I know this is a broad questions but, I have a friend that's looking for a mercedes, specifically a diesel from 1980 - 1994 and I was wondering if anyone knows the best, most reliable models from that time frame. What should he look for?

Can you give me some advice?

Ed

To my knowledge the best one's as far as longevity are non-turbocharged (many pre-1980) but the downside is they are a lot slower than the turbo models.

1980-85 sd's are a good size car, turbo charged and have iron heads which are less likely to break up in the event of overheating (unlike my sdl that has an aluminum head). SDL is still very reliable though. They are all great cars in my opinion. I am fairly new to diesels and the forum, anyone with more experience feel free to correct me. I thought all 1980-85 SD's were turbo charged arent they?

I forgot to add that my friend told me that the newer model 350 SDL's have had a lot of problems with bending rods and stuff so do a little research under the "search" option on those to check me. I picked my car after weighting all of these factors. I wanted a big car in a diesel that had some get up and go but longevity as well. For me, 86/87'SDL was right price, right everything..