This forum is awesome - very glad to be a newbie to it. Here's the question: I currently have a '92 300E. She's my first and I love her. But she's beginning to nickel and dime me to death. 178k miles and the following: tranny's actin' funny, ps gearbox leaks, head gasket leaks; among the larger issues.

I've had my eye on an '85 280se with 85k miles. Right off the bat, it's not my preferred body style. But when the tranny goes out on my 300, I will have regretted not making the swap.

I'm young and don't have a ton of money - I'm only going to spend about 1k in the swap (at the most). 124 fans may hate me, but with increasing repairs, it seems like the most economical thing to do. HELP??

 

Man, I have to tell you... I agree that the w124 is a prettier car than the 126. But if you're tight on cash, but set on still owning a mercedes, the 126 would be the best compromise.

I was in your exact position some time ago... very similar mileage, and a leaking head gasket. As soon as the mechanic dug into the car and started the head gasket work (and I had him do the valves, too), a bunch of other stuff started going wrong. Apparently just disturbing things caused problems (or maybe because fixing some problems revealed other lurking issues, i dunno). The belt tensioner, the 02 sensor, fuel distributor, the list is LOOONG.

It just snowballed on me. I thought, man, I just paid $2k for the head gasket and valve job, can't get rid of the car now... so I went ahead and replaced the other parts. And the problems just continue and continue. Now my tranny doesn't want to go into reverse very consistently. That's another $2k for a rebuild...

My recommendation would be to go with the 126. My dad has a 126 (300sdl) with about 200k on the clock. The only repair he's had to do in the 10 years he's owned it is a turbo. And even though the car wasn't on warranty, Mercedes replaced it for him for free. I would highly recommend searching for a Diesel. The diesels are what have made Mercedes known for great reliability (excluding our more recent history!).

I've owned my 300ce for almost 3 years now, and I've dropped around $8k into it. If you dont' have the gut for that, get rid of it. This will be a VERY unpopular opinion on this board so I'm sure I'll get some backlash and people telling me I'm an idiot for putting all that money into my car. And I regret it. But like I said, it snowballed. It's not like I had the ability to see the future and know how many more things would go wrong with my car. I kept thinking that one more repair will fix all of my issues. And the more money I put into it, the less I felt comfortable getting rid of it... so when the next repair came along, I paid to have it done. etc etc etc. lol, it's a deadly cycle.

Good luck to you. I love my car very much, but it's a bitter sweet love/hate relationship!! I would definitely have more money in the bank if I had just bought a $5,500 honda rather than a $5,500 Mercedes...

 

Mercedes had some issues with their 1987 Diesels (they threw rods) but other than those you can buy any year and any model with the expectation of bulletproof service.

Slower than their petrol counterparts but they get better mileage and they're built harder (in then typical Merc fashion the engines were way overbuilt to support the turbos).

There was a run on the D. models in the past three years so you may find a good D. a bit more expensive than you'd expect. Still. Fantastic cars. Easy to keep up with.

 

Thanks guys....that helps. I'm going to test drive today. We'll see. Pictures are fine, but when you drive it....well......you know. Could be amazing, or could be obvious that it's not a deal at all.