I worked on a 560 the other day that was gorgeous.

After a few minutes under the car and a short drive, I determined that the car was totalled. The car was a good example of what I see quite often.

The car had probably been a one owner well maintained car untill a few years ago. It had probably been sold when the original owner was told that the smoke coming from under the car was from a combination of oil and transmission fluid leaking on the exhaust. The oil leak was the left head gasket and the trans leak was the front pump an easy 4k worth of repairs in my shop, maybe close to 10k in some of the areas I read about here.

From the point of sale a few years ago nothing was done to the car and it had easily a few thou more of incidental repairs that had accumulated: windows that didn't work, air that came out the wrong vents, door locks, etc.

The car actually drove quite well and the repair decision was whether to get a few of the accumulated miseries fixed on a car that was really history.

This car and my guess as to its history, represents the most common senario I see with reguard to 126 cars. They outlive the owners abilities to pay for them and they still do well. The first and second owners do well for the car untill something major comes up and then they off it. The next few owners do nothing but drive the snot out of it.

We call these cars 50 footers. They look great from 50 feet.

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Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician