I'm a little behind you and I can relate. Part of that factored into my decision to repair our house and stay put. A well-sorted vintage vehicle certainly has its appeal and the less that can go wrong, the better. I, too, couldn't live without AC despite coming from a non-AC household. Lower property taxes and insurance is also desirable.

I'd imagine a Vintage Air AC system could be made to work. $1200+/- for a complete kit isn't an insignificant chunk of change for a complete kit and then you'd need to go through the process of modifying it to fit. But at least it would be a modern system, you'd know every piece worked and it would have to be at least as efficient (or inefficient) as an old MB system.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

Had one and got rid of it a while back. Still trying to recover from that mistake. And yes. I've long thought that getting a decent example of a simple 123 and gutting/replacing the a/c with all new and perhaps upgraded parts would be the best option.

- 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

I agree with simple. That's why I have a Super Beetle and a Euro W126. Beetle is obvious; the W126 has no SLS, or electric windows, or sunroof, or cruise control, or electric seats. Basic climate control, has a mondo York (?) compressor and cools the beejesus out of the car. I am wary of the engine's complexity, but if it dies, there are plenty more powerplants in junkyards.

Actually a Beetle is something I wouldn't mind having also.

- 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

I bought a modern beetle for my kid. It was terrible. It was so bad I swear I will never own another VW. And I loved the old bus my friend had. Maybe 36 hp and oval rear window.

Don't forget safety. I got hit head on while sitting at a stop sign. Defensive driving isn't enough anymore. I want mass, armor and air bags.

I am moving to the boonies. F u c k the suburbs, red lights, parking lots, shopping malls, exhaust fumes, etc. This culture makes mountains out of garbage, crazy. I gotta give you the one on AC. I'm not giving up my AC.

Yup, did that forty years ago, never regretted it one bit.

Simplicity is why I own a late 80s diesel Landcruiser. The only computer is in the CD player. Vehicles like the Cruiser and Benz are made to be repaired and maintained, not discarded for the newest piece of crap with gimmicky bells and whistles.

__________________
“Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.” ― Robert A. Heinlein

I would never touch a modern beetle. The only beetle that exists as far as I'm concerned is the original Kraft durch Freude Wagen, designed by Porsche himself (with a little bit of input from the bogey man)

- 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

The Beetle was a great car in 1939. Rusty POS with no power and no AC.

I know of a decent 1940 Packard for sale that's 10000% the car.

__________________
2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

You just described the cars that I drove the most and enjoyed the most, and I was in that age bracket when I did it.

I bought my first 240D new in 1977 at the age of 28. It was a four speed manual, manual windows, manual climate control, no sunroof, with a radio. I drove it 280,000 miles. I then bought a Euro 240D, '84 model, same equipment except it had a manual sunroof. It had 17,000 miles when I bought it and 450,000 miles when I sold it to my son for a token price when he turned 16. At that point I was 47.

If it were possible to buy a brand new 240D like one of those I would be first in line. As an engineer, I firmly believe in the KISS principle.

__________________
2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

Rust is a non issue in AZ. AS for the lack of power or AC. Hey, you could be describing a 240D

- 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

Yes.

I have no problem with complexity actually, for a toy. However in a necessary vehicle, ie something which is absolutely required and for which you will have no choice but to do whatever it takes to keep it on the road, which of course means spend whatever it takes, I'm not interested.

I need a vehicle for work as I have to drive between up to fourteen different sites at random on any given day. And that's apart from having to meet the usual family transportation obligations etc. I've been able to afford exactly one new vehicle since I got here in 2000 which met all the requirements and had A/C. That was the Kia Rio I had. Worst crap on four wheels.

I'm now stuck with an aging 2000 GMC Sonoma that's causing almost as much grief as the Kia with even greater expense. At this point I start to think...

I would like a large luxury car with a massively powerful engine capable of wafting me along effortlessly in perfect air conditioned comfort. But the reality is I can't afford one. And given that I was perfectly capable of driving a 240D, and now my 2.2 liter pickup which is almost as sluggish It's perfectly obvious that there is no need for extravagance.

There is no car in my opinion that does what is needed better than a 123. Certainly not sufficiently to justify the increased cost and complexity. Not when you really think about what a car is needed for. So the best strategy from my point of view is to find one, or two if possible and keep them in decent shape with the only real project being to fix/upgrade/modernize etc the A/C unit.

Even a beetle would be fine as around here it would be fine as a winter car when the A/C is not needed and is even simpler than a 240. Nothing to leak out of it but a bit of engine oil. No power steering, no ATF, no engine coolant etc. I like that design spec.

Once the base motoring requirement is taken care of. Then other more complex toys can be required to fill more specialized niches.

Of course all this applies to broke carachters like me This calculation is of course meaningless to someone with enough money to just buy or lease a new vehicle without noticing it but that's not my situation so I have to consider other aspects of the motoring cost vs beneffit calculation.

- 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

I've been driving simple beaters most of my adult life, while the wimmin' and kids get the new cars. Screw simplicity. I want a bigass 4x4 chebby dual cab with every possible bell, whistle and light, an autoramic transgressor, freezing cold ac and one of those stereo radio thingys. And I want one of those rear window decals with that doofus peeing on something.

__________________
You're a daisy if you do.
__________________________________
84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

You just described about 2/3 of the vehicles on the parking lot at work. Of those trucks only about a third of them have a scratch in the bed or have ever pulled a trailer. For many people, the latest fad trumps everything else. Especially practicality.

__________________
2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

Based on what's parked in my driveway, I seem to agree with you. AC isn't much of an issue in northern Nevada though, so mine will be staying broken for the foreseeable future.

I've never driven a Beetle, so I'm merely speculating here. I think they might be a bit underpowered for highway use. I'm rather a fan of the slightly revised version, of which I've driven many examples. I refer to the one where they took the basic Beetle, squished it down a bit, fitted bigger tires and two extra cylinders, and then wrote the number for emergency services on the back. Unfortunately, other people are on to this idea so a good one is very hard to find for under twenty grand, and the last air cooled ones are getting near twenty years old.

Since you mention it, I've been after a job in Reno that would triple my commute distance. The pay increase compared to my current job would fund a new car, so I've been considering the relative merits of a Scion FRS vs a BMW 320i and some others. I need to land the job first.

__________________
Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.