1980 300d When is enough ?
 

I love this car. Bought it in 1986 with 40,000 miles. It now has 266,000 and keeps on trucking. Unfortunately my son is now driving it. I told him to treat it like an old lady but it appears he thinks its a young chick. Its amazing that I could drive her forever and have no problems and he has one or two problems a month. Cost of parts are nuts but been able thru this site to get replacements at a resonable price. Thankfully I can replace them my self. When should I give up my "Grey Goust" ?

What is wrong with this picture?
 

Take a lesson from my father:
I was given one old beater from my parents, all others I bought, insured, fueled and repaired out of my pocket.
When my car broke, dad would bring a coffee, a folding chair and a book to the garage.
He would answer questions or tell me where to find the answers, but it was my blood and sore muscles that fixed every car.
That develops a strong motivation to not break things.
If the car was not fixed in three days, it went to the scrap yard, I argued once, when I got home the next day the car was a mound cut into very small chunks.

Any idiot can destroy a car, time he learned the full hard cost with his blood and sore muscles...

Thanks for the advice. But its hard to see a old gal die. He is in college so trying to keep the cost down low. I hear what your saying but in a trap.

buy him an old honda. he's not ready for a diesel yet :D :D . In the long run i think the cost of parts will equal an old honda.

If he is not
 

busting knuckles on the car with you, it will only get worse.
Put her down now and get him a saturn.

Hmmm
 

Where are you?
Don't think you are alone, last year...
My uncle in Texas; took back his 1965 Buick, from his 21 year old freshman grandson.
The boy did $9,000.00 damage to the Buick in three months.

Instead, he gave the boy his seven year old full dress Honda Goldwing Motorcycle with 18000 miles on the clock.

I maybe crazy but thinking about restoring this car...am i nuts?

Probably, but that is beside the point. Maybe if you can get your son involved in the restoration he may learn to appreciate what you are doing for him. Let him pay his own way for a while and he will learn quickly.

Thanks twitch
Sometimes hard to let it go but i hear ya. Donn't want anyone to to hurt my babe.

Man...don't get rid of your baby. Just confiscate it from your son and keep it. There aren't many people that are the second owner of a 1980 300D. You should be able to keep that car going relatively cheaply as it isn't turbo and most parts for the earlier 123's are pretty reasonable.

I second what Mackbenz said...your son isn't ready for a diesel yet. Buy him a Toyota Corolla, that'll make him appreciate what he had!

I acquired my 240D when I was 16, but I have done every single thing to that car since we bought it, including an engine replacement, so I have a lot of motivation not to break it because I don't like laying in wet coveralls under the car when it's 32 degrees outside and snowing.

make him buy his own car. i didn't have a car in college. why do you need a car at college? every campus i have ever been on has everything within wlaking distance. i went to school 300 miles from home...i took the greyhound home for holidays. you're spoiling him, and he's obvioulsy not appreciating it, the way he's beating up your car. buy him a pair of sneakers....

When I was growing up I got to share one of my mother's VW bugs. It was a 62, chopped and dropped, exposed engine, cut off fenders, a crazy paint job and a stinger. Oh yeah, and 480,000 miles on the clock. :eek: Point is, she loved it, and agreed to let me use it as long as I helped with the maintainence.

Once while driving it a guy ran a stop sign and took off one of the fenders. I was freaked out because it was my first accident, but it wasn't bad, since no one was hurt, and the car wasn't messed up too badly. It was a hit and run, and the parts were only a few bucks over the deductible, so it was decided that I would fix the car. My mom said, "I know it wasn't your fault, don't think of this as a punishment. Its just part of owning car, sometimes things happen, and you have to just take care of them if you want to keep driving." It wasn't bad, mounting a new fender and headlight and some wiring, then arranging to have an alignment done with our local crazy bug mechanics, but it taught me about the 'hidden costs' of cars that most of my friends never saw. They'd break something, then it would 'go away' for a day or two, and come back fixed. Like magic!

My dad always told me that every time I got into a car and drove it, I needed to put 5 dollars in a jar, because that is money that I'll have to spend keeping it running later. Now, he didn't actually make me physically put a bill into a jar, but he said it a lot to remind me that the cost of owning a car is more than just sticker price + gas.

Anyway, I'd have your son help you fix the car. Basic car maintainence is something that everyone needs to know (I think changing oil, jumpstarting, and putting on a spare tire should be part of your driver's license test!), and it will give him a better appreciation for the free ride he's getting. If he doesn't want to help, tell him he can buy his own car and take care of it himself. A few hours now and again is a SMALL price to pay for the ability to drive a cool car like the 300D, and if he doesn't see it now, he'll see it later.

peace,
sam

My father said you want a car you need to be able to work on it too, nothing minor ever went to a mechanic, but then I was always mechanicly inclined, He wouldn't let my mother get her license till she could change a flat tire after they got married. How many guys don't know how to change a spare. Around here thats a lot. I see new SUV's abandoned with a flat tire all the time, new ones with nice spares peaking out from underneither.

A real shame...........................................

I'm 22 and I drive my 240D like an old lady. I appreciate everything about, and I mean everything.

If you will be good to "IT" ----- "IT" will be good to you. ;)

It's not a "disposable" car...
 

and shouldn't be treated as such. As for making him "...fix up his car himself", this may have worked for a '57 Chevy, bur for a car newer than your 300D there will be too much embedded electronics, front-wheel-drive bogus technology, and other difficult stuff only a dealership or well-equipped indy will be able to diagnose and / or fix.

Don't let him run it into the ground...if it's a good car NOW, step in and stop the misuse and deterioration, and start to stock up on parts you may need down the road for a restoration...they'll never be cheaper than they are now, even if you don't get to this for 10 years.

I'd find a "beater" diesel, or maybe an OLD VW beetle he COULD learn to take apart and take care of.