Thinking about a W108 with M117

[thorsen]

I've been out of the vintage Mercedes game for a while now and am considering a 1972 280SE with the 4.5
I am mainly interested in the car as a weekend run-about and 300-mile road trip cruiser.
Can anyone share their experiences with the W108? What can I expect mpg-wise? Are these cars competent highway cruisers at 70-75mph?

[dickz]

I have a 1973 280SE and love it. Took it on a 2200 mile round trip from MA to SC. Cruised comfortably at 70 mph all day long. MPG was between 14 to 16. I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable it was and how it easily kept Up with traffic. As my Indy said, "they were built for cruising".

I drive mine almost daily from March through November and My experience has been when they are sorted out, they are very reliable and not very costly to maintain. Parts seem to be readily available and not outrageous.

I would highly recommend one for the use you describe. As always, buy the best one you can afford, get a pre purchase inspection and find a good Indy. Good luck.

[thorsen]

Thanks for the details.
What about the AC system? It seems like the under-the-dash unit would be challenged to keep up with a high heat/humidity load.

[geen]

I have a 72 280SEL 4.5 and it gets at best 14 - 15 mpg. But who cares its so much fun to own and drive. As said above as long as the car is sorted out they keep running and are easy to maintain. The AC on mine did the job all summer its not like a newer car but it works just fine.

[dickz]

The vent windows are fine on all but the hottest of days.

[Tomguy]

I had a 4.5. I can confirm it does have issues doing 70MPH. The sweet spot I found was 80. It was too hard to go only 70 with it

You're only going to get confirmation here that the 4.5-powered 108s are awesome cruisers and when well-sorted mechanically they are reliable. I never had breakdowns or had my 4.5 strand me when I owned it including several longer trips.

[thorsen]

Thanks everyone. Let the hunt begin!

[vintagecarsocal]

was considering buying either a 280 SE or 280SEL myself. Is there a preference between the two? Is one better than the other / speedier / less costly to maintain?

[vandor]

The only difference between a SE and a SEL is that the SEL is ~4" longer. If you will have passengers in the rear seat than it's worth getting a SEL, as it has tons of legroom. If you have little kids they won't kick the ***** out of the front seatbacks, if you have older kids they will have a bunch of legroom.

I bought my SEL in January with a bad engine and it took me ~3 months to rebuild the engine. I've driven it a couple of thousand miles since then. The car is in very good shape, but it still has/had issues that any 40 year old car will have. The ECU had an intermittent problem where the car would occasionally stall. I since replaced it with a used one and all is well. A lot of ECUs I see have been rebuilt, so apparently it is not an uncommon problem. I now have spares for all the major fuel injection parts. Luckily early 450SLs had the same engine/FI system, so I can find cheap spares in salvage yards.

I went through the AC system, flushed it and converted it to r134a. It works OK, but on the hottest days it can't keep up. Likely it would work better with r12, and I may convert it back.

All in all I love this car, it's great fun to drive, it's a great cruiser, and I drive it to work several times a week when the weather is nice. Yes, it will easily keep up with traffic, heck, when new it's quoted top speed was 120 mph!

[berfinroy]

My 73 300 SEL was also converted to 134a when I bought it. I have converted it back to R12, and the cooling is markedly improved. Old R12 is still readily available on the internet (ebay, for example), but it is quite expensive. That's tolerable...as long as your AC system is leak free!

[thorsen]

I have a 30lb cylinder of R-12 so I should be set for a while...

[alabbasi]

It appears that R134 conversions work pretty well in CT but not so much in TX. Go figure

[suginami]

The entire a/c system in my 280SE 4.5 was completely replaced before I bought it, even down to the switches mounted in the dash.

It was converted to 134a, and the condenser was significantly up-sized compared to the factory sized unit.

I can confirm that even in 100+ summer temps here in So. Cal., it blows ice cold.

[vandor]

Yes, condenser size, and type (newer types are more efficient) is the number one determining factor on AC performance. I wish I knew where they got the condenser, as I bet it's not a common size...
There are many universal ones available, but most of them are much wider than tall, while the W108 one is nearly square.

[suginami]

I assume it's a universal one. It looks like it is custom mounted.