I have owned my 89 300e for almost 7 years now. I have at one point or another rebuilt every system on that car. It's very likely I'm in to it $15k or more.

Parts are somewhat reasonable as long as you shop around. When I say reasonable, I mean that it's cheaper than a bmw, by a little, and 20x more expensive than a similar vintage ford.

If you plan on having the car repaired by your mechanic (or any mechanic) you should sell it as the repair bills will bury you. 300e's are only worth at most 3k so you are at the point of no return now.

Looking back on my years of ownership I can tell you this.

1. Make sure you bought a good one. No rust, low miles, or well maintained by an enthusiast.
2. Your car will always need something. It will never truly be 100%. You have to be ok with owning a car that is in constant disrepair.
3. You bought a 25 year old car that is going to have 25 year old problems. Rubber is dry, seals are shot, water will infiltrate, you get the picture.
4. And finally, my 300e has been problem free for about 8 months out of the 7 years of ownership. It is difficult and expensive to get the m103 to run PERFECT. If you think you can get your car perfect, get rid of it ASAP.

When my car was running well it was an absolute joy to drive. You have to really commit to these cars. If you like fixing cars, and like to learn about cis-e, bust your knuckles, burn yourself, and permanently have dirty fingernails, then go for it.

Otherwise, dump the car and buy something newer.

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Eugene

10 E63 AMG
93 300te 4matic
07 BMW X3
14 Ford F-150 Fx2

I can say that the only problem I've had with the M103 (in 7 years of ownership) was:

1) lifter noise in my 190E's 2.6 at 195K
2) head gasket failure in the 2.6 at 208K

I swapped in a M103 3.0L from a 300SEL that had 86K. So far I've added 30K to it and no problems

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Cruise Control not working? Send me PM or email (jamesdean59@gmail.com). I might be able to help out.
Check here for compatibility, diagnostics, and availability!

(4/11/2020: Hi Everyone! I am still taking orders and replying to emails/PMs/etc, I appreciate your patience in these crazy times. Stay safe and healthy!)


82 300SD 145k
89 420SEL 210k
89 560SEL 118k
90 300SE 262k RIP 5/25/2010
90 560SEL 154k
91 300D 2.5 Turbo. 241k
93 190E 3.0 235k
93 300E 195k

Good points all. Like I said earlier, I've driven and worked on just about everything, and yes I could just buy a Toyota like my wife drives and never have to work on it, but then it would still be a Toyota, wouldn't it?

Like someone earlier pointed out, there is nothing else like a Benz, and I noticed this thing is a highway car, once it's rolling it seems to have a lot more power than it's rating, it does tach out high at speed though, I think I was running 3500 rpm at 75, it is def. hitting high gear though.

If I keep this beast, it's a toy, I have other stuff to drive when I need to get somewhere. See, I'm talking myself into it already.

Okay, understand now we are on the same page.

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I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]

Good man, I need to post some pic's of this thing, you'll get an idea of why I'm going nuts over this thing. As I remember, it's a kind of difficult process, I'll do a search to try and figure it out.

One thing I have learned about having a 25+ year old Mercedes as a daily driver is that one car leads to three

Having two W124's is the way to go so that if one is down for repair then you have a second ready to get you to work the next morning. I have had my 300E for six months and the 300TE for three and on just the purchase price I'm ahead of having a car payment.

Ha Ha.
One thing I have learned about having a 25+ year old Mercedes (300CE) as a daily driver is that one car leads to two. The Red Baron in the garage and the daily driver late model leased car living out in the elements.
Don't think the Benz left the garage more than 4 times from Jan to April. What a lousy winter! Making up for it now tho...

Knowing what know now, I sure wouldn't buy a 25 yr old W124 with the mileage mine has (137,500), if it didn't have service records.

To the OP: One thing that might come out of left field is ignition failure. As in the key won't turn the ignition.If you ever start having trouble with the key turning in the ignition, ignore it at your peril and expense. Cost me 900.00 at the dealer. 5+ hour job. The service mgr. told me that it's not that uncommon on early 124s.

Oh yeah, I did the ignition tumbler on both diesles. The 1st one after it locked down on me, luckly at home, and the second after it tried to lock up. Learned the procedure here, wasn't fun but not too bad.

Talk about one car leading to another, I once stopped at a house when I saw an old TD that obviously wasn't being driven to ask if they'd sell a part off of it. Ended up with the whole car for $100. Turned out it was the hand primer leaking. Fixed that, got a bunch of parts, then sold it for $800 to a guy on this site. He was actually the second buyer, I sold it to another guy 1st, and he paid in cash, then never came back to get the car, said he had to go into the hospital, and would come get it after that. When he never came back, I figured he died. I kind of hated that, but I had no idea who to return the money to.

With these cars, there is a story behind every one, that's for sure.

Yup, or pay almost nothing for it, which is why blue book is so low. So I found out...

"Having two W124's is the way to go so that if one is down for repair then you have a second ready to get you to work the next morning. I have had my 300E for six months and the 300TE for three and on just the purchase price I'm ahead of having a car payment."


Hey Gatorblue92...quit telling everybody the best car secret there is...pretty soon the supply of cars will dry up!

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I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him. -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)

I think you should have three, in case 2 are down for repairs. My 2 (87 300D - engine out/ disassembled due to blown head gasket/cracked head, 92 500E- misterious CAN/computer issue that seems to have recently healed itself) are down and I am considering a third W124 as a short term acquisition until I can get the 300D back together for my soon to be licensed daughter. I really like the W124s. My DD since everything is down is a 86 porsche 944 turbo that has about 200k.

I know. I bought my '83 in October of '05. About six months later a '77 240D followed me home. A couple years after that, I bought a '71 250 (big mistake), and probably would have had a '70 280SE if I hadn't lost the job I had at the time. Now I'm down to one old car and one newer vehicle. I only turn wrenches when I want to. Still, I get tempted from time to time. There was a '69 220D for sale not that long ago, and there is a reasonably priced old 911 that keeps showing up in the classifieds.

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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 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

+1 for all of these points - particularly the one about trying to get your M103 running perfectly.