wizkid

I am looking for a car to drive for myself that I can take long trips in and relax and enjoy driving.

Must have 4 doors and be spacious. E class or higher would be cool but I want to get it for near nothing. 5K range

Any suggestions on what I should look for (models and year)?

How many miles is too many on a used car that I can be confident in driving on vacation?

Any thoughts on this before I purchase one used and screw up here.

Thanks,

Eric


1999 Z28 (390 rwhp)
2002 C240
2001 Dodge Dakota

Mark08859

I would imagine an E Class or better for less than 5k would have to be ancient or used hard.

KWiK

You should be able to find a nice 190E for that price, but it will have ~100K miles on it. That mileage isn't a big deal if you can verify that it was maintained properly.

Accord

Or totaled.

wizkid

Thanks for the responses so far.

Now understand, I am fine with purchasing an 1980's model MB here. I don't know if that is ancient to you guys or not.

How many miles are MB good for before you have to swap engines?

I was hoping for a 400 series for 5k with 100,000 miles.

What do you think?

Eric

BigBadDad

Get an older diesel model. We have had a couple and they are tanks.

wizkid

I have been really looking hard at the diesel line of MB's. Do they still produce a diesel engine in new mercedes?

Anything to look out for when looking at older diesel engine on a MB? Any tell-tale signs of problems to look for?

I would assume 500,000 miles on one would be easy to do without much money being sunk in to it. Sound resonable?

ERic

bamberger_1

My recommendation if you want to buy at low budget such as > $5k, would be a E-Class 6 cyl. (a must) 260E or 300E W124 ('85-'92). Important is that the car received regular oil changes and services. Milage is then not as important. I own two 260E's and they both are well beyond 180.000mls, and still running well, without having any other services as oil change (at half of the recommended intervall!!!!) and new filters and sparks. If you can obtain the background, this would be a safe buy, especially buying a car which was running in the USA (at 55 mph). As you know those cars a made to go as fast as 130 mph w/o problems. Mine still do (I'm living in Germany, still a country w/o speed limits).
Good luck, and take time, its worth waiting for the right deal.

yipikaye

Aree you serious to get an MB below 5k??? becareful when you buy the car ,because , maybe the service fee after using a while will go more than 5K.