What you know about diesel mercedes?

[HAULN-SS]

So I just changed jobs the other week. It is making my commute just enough that it annoys me putting miles on the ATS. I was thinking about buying some old beater to bomb around in. Everyone on the internet says the '87 300D was the best/fastest diesel benz to be had. I think the 300TD is the same car in wagon form?

Anyone had any personal experience with any of these golden era diesel benz? What else to look out for, etc? If I found the right one that had a stack of records with it I'd be inclined to pay a good price for it I think. Keep an eye out if you see something. It doesn't have to be perfect but I don't want to spend 5 grand on one and have to put another 5 grand in it right off the bat, but if it needs a few things it's not my only car so I can afford some downtime.

[Senor_Taylor]

Oh my goodness. Please buy one. I've always thought old Merc Diesels were the bee's knees.

[BLINGMW]

the '87 300D was the best/fastest diesel benz to be had.

So I don't know about "best", but it's certainly not "fastest" for that kind of money. And something about 1980's turbo technology makes me think it cannot be more reliable either, compared to the 1998-99 E300TD. Which can be had from 5-10K.



<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?zip=24018&endYear=2000&fuelTypeGroup=DSL&showcaseOwnerId=68613855&startYear=1981&makeCode1=MB&searchRadius=300&showcaseListingId=386389841&mmt=%5BMB%5B%5D%5B%5D%5D&listingId=397483894&Log=0">http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale ... 3894&Log=0</a><!-- m -->

I heavily considered the '98-'99 before but just couldn't do the automatic trans. :dunno:

And to be honest, you might get mid 30's out of this thing on the highway. $5K will get you a perfectly ok Honda Accord that will do the same.

[HAULN-SS]

Well to be clear, mileage being better than 26mpg is a plus, and what it's really about is keeping miles off the caddy. I am driving the SS some too but it gets worse mileage, isn't as reliable, and I don't really want to be putting a ton of miles on it just yet either.

I considered those 98/99 300's, because I was going off what was discussed in this list: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://mercedesforum.com/forum/diesel-discussions-33/diesels-buy-avoid-pre-95s-16502/">http://mercedesforum.com/forum/diesel-d ... 95s-16502/</a><!-- m -->

But it seems like they are more expensive with more miles. I settled on 300D's after finding a few ebay and craigslist auctions that are sadly not valid anymore - showing 6 - 8k prices on some really really clean cars - and I think the 87's have much more cool factor.

the 300td could actually prove practical too, because sometimes I carry around an upright bass and that fucking thing wont fit in any vehicle i own without some serious gymnastics

[.RJ]

Jetta TDI is what you need.

[HAULN-SS]

That's kind of what started me down the road, but whereas the Benz has the possibly unwarranted reputation of going forever properly maintained, VW has precisely the opposite reputation. Open to suggestions if you know off the top of the head the years to pursue

[davej]

paging Rex and his Pouch of Prius Propaganda to aisle three please.

[CaptainHenreh]

paging Rex and his Pouch of Prius Propaganda to aisle three please.

It doesn't matter. I can show my cost analysis until I'm blue in the face but if someone doesn't want to see that a car that gets the same fuel economy on cheaper, more available fuel while having a fraction of the maintenance costs because they "wouldn't be caught dead in one of those things" then, well, there's nothing I can say.

[.RJ]

That's kind of what started me down the road, but whereas the Benz has the possibly unwarranted reputation of going forever properly maintained, VW has precisely the opposite reputation. Open to suggestions if you know off the top of the head the years to pursue

I'd stick to mid-2000's onward. My dad has a 2000(ish) Jetta TDI they bought new that has over 300k miles on it with pretty minor maintenance. Sure, there will be issues, but they'll likely be well known and have easy fixes. The benz and all its elctronic wizardry is a bit daunting.

[Tyler.M]

old mercs with a turbo just dont seem like a good idea for a daily. that and im sure parts availability are going to start making maintenance an pain.

[*insertusernamehere*]

If you do buy one just please please please build the motor and make a project thread so i can watch and see


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HAULN-SS]

I don't have any particular hate on the Prius. I'm not specifically looking for a gas sipper for the best mileage i could ever possibly get. I was more looking for something with better than what I have now, approaching bottom of a depreciation curve, and known to be reliable. That is part of the reason for the benz being in the list. if it has 200k on it, and i put 100k on it and keep the paint shiny, i could probably sell it for what I have in it. Now, there may be some hidden depreciation in the maintenance costs to keep it on the road and looking shiny, but that's what I was trying to figure out.

If I buy a prius, and put 100k on it, I seriously doubt it'll be able to be sold for that same amount

[CaptainHenreh]

You know the Prius has one of the lowest deprecation rates of like, any car right?

You're also delusional if you think you can put 100k on a 200k diesel merc and sell it for the same money, unless you mean some 1500 dollar piece of shit that you keep on life support and then sell for like 1300 bucks.

Alot of those old diesels are gone. They do in fact rust, and they aren't making any more of 'em. Every one I've seen in the past three years has either been a stupid amount of money or a complete trash heap.

[HAULN-SS]

to answer your question, i know less about a prius than any of these other cars we've talked about so far. Speaking of delusions..these fools out there with the 300D's are sometimes trying to ask like 5k for a car with 300-500k on it.

[Sully]

Can any prius be had for under $2k? I'm not really looking for nice tdi as much as one that runs and drives. Some of the best cars i owned were ones that i never checked things or tried to fix every little thing. (See 240 with no trunk floor)

Think of it like those third world countries where they drive those toyotas with machine guns in the back. You know the oil has to be mostly sand by then but they keep running. My plan was to buy the cheapest tdi i could find (which was like $1800 and just drive it till it stopped driving pretty much. If i was done with it before it stopped driving, then i guess i would sell it but never expect to get the same or more out of it.

[CaptainHenreh]

Can any prius be had for under $2k? I'm not really looking for nice tdi as much as one that runs and drives. Some of the best cars i owned were ones that i never checked things or tried to fix every little thing. (See 240 with no trunk floor)

No. I mean yes, but...no.

[WRXtranceformed]

The obvious answer to your question is to buy a house closer to DC rather than look for an old beater to make your ridiculous commute less miserable

Seriously though I have a colleague who commutes into DC from outside Morgantown or something and he ends up staying in a hotel on H street 3 or 4 days a week. That is retarded. Look at your life like billable hours and factor that into your equation. If you are spending 6 hours on the road every day you're already in the red imo.

[Senor_Taylor]

One of my managers does that. Lives in Staunton and commutes to Lynchburg. She'll stay in a hotel if she closes one night and opens the next.

[ViPER1313]

A 300D is not a beater, it is a project. If you want a beater, get a 1st Gen Saturn. They cost under 2g all day long, get great MPGs and don't die. When they do break, parts are widely available and cheap. No rust on the panels because they are plastic.

[HAULN-SS]

So..I kind of gave up on this after not being able to find what I was interested in. What do you VW heads know about say, a 2009ish TDI..with or without the DSG? What if I tried to pick one up around 100-125k miles?