The title says 1980.
The insurance co. says, no way, it is a 1979.
The door plate say 1980.
It was a Euro car, and had a vacuum system noone has ever seen b4.
I am getting weary of its unreasonably hard shifts, and no diagram seems to pertain to me, and I don't want to buy the wrong parts...
Anybody else been through this?

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Think Alternative Energy!
300CD '80 (now gone but not forgotten...)

If the car is a 300CD, the it is for the North American market, since we were the only ones to recieve a diesel coupe. As for the year, that can be a tough one, as to when and where the car was originally sold and tittled, as this can vary from state to state. Some base it on the year the car was acutally sold, and others base it on the model year. So lets say the car is a model year 1979, but it was sold in 1980, then if the car was in one of those states that does it based on when the car was sold it would be a 1980. Also many insurance companies have bad or old information in their systems, so it might be different from what the tittle says...

In any case the 79 and 80 should be pretty much the same, so parts ordered should fit one if ordered for the other.

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1959 Gravely LI, 1963 Gravely L8, 1973 Gravely C12
1982 380SL
1978 450 SEL 6.9 euro restoration at 63% and climbing
1987 300 D
2005 CDI European Delivery
2006 CDI Handed down to daughter
2007 GL CDI. Wifes

If you check the MB Factory shop manual.... many items had like three variations put on our cars.... so they give either the engine number or the vin number of what was original " up to #" or " starting at # "....
So even for us with no year problem.... we still need to look at the FSM to determine what we have many times....

Now it gets even more complex.
The original owner told me his mother had it shipped from overseas, and had to change windows, ect, for the import.
When I call the dealer for parts, they tell me it is a Euro VIN.
Did this thing cross the Atlantic twice, or were some of these Euro origin?

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Think Alternative Energy!
300CD '80 (now gone but not forgotten...)

Some of them came from the European delivery program, where the US spec car would be picked up at the factory, driven around Europe, then shipped back to the US. Many people did this for their vacations.

Joe you might have to consider a sham based car.

Maybe someone got into an accident and someone just used a different body, engine, etc....

Well, since the car did have an AC Servo that he bypassed, then it would have to be a North American model, since they were the only ones to use it, the rest of the world got manual controls...

This is getting interesting.
I should research the VIN furthur,
and interestingly enough I do remember that the fellows mother had lived over there for awhile.
Her buying it for export to US specs sounds like a real possibility.

Geez, we were the lucky ones to get the servo..

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Think Alternative Energy!
300CD '80 (now gone but not forgotten...)