Greetings Ryan,

Sounds like you have thrown in the towel before the fight. There are some folks out there that are enticed by that three pointed star car but don't relize the time that is involved to just keep them looking good and running good ten, fifteen, or in my case over twenty years down the road. Most American cars can't compete in reliability or simplicity of maintenance as these older Benz's can. Of course most Americans just want to get in their car and go and stop for fuel whenever the needle redlines or zero's out. As far as maintenance, Americans are probably the worst on maintaining their rides, they rely on shops to do most of their repairs, and a lot of them are missed when something else is getting attention at that time. Almost all of the problems you have mentioned about you car are easy fixes and in most cases the most expensive part of it, will be your time to troubleshoot. From everything you have said is wrong, would most likely take you a weekend to troubleshoot and repair.
It was nice to have you on the forum at least for a short while.

Charles

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"Tell me and I will listen, Teach me and I will learn, Show me and I will accomplish, Involve me and I will succeed."
'84 300SD 256,000 Gold on Brown (Mileage Award)
'86 300E 246,000 Blue on Tan