Just got home with it. 81, 240D manual, 316000K miles.




- Peter.

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2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

The sluggishness of 240Ds is legendary but 7 years to get it home???

Sixto
MB-less

Man I thought my "95 300D was slow but 7 years really. I want the back on this.

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'85 F250 6.9L diesel 2wd XL XC LB Centurion, Gone
'95 Mercedes E 300 Diesel W124.131 with a OM606.910 and just over 200k on the clock, needs top end engine work and a transmission.
2000 S500 W220 with a 5.0L V8 gas power.

That is a very clean car

Whats the history?

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Glad you got one.

More pics!

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

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83 SD

84 CD

I'm amazed it looks that clean for the miles. Very nice!! Was it repainted?

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Current Diesels:
1981 240D (73K)
1982 300CD (169k)
1985 190D (169k)
1991 350SD (116k)
1991 350SD (206k)
1991 300D (228k)
2008 ML320 CDI (199k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (442k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (267k)

Past Diesels:
1983 300D (228K), 1985 300D (233K), 1993 300D 2.5T (338k), 1993 300SD (291k)

Nice lookin ride!

I'll get more pic's up soon. This was just a quick cell phone shot to get something posted as soon as I got home.

Rather a long story on the thing. But to keep it short. I saw it on craigslist for 3K just before xmas. Was out of town so couldn't do anything about it. When I got back I saw he'd dropped his price to 2.5K. I went to see it and liked it despite it's issues. I told him I was going to look at others as well before I decided and if it sold in the meantime that was ok which was true enough as I did want to look at other options although in truth I really did want a 240D stick. The rest were either auto's or 300D's.

After other frustrating vehicles I called him a few days later and made an offer of 1800. Said I'd give him a couple of weeks to think about it but would not be raising the offer. Couple of days later he accepted it. I couldn't get back to his place for two more weeks. It's over an hours drive from mine and our schedules did not permit. Finally managed to do so today.

09:00. Me, my wife, him and his neighbor meet at his house. Neighbor was the legal owner who he'd purchased the car from a few months back but never transferred it into his name. So it still had an open title as far as the DMV was concerned. We all three, followed by my wife went to a third party title office. Made a strange convoy. A Nissan Leaf, followed by a Ford 150 followed by a 240D followed by a Saturn Vue.

Incredibly my wife who was bringing up the rear managed to lose us. I told her nobody on the Mercedes forums would ever believe I'd manged to outrun a Saturn Vue with a V6 in a 240D! But there it is.

Anyway. Got the title transferred over to my name. Paid the kid, drove the car home and went straight to the emissions station. The pass requirement is 20 ppm particulates. It passed with 3.1 ppm. Drove straight to the title office near my house and did all the necessary paperwork. Got it all squared away. New title, new plates etc. And ordered special plates for it as well which should arrive in four to six weeks.

It has issues. There's blowby. About the same as my last one which had the same mileage when I bought it. But the previous owner had had it for six years and had all receipts going back for that period. Including every fuel fill up. He was part of a bio diesel co-op. He'd done a lot of work on suspension, brakes, etc and rebuilt the driver seat. It rides great, steering is good as are the brakes. The shifter linkages are sloppy and need to be replaced. The blower fan will not switch off. I think the bowden cable is stuck and the glove compartment wont' close. Couple of door lock issues. Right side doors wont open from outside.

The paint appears to be original and the front windshield and rubber has been replaced. Not sure about the rear. Though the rubber has not perished on the back either. There are a couple of small nicks and dings which I'll attend to in time and a couple of small rust spots but over all the body is in very nice shape. The paint appears to be original. You can see small crazing cracks all over it when you get up close but they are not as bad as others I've seen here. Probably because it's only been an AZ car for six years. Was an LA car previously. Originally owned by a psychiatrist. The guy I bought it from got if from a dentist in LA and I'm either the fifth or sixth owner depending on wether or not you count the kid who owned it for three months without transferring it's title.

All in all I'm stoked. Iv'e been looking for years and every time I started to get some funds together my truck went and busted on me big time and blew my savings. I finally managed to pull this off before the next big breakdown.

Of course the A/C doesn't work but I don't care. If it works out decent mechanically and I feel confident enough of long term reliability I'll see about getting the A/C working again but it's not a priority.

If I can nurse this to 400K or so miles without huge repair bills I'll be happy.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S!

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

SAWEEETUH!

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Very Nice , Congratulations !

Thank you. First actual week of regular use begins tomorrow so I'll be able to get a better idea soon of how it's likely to pan out. Much as I like the car I'm not ignorant of it's age or mileage. Even with a 240D stuff can eventually happen. But I'm certainly looking forward to the commute tomorrow

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

Easier to work on than my W123's w/ turbo. I think your AC uses a York compressor. Those are rugged and fairly easy to get. Used for years on Ford's. My 65 Chrysler has one and zero problems.

No. Unfortunately not a York. The earlier ones did, but the 81 has a GM R4 sitting down under the power steering pump. Pain in the ass. It's not working. And I'll not bother with it probably until after summer. My priority is the basic mechanical condition for reliable transportation.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S