The restored one in the second link is far better deal than the first rust bucket if you were comparing them. The guy wants around 11K for the one needing restoration and the nice one is going for 43K. You'll blow far more than 40K restoring the first one.
I remember seeing the 300d's going for around 10K about 10 years ago and that was for fairly nice ones.

__________________
DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

some of these seem to have been sedans of fairly good size. There are pix of them in many Mercedes books because this was the first production diesel passenger car. Germany had many refined diesel engines due to military applications, and of course after the war it was the ability to produce diesel engine passenger cars (which could run on fairly impure fuel) when almost no good quality gasoline was available for civilian use (a condition that went on almost to the mid-'50s, if not beyond).

The nicest old diesel I've ever seen was a '53 170DS that had been used in Paris by members of the DuPont family...it seems that all the Chryslers and Cadillacs they had imported to the continent wound up with no gasoline available on a regular basis decent enough to run the high-compression American V-8s of the period.

Interesting. What was the problem with the quality of the gas after the war? By that I mean why wasn't the gas pure? They certainly had the technology and they certainly were racing cars then. Even race cars of the day demanded good fuel. I wonder why if racers were allowed access to good fuel why not the general public?

Cheers,

Bill

limited due to bombing damage, loss of rail lines, etc. In England, all gas had to be imported, and they really wanted to hold down gold outflow (this is why you rarely see an MG T series in England...almost all went to export). The generally available petrol was a very iffy thing called "pool" and the octane and impurities compromised it wildly...and even this in UK/Europe was VERY expensive, even rationed.

Just as steady supplies were beginning to be established, there was the 1956 Suez Crisis, which blocked the canal for almost a year, cutting off much tanker traffic...Alec Issigonis (sp?) responded to this by creating the first Mini, the model for almost all modern small cars since.

Thank you Jim. Great history lesson.

I had forgotten the impact of the Suez Canal crisis and was unaware of the shortages caused by bombing.

Cheers,

Bill

The engine is the same block used in the 300SL of the same era. The core value of the engine exceeds that of the hull, but is still around $6k or so, at least.

I sold a comparable 1962 300d Adanauer last year for $7500 not running, needing everything.