I am sick of fooling and toying with the glow plugs/oil/other stuff the accompanies my diesel. I have become accustomed to quick, normal startups of my Subaru, but am not a big fan of the tin can-ness of the car. What is a good, gasoline powered Benz, for around 3,000 dollars. Is there a good model? I've long at 190E's..2.3 and 2.6, but most of the 300E's in that range seem sort of shot..maybe not. In any cylinder arrangement, what is the best of the gasoline Benzes for reliability and ease of maintenance?

280E, and 280CE, in that price range.

There's a real nice 115 body pea-soup green gasoline coupe down the street from me at a used car dealer.
You must have had a lot of problems with your glow plugs. Apart from the waiting period in cold weather, I have never had any problem with the glow plugs on my diesels. (Although I disliked the series plugs and converted the 77 to parallel plugs--much better system).

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

If you want to get rid of the 300D, let me know.

You like those old pre 83 300D's? There are a ton of them here in Houston - those were the oil boom days so they sold a lot of them new here then. Every once and a while you see one for sale in cherry condition. What's a good ballpark price on those?

For just a little more money you could get into the 1994 C220 range. I have seen nice ones for $4,500. But for $3k I would look either for a real clean 190E, I would prefer the 2.6 I6 but the I4 is a good little engine. Or a W126 if you want to go that way.

KirkVining prices for real nice 300D's are all over the place. But a real cherry example with under 150k could be worth $5k. However if you come across a perfect sub 100k example it might get close to $10k on ebay.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200