Hello friends -

Well, another potential sale was botched today, but thank GOODNESS I decided to have a PPI done on the car. The dealership found numerous problems with this car - bad rear differential mounts, tons of vacuum issues, hard starting, etc. In all, the Mercedes dealership in Marion, IL quoted me $3,500 to get the car in "acceptable" condition.

If anyone on the forum was considering this car, I'd take a pass - I know I did.

Marion will fax the report to me, and I will be happy to share it with anyone who inquires.

Had to have an emergency root canal yesterday anyway, so this must not be my time to get my dream car. Perhaps another time ... for now, my VW will do just fine.

Have a great weekend everyone,
Michael.

__________________
+AMDG+
2005 W203
Running as fast as I can to stay behind!!

Now that is the way to buy a used car!

Get a PPI and know exactly what the vehicle needs.


Much better than rolling the dice like some of us do
(not mentioning any names here. )

Hi. This is my first time, so please be gentle with me, but...what's a PPI? I'm bidding on an '85 300D/78,000 mi that goes off in 4 days on eBay. All suggestions greatly appreciated. (Help??)

PPI= Pre-purchase inspection.

This is recommended for every vehicle, to be done by an independent mechanic. Separates the frauds on e-bay from the legitimate sellers.

Unfortunately, most of us don't take this advice and roll the dice based upon description, photos, and feedback.

Sometimes we get burned a bit.

BTW, you could post a link here and many of us will give you an opinion on it, to the best of our ability using the e-bay description.

It's no PPI but, it's better than going at it alone.

Edited:

I found it:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6330&item=4527424526&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Now we can take a closer look.

Mine has none of that rust............and I paid $2,800 for mine In Burke VA.

I worry about why its had so many panels resprayed.......in so few miles....I bet its actually about 278K miles. MD has no annual inspection so few paper trails to track actual miles if owner had it for a large number of years

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I took a look at the listing.

I would avoid this vehicle for the following reasons:

1) The price is going to climb up over $4K, or more, strictly because of the low mileage. However, there is likely to be no possible way to verify the mileage. I would run a Carfax on it, but, it may not confirm anything. There are low mileage examples of these vehicles around, but, this one hardly appears to have 78K on the clock.

2) You are inheriting a vehicle with rust. Why not wait until you can find one with no rust. It makes absolutely no sense to pay a premium for a vehicle that supposedly has 78K on the clock that has rust on the body.

3) It's repainted by a moron.

Remember, don't be swayed by low mileage on these vehicles. They are still 20 years old and all of their components are 20 years old. The only benefit to low mileage is the mileage on the engine and transmission.

Far better to find a vehicle that has it's original paint and no rust. Well maintained and 150K on the clock. It will look better and cost you less in the long run.

My $.02. Others will also provide advice. Weigh it carefully.

A hearty welcome to the forum, Harry!

PPI = pre-purchase inspection. I have learned from experience that a Mercedes MUST be well cared for. If not, they can be money pits and cost major $$$. Having a pre-purchase inspection done gives the buyer at least a bit more confidence as to what they are getting. In my case, it saved me from a HUGE mistake. $3,500.00 would have just covered the basics ... probably would have been more like $5k + before it was in tip-top shape.

Your 1985 that you're looking at is mechanically a simpler car than the 1995 I was looking at (I should go that route!). But still - as with any car, there are always things that will go wrong and cost $$. If you have a budget, like me, and can't afford repair bills that exceed what you pull in every month, then you must carefullly select that dream car ... this, obviously, was not the one.

