AGAIN, there are many in this thread that are comparing oranges to apples. These are two different cars, designed 30 years apart for different markets.

The comment about throwing parts at it is one that I am prepared to take issue with. I have a very detailed log book for my half million mile 240D. I didn't start the log until a little after 140,000 miles, but there were virtually no repairs before that mark.

The parts that I "threw at" that car were so minimal for so many miles that it is incredible. I never replaced a u-joint, ball joint or tie rod end until a little before the 500,000 mile mark. It went through a few starters, a couple of alternators a couple of clutches, a vacuum pump during this course of time. At 380,000 miles I did an overhaul because it seemed time due to the rear main seal suddenly beginning to leak profusely. Once the engine was apart, however, everything was in amazingly good shape with very little bearing or piston/cylinder wear. There was the beginning of a ring land failure on one piston. It was in good enough shape that it is very possible that had I simply replaced the rear main, it would have made it a lot farther.

I turned the car over to my son at 450,000 miles on his sixteenth birthday. His goal was to see a half million miles on it before he left for college and he made it.

Another thing about that car which is hard to describe is the UNBELIEVABLE reliability and dependability it offered. Almost the whole time I drove that car I was driving 60 to 70 thousand miles a year covering several states. It was just another average day for me to jump in that car at 3:00AM for a six hour drive to an important meeting. That car NEVER, EVER caused me to be late for a meeting. It came close one time when a belt broke, but luckily I had enough pad in my schedule that I showed up on time and this was about a five hour one way trip. Given the cars designed in the sixties and seventies, I doubt that very many of them could give you that kind of serious dependability. I didn't even carry a tool kit in the car until it had about 300,000 miles on it and just about every time I started it up I was going for at least an hour and a half drive.

As I said in a previous post, this car cost fewer pennies per mile ALL EXPENSES included, than any other car I ever owned that I purchased new or near new. Ammortizing the original cost and ALL operational expenses including insurance gave me the cheapest cost per mile of anything I ever drove. I wish I could say that for my 124 car.