I had to laugh at the above post because I'LL BET Larry's 240 feels like it has about 20hp...

The closer I get to moving "over the hill" (Santa Cruz) and thus a long-er commute, the closer I'm getting to purchasing another diesel. My 83 300SDT was a great car. Pretty much gave it away to my tech with almost 250k miles on the clock.

It dripped oil and even some tranny fluid EVERYWHERE, but used very little (though if starting after a week unused it would bomb everyone behind me for a couple of miles cropduster-style). Did all the scheduled maintenace (with exception of regular valve work - see above comment) and added a water pump around 125k and a radiator due to cracked-neck-syndrome at 210k. Brakes, rubber, fluids, filters, two batteries and belts were all it needed other than that. I don't even know if it got a flex-disc or not.

Oh yeah - and it got sheepskins. The leather did a pretty good shrink-and-crack act about year 12. Then again, it went 12 years without garage or Lexol, so...

Great car although I thought ugly - bronze, with the 'new' (124?) body style. I prefer the 123s for looks and size. Anyway, it was still pulling strong when I gave it up though the first major expenses were coming.

Namely, turbo seals and tranny. The tranny started to simultaneously hard-shift on the 1-2 (good for loosening up my neck) and lose the 3-4 at about 210k. By manually using my sport mode (not a bad idea for city streets anyway), I could avoid it and letting off slightly on the 3-4 would help it engage. Strange thing: it never slipped on a 4-3 downshift, just when moving UP, and the higher I held 3 into the revs the less it slipped going to 4. Anyway, was still driveable but annoying by 240k...

I've got the antenna up for some old lady's 123 with low miles (read: anything around 100k). I'm not certain if the simple passing of time has dried out these cars and made them prone to failure, but there MUST be a few good, always-garaged models up for sale...

It's the 123 Coupe Diesels I never find - and I'd really really like one of those.
Matt