl600 and cl55. I found the idea of a wooden steering wheel and seats that heat/cool/massage to be quite tempting. :D Research shows these things have some expensive repair issues, however. Somehow that brought me to the e500/500e. The "rare", "power", and noted quality of this car seems to make up for the not-so-exciting look (hey, I'm used to sexy, curvy lines).

What I've learned is that I seriously miss the power of my british sports car, but, I enjoy the luxury (minus the interior sound effects) of the w140. I've decided to toss the idea of the older cars for now.

All this brings to mind the aforementioned questions. what now? :rolleyes:

1. My 95 E320 will creak in the rear strut area in sub-freezing weather when going over a speed bump. Otherwise, it is quiet.

2. Only if the previous owner(s) took care of the problems. If ignored, and a component breaks or stops working, the symptoms of the problem may disappear, but could return when a co-dependent component also begins to fail.

3. You could drive a new car out of the showroom with rattles and creaks, but it is seldom something a bit of lubricant or a screwdriver can't fix.

My 91 350 sdl creaked while moving down the road. I think it was leather rubbing against leather. I think all the 126s creak when equipped with leather.

I just turned up the radio a little bit.:P

Same here. My dad's W126 with Tex is much quieter. As is my brothers 300D....oh well. :D

I have a '77 W123 230 and a '90 300E 2.6. Both are in excellent condition with 153K on the '77 and 112K on the '90. I am continually amazed by the great body integrity on these cars. I have driven newer, lower mileage cars of other brands that have had more creaks and rattles. To be fair, neither of these cars were daily drivers, were always garaged and meticulously maintained - which counts for a lot down the road.

Lubricate the leather where it rubs on the plastic panel around the seatbelt clasp near the center tunnel. Very common for the plastic side-cover to creak against the leather (or tex), I've used silicone successfully to make it quiet.

My 1992 500e has 107K miles on it now and there is no interior noise or rattling what so ever at any speed or going over road bumps/cracks/wholes. The only “noise” I do hear since installing a much stronger audio system is the front doors speakers are make some vibration noise at very high decibels – for which a layer of Dynamat will fix.