Looked at an 87 300SDL for $1000 , 289,000 miles. Fair interior, rough exterior, no rust, looks to be all original except for minor repairs, California car. Thinking about it as a parts car for my current 300SDL and/or parting out. Owner commented that it was leaking water out of the water pump weep hole. Found no oil in coolant but the oil looked like an emulsion, very thick like syrup. Been sitting for six weeks with mostly water as coolant. Has number 14 head. Very tight ride. trans said to be rebuilt 14K miles ago - shifts well. Glow plug light did not work on startup, owner insisted I start it anyway and the car did start and run well.
Any constructive thoughts, abusive comments, ridicule etc....
Thanks.

If you have the $ and the space, buy it.....

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Definitely sounds like a parts car with the oil "emulsion" (head or gasket failure) The rebuilt tranny is probably worth the $1000 (if you need one). Do you think it has $1000 worth of parts that you want (or that you want to go to the effort of selling)?

Who doesn't have $1K............?

Sounds like a good parts car.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Another fine point Joe. You're a machine.....
I can't wait for your next pearl of wisdom.....

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

With "no rust," it sounds like a daily-driver, to me.

Might be a daily driver, just need to look at it a little closer when I get it.
Needs a water pump and a few odds and ends. Oh yes, a new star on the hood.
I lucked out on my current 300sdl , picked it up for $2K with a factory fresh interior and had some costly repairs done by previous owner.
This "parts" car could be a nice 4th car for me with cheap paint job. It is really rough on the exterior - no dents or scratches , just badly faded paint - and peeling clear coat. Really neat though , has all the original stuff in the trunk like MBenz cell phone (later add-on) and all the little goodies,,, plus boxes of oil filters, fuel filters, some parts still in boxes etc...
Yeah maybe I should put a bit into it and drive it to save the miles on the nicer SDL.

If I were in San Antone and wanted a daily driver I'd need AC. Does the AC work at all? if it does it would be a deal. For around 2K you should be able to strip off the bumpers, some trim and the lights and get a decent paint job. I wouldn't go to that effort on a car that didn't have AC unless I lived out here on the cool coast
It will need to have the head off it there is water in the oil and if just the head gasket somone will be lucky, if a cracked #14 then its off to the bank to fix it. Unless you have another parts car available

__________________
'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

It could be, depends on whats going on with the engine.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Engines and interiors can be fixed......rusted-out wheel wells, rocker panels, floor boards.......? Nut-uh........can't be "fixed"...........it always comes back.

Just say NO! ..........to buying rusted out POS MB diesels.

Of course but for a beater driver if the interior is shot, and the engine is shot its not worth spending $6k to fix the engine.

If the engine is good you can run it for awhile before parting it.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Rust is the only consideration @ $1,000.00. Who knows, the guy might take $#500.00 for it. Everything, besides rust, is negotiable.

It doesn't matter, in the $0-1000 range (basically free) you are talking about putting a lot of time into either getting it decent shape or removing parts. It comes down to whether or not it's worth the effort to you.

B.S.

Rust ALWAYS matters.......it's not some rusted-out Colorado-Special, it's a NON-RUSTED California-Texas daily driver.........duh!