I'm still in shock as to what they found. This was a one-owner car with an owner that I thought would have kept it WELL-MAINTAINED. Obviously not ... Here's what they found:

1. A/C compressor not engaging; wiring into the ACC system and other components was a disaster.

2. Main engine and other wiring harnesses had been spliced into at various locations.

3. The following suspension parts were in bad shape:
-------------->shocks
-------------->struts
-------------->wheel bearings (front and rear)
-------------->idler arm
-------------->lower ball joints
-------------->control arm

4. Vacuum system was missing SEVERAL vacuum lines.

5. ABS light was on - who knows what that was all about.

6. Rear axle seals leaking at the differential.

7. Front wheel bearings bad; need replacement.

8. Power steering hoses leaking.

Estimated cost of repairs? $3,500.00! I just about fell over when I saw this huge laundry list thrown at me. On a one-owner car with 89k, I was VERY surprised ... needless to say.

Thank you thank you thank you PPI!

-Michael.

__________________
+AMDG+
2005 W203
Running as fast as I can to stay behind!!

I looked at the Carfax report for this car, Harry, and the mileage has been verified as accurate - at least as far as Carfax is concerned.

I think Brian gives some excellent advice - we BOTH need to wait for our dream cars ... this one wasn't for me, and you can do much better on a nice-looking 300D. Hang in there - it's bound to come to you!

Take care,
Michael.

__________________
+AMDG+
2005 W203
Running as fast as I can to stay behind!!

I'd like to back Brian Carlton regarding the advice to goodkingharry. I haven't seen a single indication from that car that it truly has 78K miles only. Many aspects of its exterior condition don't agree with the mileage, even if the car was just parked outside a driveway for many, many years and exposed to rain, sunshine, snow, ice etc, it wouldn't develop so much rust and so much wear of its paint. To his/her credit, the seller showed the car from just about every angle you can imagine. This is a sign that he/she truly believes the car has low miles. This looks like a car I'd get a PPI done on before I start bidding on it.

__________________
1999 Mercedes-Benz S600, 103K miles - garage queen
1988 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL, 89K miles - daily driver
2007 Hyundai Sonata Limited, 31K - daily driver

Here we go again, potatoes but not enough meat. Actual fuel milage claims excessive. Possibility doors not repainted just another set installed from another car because of rust or damage as seems to be a common practice in maryland. Really get tired of these milage claims. Have five mercedes myself and only on one do i think the milage accurate. (maybe two at a stretch) On ebay what is being sold is a lot of hype unfortunatly rather than good cars. Of course there are good cars out there as well but the sorting process is involved. Buyers want to hope for the best and this factor seems to be played upon all too often. Human nature i suppose. At least all the non paying bidders with O feedback are not on this item yet. Think found some O feedback non paying guy bidding on about six cars the other day on mercedes site alone. Driving the price beyond items value of course. I think ebay is getting worst all the time. Make sure the car is really inspected properly before paying for it in fact should really be done before bidding. The real fraud artists are going to increase their use of ebay steadily. It's like a licence to steal. Lets face it if I have a 20 year old mercedes with 78 thousand original miles on it do i really have to go looking for a buyer on ebay? Some of my better cars have people steadily asking for them. A couple of them are also fit to become ebay material unfortunatly. I suspect the terms junkyard and ebay are becoming interchangeable perhaps in some instances. In many cases you can request a forum member to go have a look to start with when you find something really interesting to yourself. Ebay is not totally negative but really is dangerous. Opposite example given to show a little light. Now remember i live in canada. A friend of mine put his diesel coupe up on ebay last fall and I did not bid or pay much attention. He brought it new and kept it in heated storage still having it serviced at regular intervals to replace any items going bad sitting. No flaws anywhere as never driven in even rain since the day he purchased it new. Thirty thousand miles total milage verified by mercedes dealer who serviced it since new. I knew the guy and car and it was true. In first day of auction went to 3,600 american. I did not watch it after first day as felt it was going to go way up and have enough cars now. Also expected this one to go past 10,000 american. That 3,600 bid was the last offered. Really sorry I did not track item but winning bidder may have had high reserve or I would like to hope so. If not I passed on perhaps the best diesel coupe ever offered on ebay. Seller could have done far better selling locally but thought he was going to make a killing on ebay and did not even have a reserve himself. I would have gone to a reasonable price as this one really was like new with all items that deteriate with time alone constantly dealt with. In otherwords it was basically almost still a new car. Just hard to believe that 3,600 was the high early and last bid. Knew it stunned me when checking after auction was over. Greed did the seller in as he could have got eight thousand american with little trouble locally. This was a one in a thousand or more likely one in ten thousand kind of thing. Just love the low milage claims with tears in seats or seats in sagged condition when I have some examples of mercedes with 240k that are still hard to tell from new when looking at the original interiors. Perhaps the mythical 500k has already been achieved on a lot of the used mercedes cars on ebay but the odometers just do not show it. After all when these cars where brought new they were purchased partially for their fuel milage and by people who drive excessive miles in general. There was a lot of money to be made when these cars were pretty new by turning back the odometer several times. Mind the self failure rate of the odometers as well. Try to excuse my apparently cynical attitude but just hate to see people get beat up as I could not do these things to others and live with myself. One must always keep an open mind though. Maybe the newer paint on some of the panels really is not covering up rust or dent damage underneath. Perhaps just repainted to cover up the taxi companys name and information instead?

