PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - Daily Drivers

Squiggle Dog · #13 03-08-2019, 04:43 PM

I've daily driven my 1980 W116 300SD with 347,000 miles as my only car for about eight years. I've used it to daily commute over two hours a day in stop-and-go Phoenix traffic for over a year without really even opening the hood other than an oil change, and taken it on multi-state trips several times, once carrying a heavy load from Washington to Arizona. It only let me down once when the battery ground cable which was installed by a previous owner came loose and the engine wouldn't crank over.

Of course, as I was able, I've repaired or replaced almost every part on the car and currently am rebuilding the entire front and rear steering and suspension.

Before this I daily drove a 1968 W110 200D hard for a couple of years and loved it (but parted it out due to extreme rust and a leaky engine). And then before that was a 1979 W116 300SD (sold for too cheap because I was trying to buy a 1967 W111 230S which never happened).

I have no plans to drive anything but vintage Mercedes diesels for the rest of my life, though the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center is no longer restocking critical parts, and even the top brands like Lemförder are now made in China and Taiwan, so we're forced to degrade the quality of the cars to less than the standards to which they were built.