I've gotten slammed for saying this before, and I'm sure I will again, but why complicate your life with a car that needs repairs all the time? I've been critical of my W124, and once (or twice) posted to buy Japanese. Get an Acura TL or RL, or a Lexus, they're nearly problem free. Amazing vehicles. Of course, I got slammed for being on a MB site saying that.

My 300d is a nice car when there's nothing wrong with it, a joy to drive. But there's simply no excuse for a "superior" car such as a MB having chronic, chronic, a/c, blower, and control problems. The pains of people writing into this forum for a/c problems are endless, and there will be more tomorrow. I see a bunch of MB's on the roads of Hotlanta during the blazing summer trying to survive only with tinted windows. What irritates me most, is that they've never come up with a fix for it. For years, they made them wrong. Why? They made bad a/c's for what, 30 years straight? No excuse for such slobbishness. Leaving their customers sweat it out in hot summers? Doesn't sound good to me, especially when the guy next to you in a Toyota Tercel is nice and comfortable, but the guy in the MB is trying to look cool, but isn't. (I had my a/c repaired, thank God.)

There's been a big outcry about "isn't it terrible what's happening to domestic car makers, Ford and Chevy? They're closing plants and American workers are thrown out of work." Well, I for one, think it's wonderful. Why? Becuase they saw the problem coming at them 30 years ago, yet did nothing. They kept making bad cars, year after year, in the face of superior Japanese engineering. As I've heard it, the last of the "good MB's" was the 1995 300d. If that's the case, and you're looking for something newer, I say switch manufacturers. Don't reward bad manufacturers. And maybe 30 years from now, when sales are so low at MB, they'll wake up and see consumers want solutions, not problems.

You asked, and that's my opinion.

Jeff
1991 300d, 99k