And as I stated earlier.......Carfax and others depend on paper trails for their info....the state MD has no anual inspection (well except for emissions testing now on gassers) and therefore no paper trail for actual milage. THat seller could have done 200,000 or 500,000 miles that would not reflect on the paper trail if he had owned the car for long enough to do it.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Ditto....

While I love my car and I know that John did a great job fixing things, had a done a ppi, I probably would have passed or tried to get it a little cheaper.

By the same token, quite a few things I have done to the car, occured after I purcashed it so you're rolling the dice with these old cars.

On the other hand my 240D was purchased on the spot, cash, no haggling because I knew I found a steal.

__________________
Enough about me, how are you doing?

Good, long post!!! I really like the above part that I've put here in my post. Maybe the 500,000 miles really has been achieved on some of these cars. Also, I have heard of odometers that broke at 120,000 miles (though not typical, most of them break much later) but still, it is an indication of when inaccurate details start showing up on these cars. In fact, when I pulled my instrument cluster, I was amazed at how easily I could have rolled back the odometer. Even more amazing was the fact that I could have simply swapped my speedometer with one from eBay, used it for several years, and then popped back in the original one with just 159K miles when the car's ready for sale and then make up a story like that the car was just sitting for several years. It is very easy to do this. At this point, my service records lead straight to 155K miles (last oil change). I can claim that the car was parked then and just sat. Then four years later when the odometer really should be reading 240K (based on how many miles I currently put on the car per year) I could just do the swap and sell the car as a "low mileage" car. Geez!! When I figured out all this, I started wondering if I had been tricked on my car!! I probably shouldn't have posted this here in case some dishonest nut comes along, but oh well, I still have to share it and I'm sure some of you have also thought of the chances that such a thing was done on your car before you bought it. Afterall, no matter how you look at it, a 20-year old car with just 145K miles was barely used and people rarely buy these diesels to just let them sit around.

Hey, is there a central location for obtaining information regarding which states in the country require annual or bi-annual car inspections? This would be really vital information for everyone here as we keep our sharp eyes open on these car sales.

__________________
1999 Mercedes-Benz S600, 103K miles - garage queen
1988 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL, 89K miles - daily driver
2007 Hyundai Sonata Limited, 31K - daily driver

The odometer on my 240D broke at 76,000 miles. The previous owner claimed it had another 40K on it, but there's no way to know for sure. First thing I did after buying the car was take the odometer apart, repair it, and set the mileage to 116,000. It wasn't very difficult at all.

__________________
Rick Miley
2014 Tesla Model S
2018 Tesla Model 3
2017 Nissan LEAF
Former MB: 99 E300, 86 190E 2.3, 87 300E, 80 240D, 82 204D Euro
Chain Elongation References

I'm a stickler for knowing what my true milage is too....how else do you judge when to change oil?

And Yes I know oil analysis will tell you that but do you think someone who doesn't spring to fix an odometer is going to pay for oil analysis.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche