Buying a daily driver

[Harlow]

After selling my sport satellite my plan was to get a nice daily driver and also a new project. Well I think I found the driver. My friend (Hes 17 too) has a 7p Mercedes turbo diesel. It gets great gas mileage and is very reliable and comfortable. I found a 1984 Mercedes 300SD, 5 cylinder turbo diesel for a great price (1500) Its in great condition. I figure its much nicer than a honda or something like that, and probably cheaper too. I can't do much car hunting since I sold the satellite, cause my parents don't like me using their cars, so I would volunteer to do errands and such, but just make sure to take the long way to look for cars. Well now I can hunt for cars all I want. My friend gets 30+ if he keeps his foot off of it. Anyways I just thought I'd show you guys my new ride (hopefully, just waiting for the VIN so I can run a carfax to make sure its not a salvaged title or anything).

[TUFCAT]

Remember, diesel is now 60-70 cents higher than unleaded, ....and I wonder if your local parts store can get what you need?  If the parts are  "over the parts counter available", my guess is they are very expensive. .      I don't know if I would do it  - especially if I was on a budget. Nice car, but oye vey, the repair cost. 

[Harlow]

My dad loves volvos as daily drivers and assured me that it shouldn't bee too bad, especially if you don't go to the dealer for everything. Hes always done all the work on our daily drivers and they're pretty cheap.

[70charger_boy]

Nice ride.  It looks like something that Pablo Escobar would drive, but it is ok.  Just like Tuffcat said Diesel is at least 50-80 cents higher than unleaded.  If you want to save some money try going to the airport and ask the FBO if you can get some of the Waste fuel (Jet-A).  If they will hook you up you can use half Jet-A fuel and half Diesel from the pump

[dkn1997]

1500 and you are driving a benz?  even if it's 22 yrs old, who cares?  that's a cool driver.

[69charger2002]

i agree that black mercedes would be a cool ride if it's cheap. it's $1200 alone to get an aftermarket sunroof put into a car that doesn't have one
trav

[Harlow]

Has anyone run a carfax report recently and bought the 30 day deal? If so I'd be willing you pay you a small fee to let me run the VIN. Are there any other ways that are cheaper than the 30 bucks it will cost to run a carfax? I just don't want to buy a salvaged or previously wrecked vehicle.

[moparguy01]

the only thing I warn you about the 300D's is the transmissions are the weak link. the rest of the car will go 300k+ miles, but the trans dont seem to last more than 200k "only" haha the other thing is that the power windows go out, they are vacuum operated. If you want a daily driver that will never die find a 70's mercedes benz 240 or 280D, those are smaller than the 300, get better fuel economy. But buy one with a manual transmission and manual windows. The dang things just dont die. but if they do, ya might want to look for another car, cause parts are damned spendy.

[kokxville]

If you need parts for foreign cars such as Mercedes,i'm in Holland and can get them easy here.
If you are looking for parts,just let me know and i'll let you know what it costs.
I'ts not my intention to do this as a bussiness,just want to help you guys out if i can.

[RD]

If you need parts for foreign cars such as Mercedes,i'm in Holland and can get them easy here.
If you are looking for parts,just let me know and i'll let you know what it costs.
I'ts not my intention to do this as a bussiness,just want to help you guys out if i can.

here here!  good show!

[tecmopar]

I don't know squat about MB's but that sure looks like a nice car for 1500. How many miles do you drive a year, figure it out and it will give you an idea of how much more you'll spend as compared to a gas car. And as in my other post about helping each other out, having a guy like kokxville in Holland will really make it much less expensive for parts, even with the shipping added on, good luck.

[six-tee-nine]

I agree with Kokxville,


I live in belgium, so if you need help with parts, i can almost piss to Germany so that's no sweat.


By the way I happen to get to work on a Benz engine once in a while and i can tell you those 5 cyl diesel eninges are unbreakable, many taxi companies here still drive them and have cars way past 300.000 miles on the odo.

[Charger74]

Luckily for Harlow, there a few european auto parts dealers in Tucson that are somewhat reasonable. 

Definetely a nice car for 1500.  And good luck looking for another project....

[Old Moparz]

I found a 1984 Mercedes 300SD, 5 cylinder turbo diesel for a great price (1500) Its in great condition.

It does look good for the price, nice find. 

One of my friends had worked at a small, independent, foreign car repair shop for about 15 years. They specialized in Mercedes Benz, & he said they were great cars. He's owned several over the years, all used ones, & always managed to find a good deal on the ones he's had. If I'm not mistaken, most of the ones he's had were diesel too.

One down side to driving it he told me, was that people tend to have an attitude towards MB drivers. He's been cut off more, hardly ever waved into traffic, & in general, had noticed reversed snobbery from other drivers. 

