I have lusted after MB diesels since I was a kid (I constantly drew the blue 300D that my bus passed every day of elementary and middle school) and I am finally at a point where I can afford to have one of my own. I am looking to get a late 70s – early 80s 240 or 300D with the lowest amount of miles on the clock that I can afford. This car will be used for a 70 mi roundtrip commute 3 days a week and maybe some short weekend trips. I have been researching everything I can here in the forums and elsewhere (the forums have been an amazing resource) and I am left with only one question:

What is the best way to go about getting a PPI? I really want to know that whatever I end up buying is solid and wanted to know if dealers will do these or only independent shops. My preference would be an independent shop, but I wanted to know if there was any certification I should be looking for from that shop. I feel that I could check for a lot of the issues any car might have, but I’d really like the security of a PPI.

Thanks for your time and any the information that you might be able to provide.

Welcome! Years ago a friend was going to buy one sight unseen, clear across country. He had the seller take to a dealer to inspect, forget the cost. It's up to you to trust whomever you're dealing with. When he got there, had to install new slave cylinder in his friends driveway, in the rain of course. These things are good one day, go out the next. He did make the purchase, and is still driving it.

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83 SD

84 CD

PPI - took me a sec....

If you want an exhaustive list, take it to the dealer and have them give you a list of what is wrong. Of course it might be as detailed as worn out muffler hangers, but you'll know what you are getting into.

I did a PPI on my 140, cost my nothing, and let me know for sure that the car had not been in a wreck previously.

As I'm sure folks have told you - buy the best you can afford, go for no rust, and there are some expensive things that would be great if they were addressed by the previous owner: AC, front suspension, car starts well from cold and shifts properly. Other things like all the electrical (windows, sunroof etc), and brakes are important, but not too bad to fix.

Good luck!

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~shell
As of 2/2010:
2001 CLK55 0o\=*=/o0
13.6 @ 106mph
10K mi
1984 300SD
260K mi and going and going...
97 S600
46K miles
1991 Sentra SE-R (extremely dorked with)
www.se-r.net

Thanks for the help. I'm trying to gain as much knowledge as I can so that I can do the pre-purchase inspection myself, but I know that I am not going to catch everything. I am really trying to learn all of the places to look for rust since I am going to have to buy a car from the Philly area. I am also trying to familiarize myself with the points at which major components tend to fail or not to be replaced.

Thanks again for the help.

Considering your location, I would try to buy a southern or CA car. Pretty much every northern W123 at this point has rust, well unless it wasn't driven much in the winter or was down south for a long time.

Look for a 1982-85, you want the turbo 617, the natural engine doesn't offer any advantages. 85's were geared a little higher which is nice.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I'd love to get a southern car to get around the rust issues and I'm looking into the cost of bringing the car up north. Thanks for the suggestions regarding the years and engines I should be looking for. I have loved these cars for their design and amazing engineering for years, but I don't know all of the subtle differences between all the models/years just yet.

Figure about $800-$1k to have it shipped to you. Its a bargin considering how little rust the same amount of money will fix.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I too have been looking at cars and checking shipping rates. Right now less than a thousand dollars will get you a car shipped to philly from southern california. Das must be feeling some pressure as those are their rates at this time. In fact DAS even cheaper if you go about it right. Less than 600 california to northern maine. As one poster mentioned in the final conclusion you may have to trust someone. You have a couple of vendors in your area that sell marginal cars regularily. A thorough search of your area may turn up something with little or no rust of course. Just be careful whatever you decide to do.

Obvious rust spots aside, undercarrige, under hood near hinges. Check cruise control, climate control unit. Transmissions are, high tech term coming up, persnickity. If you can, get a compression test.

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83 SD

84 CD