Howdy,
I was out driving around looking for old MB 300d’s as they are pretty common down here in South Florida and I came across a '85 300d turbo it show 145k on the odometer and by the looks of things had been abused by one of the former owners that is now deceased took a chance and went up to the house and knocked on the door to see if the car was for sale and it was now here’s the tricky part. The body has three rust areas, two are located on the rear section between the trunk and the rear window, and the third is located close to the curved section near the rear tail lights they are about the size of a large fist I know these can be repaired.
There the seats are firm and no sag like the seats in my ’79 300d.
For some reason there is no carpet in the interior guess it had been removed this isn't a big deal the former owner used the car to service a pool route the trunk is complete with the inserts and carpets but think my brother told me that it was rusted out not sure about this but can check it out again on Friday when I go back to make a final offer on the car. The a/c doesn’t work but it does blow but not cool the sun roof won’t move either it’s my understanding this can be an expensive repair. I was told that the car had sat for 6 to 12 months it started on the first try glow plug light came on and off quickly a huge cloud of black smoke came out the tail pipe took it for a test ride went around a few blocks and didn't feel the turbo kick in at first then it finally kicked in when it did another cloud of black smoke came out the tail pipe the turbo gauge isn't working but know that the turbo kicked in as I have a '79 300d non turbo and I know how slow these cars can be
I first made and offer of $500.00 cash in hand thinking this was fair as the car would need a lot of work or I could just clean it up and drive it the way that it is the owner’s daughter countered with $700.00 guess the mother noticed that I was pretty much firm on my offer but she was in the background signing to me $600.00 and the car’s yours.
Just wanted to throw this out and get a few of my fellow W123 enthusiast’s opinions on the car before I make a decision tomorrow.
*On a side note my car isn’t in nearly as bad a shape as this ’85 turbo I just need a set of tires on the old ’79 which the ’85 will need also just ordered a pair of the heavy duty bilstein shocks that I could use on either car I would just like to have a little faster car and for $500/$600 this maybe it.
Thank and Happy Holidays.
HogLeg