Surely this is a repost but She is a retired horse that's earned a good beating.

A 1976 Mercedes-Benz 240D in Greece with her owner, taxi driver Gregorios Sachinidis. He logged 2,858,307 miles on the same chassis before retiring her to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Germany.

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Must have been thru several engines & transmission rebuilds or replacements. I expect non-turbo engines last longer. My 1985 turbo engine failed at 330K miles.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

It went through four engines. I get pretty tired of hearing that these are "million mile" cars. Yeah, if you replace everything several times. Just about any car can do that, and many have. Even domestic brands *shock*.

It's a point of interest, but little else.

-Rog

God I hope so. Note that I said, "... the same chassis."

I wholeheartedly disagree with you on that one. There are very few cars that are capable of such an achievement in the war torn third world countries that these cars thrive to this day. They are used commercially 24/7 and subjected to extremes of temperature, terrain, road conditions most of us find unimaginable. Their lack of regular service is downright abusive and new parts... rebuilt yes but new? Unheard of... most never even see pavement after they've left the factory. They would not exist in those conditions if they required the pampering of most vehicles.

Yes, many cars can extend their service life with new parts but few and far between can be used, abused, knocked down, picked up, and dusted off by so many. There are many well engineered cars on the road but very cars that are both well engineered and well built. If quality and craftsmanship are poor the design isn't worth the paper it's drafted on.

If that kind of reliability and service life is of little interest to you, may I ask what you do find of interest about these cars? Surely it's not the high performance or attention you receive from the hood ornament.

Meh, I think you can go on any car brand's forum and hear the same thing from the fans is all I'm saying. Beat-up old Ford farm trucks that are still ticking, beat-up college kids' Hondas that are still ticking, beat-up Soviet Ladas that are still ticking... Of course those are all a hell of a lot easier and cheaper to keep ticking, but whatever.

Heck, they even forgot to put that one on this list:

http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/going-the-distance-7-cars-that-have-gone-1m-miles.html/?a=viewall

I'll be impressed if one makes it that far without being rebuilt in a major way. It's just another silly thing to say on Craigslist that it's going to get 40 mpg and do a million miles and all you'll have to do is change the oil and fill 'er up with veggie oil.

I bought mine because it was a curiosity to me. I love it and I hate it and I'm not under any fantasies that it's going to give me any more than I put into it, like any of my cars.

That amount of mileage IS interesting, but too many people see it as an implication of warranty or expectation of longevity. Let's just try to be realistic here.

-Rog

I think you said it very well Rog I myself am on my 3rd engine in my 300 SD I dont think there is hardly a nut or bolt on my car that I have not had to repair or replace with 301,000 showing on odometer but hey that was broke for awhile so I really dont know true milage. I am learning there are many things that can make these 617s fail and they are not cheap to rebuild at $550/piston. I can say it is the best riding car I've ever rode in and the doors close with a solid thug if properly adjusted. I have grown to love my car and the people on this forum. As far as the longetivity of these cars what you put into them is what your gonna get out of them.

When I saw what I believe to be the first known million-mile Mercedes, ... IIRC a 220D that the owner bought new in PA and intended to be his last car (Salesman), had a calibrated hubodometer installed, after 1,035,000 (ish, IIRC) miles he traded it to MB for a new car, ... I was envious. Driving my nearly pristine 200,000mile quattro at the time (still hand-washed since new, looked and drove like new, original belts and hoses except timing belt, blah blah) which I chose over a new '85 300TD, I parked Audri and bought a '91 300TE 4matic (diesel wasn't available) (Bad choice).

Fast forward to my current 800miles/week life, I'm in my 50s, and hoping that my new Mercedes diesel WILL be the last working car that I own. I'd like to see it pass at least 400k miles in my ownership, without significant repairs. Tomorrow is another 400mile day.

Yeah, some will say that there's no way that a new electronic-controlled car from any manufacturer will get past 200k or so without spontaneously combusting and its service becoming so expensive it is no longer worth changing oil, I don't agree and am betting with my wallet, just like I did on that quattro, which my Father told me would become a maintenance nightmare with all of its electric gizmos, 10cv joints (never needed as much as a boot), 3 differentials, ... nothing like the sturdy cars of the '60s.

Which brings up another point regarding 3rd-world roads and mileage, ... there are plenty of old '50s cars running around Cuba with starship miles on them, probably lots of beetles etc. in Mexico, Land Rover Defender/Series in Australia, ... we're not exclusive with these classic diesel Mercedes.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Brings to mind the movie, "Into the Wild". Stuffy dad complains his son is still driving a beat-up 70's Datsun car at Emory Univ in Atlanta. The kid later abandons it in a dry wash in Grand Canyon NP. The book tells the rest of the story. Rangers found it w/ no tag, dried out the distributor cap (wash flooded), jumped it, and fired right up. Got ownership and drove >10 years as department vehicle and was their most reliable vehicle. I doubt dad's ~1980 Cadillac was still running. Those old Datsun's were rugged, when the bodies didn't rust out.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

The early datsuns had engines that were virtual copies of the Mercedes engines of that day.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

True there. Over 10 years ago I had to take my car to a shop (never again!), so for a couple of weeks I was loaned my grandpa's old 4-door 210. It wouldn't go up a hill very well, but it always started even though they never drove it (they had a brand new Kia at the time). Then one day I was driving along Main Street in the rain when a car just barely pulled out in front of me and I almost stopped. Just slightly bent the sheetmetal around the headlight but the other driver's much newer car got a nice crunched-up fender. Grandpa took his car back, even though it wasn't my fault... Later the insurance said it would cost $600 to fix and the car wasn't worth that, so I don't think he ever bothered.

Funny thing about that car is that he rolled it probably 30 years ago and they replaced the whole roof. Those were the days when a bodyshop didn't charge a grand just to look at a car, of course.

I hated driving it, but fast-forward to today and I have an Audi Fox as my second-in-command, which was the German version at the time and drives almost identically. They copied each other a lot back then. Lots more rust with the Audi though. But talk about a car that costs a roll of pennies to fix and no special tools.

-Rog

These really are million-mile cars though, isn't there multiple reports of people getting to a million on the original motor/trans? I know with Volvo's it's that way, usually just the redblock's get that notoriety but even recently a few whiteblock's have gotten the title.

Either way you slice it, that's extremely impressive. The most impressive part about the W123 to me is just how much abuse they will take,in that aspect I think they're in a league of their own. Imagine all the W123's in Africa,and third would countries still taking a beating 30+ years later, that's amazing to me. They deserve some credit!

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04 Sprinter 3500 - 310k
"Ich mag die Dieselgeräusche"
https://youtu.be/YjrxHqNy5CQ
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Then there was the /fruitcake that had an MB dealer put a new diesel re manufactured engine in his W123, only to find out that the glider/passenger cabin chassis had rusted through in two pieces. At far less than 1 Mil miles. IIRC 550K miles....