I am faced with a similar situation, but I have found that most people on this forum--including myself--would not hesitate to put more time and parts into our cars per month than it would cost for a monthly payment on a new car.

I often find myself toeing a fine line trying to justify to my wife that I'm making a rational decision to dump as much into our car (not to mention my own time) than a new car payment would cost. I'm not sure why I do it, but that's how it is. Maybe there's a certain degree of pride in fixing it yourself or operating one of the last cars that was designed and built in an era when cost-control was not the underlying theme and Mercedes didn't have the fierce competition it has now.

My neighbor used to DIY too, but when he turned 65 and threw his back out, he took his W124 to the dealer for a leaking hose. They replaced the entire cooling system and hit him with a bill for over $1,700. That was the last straw for him. He traded it in on a new LS 460. I don't blame him. I think it would be hard to argue there is any better sedan out there for the money nowadays--no matter how much we all like MBs.

Brake pads and rotors for this car are not that expensive and they really don't take a lot of time to do. I can do the front pads and rotors in less than 45 minutes. The rear pads and shoes hardly ever wear out. You should consider yourself lucky if you've made it this far without rebuilding the transmission. I paid over $3,500 for a rebuild in July, after all was said and done.

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1993 400E, 256,000 miles (totaled)
1994 E420, 200,000+ miles
1995 E420, 201,000 miles