I found this car in NE Georgia 3 years ago. I purchased it for $1700 and was told by the seller that he was the 3rd owner and the miles are original; at 76k!!!
The car allegedly was purchased new at an Atlanta dealership by an older gentlemen who passed away after driving it locally for roughly 12 years. It then sat in a family member's partially coverd shed for well over the next decade. The paint has oxidized and I have replaced all belts and hoses since purchasing it and it has been a daily driver since. I have since done a lot of work to it myself as well as with a couple of other local MBZ diesel enthusiasts. It has it's quirks but I have so much fun with the car (I have since sold my 82 300D & 79 300 CD). It's never been wrecked and body is straight as an arrow.

Here are my questions...

1. Is there a way to determine exactly how many miles are on the car? Right now it's just over 82k.

2. I would love to find exactly all of the accessories the car could have came with and/or was available. Was there luggage for the car? Gas cans? Tool Kit? Emergency triangle? Etc.

3. It has a dash cover that is now brittle but it perfectly matched the interior of the car (navy blue) and I would like to find another OR another dash. Could you recommend any good resources other than Ebay or Pull A Part?

I also posted this in the diesel discussion too. That's it for now. Thanks for all of your help.

The seller may have been telling the truth. And monkeys may fly out of my butt

I believe the part in italics.

No. I can't help with your other questions. I'm glad you're enjoying the car though.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

There is no way to tell the mileage on the car, there are some indicators that can tell the wear condition of the engine of course. The blowby is a strong indicator by untwisting the oil cap and seeing if it blows off. The less the better but if it blows off that's bad. The other indicator is how well it starts up with properly adjusted valves in cold weather. If it can fire in a few cranks or perhaps even just one you have a healthy engine.

These cars are notorious for odometers breaking and of the two that I have had BOTH had broken odometers so 82k could be 382k.

There was NO luggage. That's a 300SL and Ferrari thing. Gas cans were not part of it as I recall. There was a toolkit in a cloth pouch which rusted like nobody's business but other sets can be obtained however they are too short and terrible for actual side of the road use.

As for dashes they are very scarce and difficult to find in excellent shape. You're looking at $1200 -$1500 or so depending on the position of the stellar bodies.

Post some pictures. Hopefully in the springtime when my W115 arrives we can have a MB meet. It's nice to know some W115's are being driven since the W123 seems to the favored child.

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1974 240D 3.0L 4(M) - 250K -OM617.910 + 300D FW + Rajay turbo power!
1977 6.9 3(A) - 84k

Some people have suggested looking at simple things like pedal rubber wear as an indicator of age. Or driver seat wear/sagginess.

Sounds like it was driven by an older gentleman for short runs during his 12 years of ownership. Unless he was a very large man, the seat should be firm and the pedal pads should not have a lot of wear.

Pitting of the windshield by sand and small gravel thrown up on the highway is also a relative indicator of mileage.

What about wear of the wheel bearings, as general indicators of mileage?

These are the things that come to mind. Won't ever tell you actual mileage, but would help you determine whether the car has 70, 170 or 270K miles...

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1983 300TD 240K - 1982 240D 215K - 1996 Dodge Cummins 70K