It's a difficult decision. Probably up to the mid '80's, Mercedes was truly "Engineered Like No Other Car In The World" as the tagline went. It was also the top rated car in terms of reliability and resale value.

When somebody bought a Mercedes in the '60's and 70's it was because they had the money and knew inherent value, and spent for true craftsmanship type quality. The "snob" factor was not (as much) an issue. The cars were generally stodgy, spartan and practical.

As time went on and management changed over the years, Daimler (and most companies) saw the need to cut costs and produce ever greater revenue and returns for shareholders and quality inevitably slid. As the domestic mfr's started installing "bells, whistles and frills on their cars, Mercedes chose to push the "elitist-snob" aspect (more in the mid '90's to current) as the product line grew enormously as did complexity. Its been years since you could buy a "simple" Mercedes here- the American market has been forced to take the uplevel options and biggest engines as standard equipment, while the european market still could get smaller engines, manual windows, transmissions and climate control systems.

The last nail in the coffin was Daimler's purchase of Chrysler. While I enjoy my '99 E300TD, it is nowhere near as solid as my past 123 body cars. I just bought a '75 SL and am faced with selling something to make room for it. While I originally thought of selling my 240, I am now leaning more towards selling the 99 and making the 240 my daily driver. The '99 is much less user friendly in terms of "DIY" repairs, and I enjoy getting my hands dirty. The 240 is about as simple to work on as anything out there.

So bottom line-

If it is about quality and engineering- but an older model. (You WILL want to spend the extra $$'s to get a truly well cared for one- I wouldn't want to buy one to restore unless I could do all the work myself as it could bleed you dry.) The one nice thing about this is that there is no other mfr that is as actively involved in supporting it's vintage models in service and parts than Mercedes.

If you want to impress your friends and business associates, buy a new one. Though I could, I will never buy a new one again.

J.G.