The love/hate relationship

[thebern]

Sometimes owning an older MB is like owning a Harley-it is a love/hate relationship. This morning on my way to work there came a grinding-growling noise from the rear end. It is consistant with tire revolution; not engine speed. My guess is a wheel bearing going south.
All of the repairs would be so much easier for me if I had a garage or even a driveway. I have to work on it in the yard ( which is usually wet). This requires jacking the car up with pieces of thick plywood under the jack and stands, putting down cardboard or plastic sheeting to lie on and to keep from losing screws and tools etc in the grass. I hope to resolve this, this summer.
I absolutely love this car and realize that it has 21 year old car issues. It just seems that all is fine for a few months then POW something else pops up that needs attention (this is the hate part). I would still rather push my benz than drive a rice grinder.

thebern

This is the same relationship I have with my Vette. I LOVE driving it and HATE working on it. The problem is that I get WAY TOO MANY chances to work on it.

I've never has such problems with a Benz, even the one I took over 500,000 miles.

Keep your chin up, the good news is that you can always get by these challenges, and typically when you fix something on a Benz it stays fixed, unlike my Vette.

Best

[rwthomas1]

I try to look at it as a straight financial situation. I have purchased one new vehicle in my life. I will never do it again. Consider the depreciation, the total vehicle cost with interest and maintenence over the payment period and it just doesn't make sense. Yes my older vehicles may be more prone to needing some wrenching but ususally they give my lots of warning so that I can plan for it. While I don't "love" wrenching on them I do love not making a payment every month. I think my old MB is the greatest car in the world. My buddies all think I am crazy. I always hear it. "I need a reliable car, I couldn't get by with the old clunkers you drive" Really? I have only been stranded once when the starter went on the Jetta, and that was a simple push-start to get her going. I'm laughing all the way to the bank as they make their $400+/mo payments. My yearly expenditures only equal 2-3months of payments per vehicle and cheaper insurance to boot. So yes, I love my old vehicles, especially my MB. I may be annoyed when something happens and it is inconveinient to fix but hate is too strong a word. And I get to drive an MB while they are paying a lot more for lesser vehicles!! RT

[agplate]

If you average your monthly maintenance on your MB, how much is too much? In 2002 I spent an average of $387/mo. maintaining my '83 SD. Of course, this is in lieu of a car payment, but I could get a pretty nice (newer) MB for that.

At what point do you get a different old car? I remember one previous post ("the naked truth", I think), where someone said if over $400, DUMP IT!!

What is your monthly average?

Hey Larry,

I know exactly what you mean about Vettes. I had a '77 L82 which if you are familiar with them you know its about as bad a year as you can get for smog motors. They look great but they just don't run great. What year do you have? I'm sure you are very familiar with the phrase: "Drive it on Sunday, work on it on Monday" or as I preferred to say "Drive it on Sunday, work on it on Monday through Saturday."

[thebern]

I guess I was venting that I don't have a solid dry surface out of the elements to work on the ole gal. I like greasing my knuckles, it is just hard to do here this time of year for me. And I must admit this is only the second time in 20,000 miles that its needed an unexpected repair and has always gotten me to my destination.


thebern

Unless you have a well tuned crystal ball, there is no way to know what your upcoming expense will be. It is possible that the next repair is the last one it will need for a long time. If you buy a brand new car, you still have the possibility that something will break.

I drove my 240D for business covering several states. It was as reliable as any car could possibly be. I always made my meetings, even if they were 300 miles away. I didn't even carry a tool box until it had over 300,000 miles.

You have the right idea IMHO. As much as I love driving my new car, I wish I had never bought it. It costs a lot of money and doesn't do anything that my old cars can't do, except be more fun to drive.

Have a great day,

When I read the stories about the frustrations of working on the old cars in the front lawn, I remember just why I build such a big garage when I built my new house. Spent 18 years at my last place without even a reasonable driveway. And I had a series of perfectly lousy rides.
Lots of time spent out under a car next to the street. Life is just better now. Even if the rides are just as old.

[rwthomas1]

If you spent that much money on your car it either was really neglected to start with or you fixed so many things that likely it won't need anything 'cept regular maintence for a long while.... My thoughts are as long as the older car is not a victim of rust cancer it is worth fixing. thebern, any room for a non-permanent garage? I gotta buddy with a CoverIt www.coverit.com instant garage on a crushed stone bed/floor. Works great and cost like $1500. And you can take it with you! RT

[BWatson]

My car has been starting to have some 21 year old problems. The motor and tranny are fine but in the last few months I've had the starter, vacuum pump, shutoff valve and alternator fail and now the monovalve is stuck open. The only repair I spent "real" money on was the Vacuum pump and shutoff valve. The other repairs I went with used or rebuilt parts and did the labor myself. I'm awaiting shipment of a monvalve repair kit as we speak.
All in all, I still like my car. I give it lots of love and respect ...it is 21 years old with over 250,000 miles on it and it runs fine. My experience is that mercedes repairs tend to stay fixed so I'm not going to worry. New cars cost big bucks nowadays and they just don't seem as solid. My friend pays $700 a month between payment and insurance on on a one year old Toyota Camry. My Car has only cost me a total of about $1,000 on repairs in the year and a half I have owned it. I bought it for $2,400 so 5 months payments on a Camry or a classic Benz...do you need to think about it?

[slowmoe]

Most of the work I have to do on my car is work that would have to be done on a newer car too. Tonight I replaced all four brakes and rotors. Two weekends ago it was two tie rods, trans service and filters. Before that I needed tires, hoses, thermastat, belts etc... If I was driving a brand new E300 I would be needing to do the same stuff.

I think I will get rid of hre when too many non-normal wear items start to go. That is the stuff that anoys me. Unil then... 185K and still cranking!!

[Holson Adi]

I agree most of the things I've had done to the car (didnt do most of the myself as I don't have the space to do it) were pretty much wear items that would need to be replaced in a newer car that's out of warranty anyway.

My friend bought an Audi A6 and he needs new front brake rotors and pads and maybe even the rear ones. It also starts really hard when it's cold, etc. So I just figured that these old beasts are really not too bad! *Not to mention that doing his front brakes cost as much as doing all four brakes on the diesel + some change I think*

Now if I had my own garage or at least somewhere to do those things... I would've saved so much money. As much as I like working on cars (used to) I still love just owning a W123! Such a pleasure to drive one!

Don't get me wrong I've driven all sorts of new cars (BMWs in particular, Audis, new MB's, etc.) *thanks to some rich kids I know*. The old MB has that 'soul'!

[benchracer]

Originally posted by thebern
Sometimes owning an older MB is like owning a Harley-it is a love/hate relationship.

I'd guess the owning of a Hardley Ableson would be much more heavily weighted to the hate end of the relationship.