[Chatt69chgr]

That's probably a good deal for a daily driver.  You could take it to the junkyard and get several hundred just for scrap metal.  A friend of mine (who is not at work today) has a catalog he got that has parts for your car.  The prices were very reasonable.  Now if you had to buy new parts made in Germany for that thing, watch out.  Mercedes factory parts have always been expensive.  With the Euro 1.5 times the dollar, they would be exhorbitantly expensive.  The safety factor is worth something too.  Get hit in a Nissan, Toyota, or Honda and see what happens.  It's like the accident happened in your face.  Get hit in the Mercedes and it's like the accident happened in the next state.  Good luck with your new purchase. 

[Anders]

I'll bet 80's diesel mercedes aren't too common in the states. I had a 1985 gasoline S280 and it was great to drive and suprisingly fast. In europe diesel is about 20% cheaper than gas ( at least here). I believe that in some european countries over 60% of the new cars are diesel powered (not that it's good thing  )

[Brock Samson]

there's alot of them here, and alot are being converted to burning used cooking oil, quite popular infact, there's folks (with beards) out scouring the country side for them..
Not you Bob.. 

  http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=cooking+oil+mercedes&btnG=Search

http://www.noendpress.com/caleb/biodiesel/index.php

[six-tee-nine]

60% of diesel cars?


WAAAAAAY more than that and it sucks if you want a petrol powerd used car over here but diesel fuel is up to 30% cheaper here. but on the other hand technology does stand still, a modern 2 liter turbodiesel engine goes up to a 150 HP and you get way more torque at lower rev's than with the same sized petrol engine.
A large petrol engine as a daily car (with large i mean anything over 3 litres) is hardly afforalbe here

[Harlow]

Well I'm deciding not to buy it. It was kinda beat up, lots of little dents and dings, about 5-6 on the passenger side, 2 on the hood and one of the roof. No radio and sun roof didn't work. It was also touched up in some spots with a rattle can of black paint. It looked WAY better in the pictures.

[Charger_Fan]

the other thing is that the power windows go out, they are vacuum operated.

You're kidding! Vacuum??

and sun roof didn't work.

Did you try sucking on it?

[Cooperman]

I'll bet 80's diesel mercedes aren't too common in the states. I had a 1985 gasoline S280 and it was great to drive and suprisingly fast. In europe diesel is about 20% cheaper than gas ( at least here). I believe that in some european countries over 60% of the new cars are diesel powered (not that it's good thing  )

The British pound may well be strong compared to the US dollar right now, but Diesel fuel is currently £1.09 a litre here. that's around $10.50 a gallon... 
By the way, I run a '98 C280 sport as a DD, and it's somethin' else! 

[six-tee-nine]

the other thing is that the power windows go out, they are vacuum operated.

You're kidding! Vacuum??

and sun roof didn't work.

Did you try sucking on it?

Nope that's probably true, Mercedes already had vacuum operated power windows in the early 1950's altough I'm pretty sure they switched to electrics in the early 80's

[Old Moparz]

Well I'm deciding not to buy it. It was kinda beat up, lots of little dents and dings, about 5-6 on the passenger side, 2 on the hood and one of the roof. No radio and sun roof didn't work. It was also touched up in some spots with a rattle can of black paint. It looked WAY better in the pictures.

Too bad, but glad to hear you went to go see it before you ended up with owning a headache. It's ashame everyone else doesn't inspect cars first.

[Anders]

I'll bet 80's diesel mercedes aren't too common in the states. I had a 1985 gasoline S280 and it was great to drive and suprisingly fast. In europe diesel is about 20% cheaper than gas ( at least here). I believe that in some european countries over 60% of the new cars are diesel powered (not that it's good thing  )

The British pound may well be strong compared to the US dollar right now, but Diesel fuel is currently £1.09 a litre here. that's around $10.50 a gallon... 
By the way, I run a '98 C280 sport as a DD, and it's somethin' else! 

That's a lot. If my calculations are correct, the diesel here is around $6.90 a gallon.Thanks to our great goverment, they are increasing the diesel and gasoline tax by 5 cent/liter in the beginning of 2008.
Btw, one of my buddies got a Merc C230 '05 as a daily driver, which is a very nice car.  A few weeks ago, I had chance to test drive Merc CLK 6.3 AMG '07 and that was fast and wery well balanced car  . Sorry about the  Daimler talk in the Mopar forum

[Nacho-RT74]

the other thing is that the power windows go out, they are vacuum operated.

You're kidding! Vacuum??

and sun roof didn't work.

Did you try sucking on it?

Nope that's probably true, Mercedes already had vacuum operated power windows in the early 1950's altough I'm pretty sure they switched to electrics in the early 80's

I have a 1975 116  280S and is already electric... Locks are vacuum