Hello,
A *milestone* almost passed unnoticed by me this October. It is exactly 50 years ago that my dad bought the 170DS new and it is still with us
I guess that makes it 50 years of continous MB ownership, many pretenders and bad actors in the the automotive sense have come and gone, but there has always been one or two operational MBs in the family.
His first car was a Vauxhall of some sort in 1950, then he bought a 170Va in 1951, only because a German car was difficult to sell in a British colony, not just because the war had just ended six years earlier, but the very heavy taxation that any non Brit product had to face.
The 170Va was a bit of a rogue according to my dad, it was much faster than factory figures BUT guzzled the 50 octane gas like it was going out of fashion, then sometime in 1953 it caught fire(the gas tank was in the engine bay, no fuel pump )when blackmarket petrol bought from His Majesty's Indian Army(the post war occupation force in Malaya)was spilt on the distributor by a ham fisted Seargant Major It was repaired, but never did run the same, so my dad traded it in for one of three or four 170DSs that were sitting in the showroom of the MB dealer because nobody knew what the hell a diesel was and stayed away from them.
Thus, this car, a 1953 170DS came into our family and has outlived my dad and quite a few other people as well. If only everything else in life had the same kind of reliability and durability that this car has shown, running everyday from October 1954 to December 1980, accumalating something like 780,000 miles in a country that is smaller than California and only has had any highway system to speak of since 1990.
A Daimler Benz engineer that had a look at the car in 1988 had only one comment:We don't make them like this anymore
Have a good holiday
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Nachi11744

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Nachi11744

Thanks for the interesting story...they are really beautiful cars.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

A Haitian friend of mine here in Miami has a similiar story--the family 240D--now multi generational. The grandfather bought it new when he first came to the states in 1978, then he passed it on to the Father. Now the grandson has it and it is running strong, everyday use around the neighborhood-with 425,000 miles on the clock. Detroit hates people and cars like this !! No planned obsclesense.

can u post some pics?

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have no worries.....President Obama swears "If you like your gun, you can keep it

That's an amazing story. I would love to see some pictures also if you can post them. Did you rack up all those miles on the original engine?

Scott

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Scott
1982 Mercedes 240D, 4 speed, 275,000
1988 Porsche 944 Turbo S (70,000)
1987 Porsche 911 Coupe 109,000 (sold)
1998 Mercedes E300 TurboDiesel 147,000 (sold)
1985 Mercedes 300D 227,000 (totaled by inattentive driver with no insurance!)
1997 Mercedes E300 Diesel 236,000 (sold)
1995 Ducati 900SS (sold)
1987 VW Jetta GLI 157,000 (sold)
1986 Camaro 125,000 (sold - P.O.S.)
1977 Corvette L82 125,000 (sold)
1965 Pontiac GTO 15,000 restored (sold)

Hello,
I have tried posting pics, but it just seems to be over my head
The original engine overrevved and threw a rod(#3) in 1970 when my dad was trying to outrun a Froeye Sprite
The reason it overevved, well the mechanics here did not(and still do not)understand the vacuum governor that the *old* benz diesels used. The vacuum line from the throttle flap to the IP must be ABSOLUTELY airtight, even a slight leak can cause the engine to overrev.
The replacement engine was a slightly later OM636 from Germany and it is still in the car today.
Have a good holiday.

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Nachi11744

How has the body held up?

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

As it stands now, it is very rusty, but it does not really matter on these cars, it has a seperate chassis. The running boards are the worst, but it has rust in all the lower corners.
More serious is the lack of spares for the the RHD steering box, a ZF part that was also used on the first 55 Gullwings
Later cars(not the 170DS)used a MB made box, parts MAY still be avaliable, but the ZF for RHD...............forgetaboutit

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Nachi11744

Was doing a search on 1951 170VAs and this is the only thread I found.

Have this chappie looking to restore a 170VA and wondering where in this world are we gonna source the parts.

Perhaps Phil might just have the answer.

BTW - great story.

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... Kerry

126 tailed by a 203, 129 leading the pack.

So, maybe it's time to restore it to former glory?

BTW: That's a nice story

Hello,
What is this *chappie* looking for? It is rare for 170s to *need* many new parts, for almost ALL assemblies on the cars can be taken apart and rebuilt, that is if the car is still with the original drivetrain. Twenty years ago I almost bought a 170S that was sinking into the ground in Bentong, Pahang but one look under the hood had me running in the opposite direction-----it had a Nissan pick up chassis/drivetrain that had been *cut-n-shut* under the 170 bodyshell No sign of the oval tube chassis, upper/lower control arm front swing axle rear suspension.
Niemoller is your best bet, they have come a long way since we first bought stuff from them in 1979 for my dad's 170DS.
Lots of reproduction stuff from Australia as well for many European marques like Alfa, BMW, Mercedes. A few hours on the net ought to turn up worthwhile info.
Have a good week.

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Nachi11744