You couldn’t replace the car for the cost of fixing it. Plus a newer Benz would be guaranteed an array of problems over it’s service life. So….. it seems an easy decision. Plus the best way to ruin a car is to let it sit unused for years.

Were it me I’d solve the mechanical issues, and maybe even add a freshening of the suspension to the list, so that in the end the car will ride (feel) better than it does now. You get tangible improvements for results as in addition to merely the absence of smoke. Once you get the mechanical issues sorted out, then look at painting it.

Personally I don’t prioritize how my cars look. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but if they get washed every few months I’m okay with that. Other things are way more important and I simply don’t have a lot of time to clean them other than the windows, headlights, and mirrors. By painting the car you are opening the door to hours lost for cleaning/polishing it, plus the inevitable desire that will come to freshen up the inside to make it look as good as the recently painted outside. Plus, no casual respray ever satisfies the car owner. You will find scores of flaws after the work is done. In short, painting it becomes the overture for a maintenance trap of a different order.

Also, look into a factory rebuilt engine/transmission. With the number of miles on the car, and knowing nothing about the longevity of 126 drive line, I would guess that any number of components could be expected to fail sooner rather than later.

The other side of this is if you don’t mind the expense, go for a new or newer car. You put all the problems behind you – for a while -- in trade for 4x to 6x the cost of a fix up.

Also, I have a 3” thick stack of repair logs done on my former ’91 300E wagon. After the 2nd time fixing some stuff, and too many billable hours lost due to maintenance issues, I got rid of the car. The ultimate problem was the inability to ever make the car reliable for more than a couple of thousand miles – cost be dammed.

But after selling the car I dearly missed the ride…..so ended up buying another 124 even after getting my formerly shiny new ML.

The point being that a) if you love the car, you won’t get over it. And b) if but for over-due maintenance your car is basically reliable, you can’t possibly do better than to fix her up.

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"