Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Dream Car update: Pre-1992 Mercedes 300TE

Some of you long-time readers might remember my Dream Car post a while bike in which I pined for a 1985 Mercedes 300TD. Well, because I saw how high the price of diesel got up, I started having second thoughts, but after seeing this series of videos from the British car show Fifth Gear, my mind has been changed and a pre-1992 wagon (non-diesel) is top of the list now. Enjoy.







7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You need to get rid of the 4 runner and score a 124. They are my favorite for sure! We used to have a customer who had 3 of the wagons: red, green and tan. The red one was spot on!
-Forrest

Foster Huntington said...

great post. my friends family had one growing up. you would have approved of their lifestyle.

RHW said...

Do it. But why pre 1992? I bought a 1995 E320 wagon with 175k on it from a guy in Mt Pleasant a couple of years back and it was a pleasure. Cost me nothing to buy it, and after the $2200 head gasket replacement she ran great. The 6 is so smooth on power, and I could not tell when the transmission shifted. Great car. And the Nakamichi CD400 replacement stereo head unit with its orange glow was the perfect match. Mine was black with the tan MBTex interior and it was just awesome. Traded it in on something new, but loved it while I had it.

trip said...

Forrest,

Well I'm just waiting for you to move closer to me so that you can keep up with the maintenance on it for me.

RHW,

I'm suggesting pre-'92 because, from what I have read, it was after 1991 that Mercedes stopped "over engineering" their cars in the way that is eluded to in the videos. In addition, once they started using all of those computers, things started going downhill in terms of reliability. I am encouraged to hear about your '95 wagon, though, and will keep that in mind.

Anonymous said...

Good post and go for it! I drive a 91 Volvo 960 Turbo in British Racing Green. Sucks on gas, but a great car for college kids like us who are into the lifestyle. There is something about those older European cars...

Anonymous said...

Hey, i have a 1987 260E in navy blue. this is pssbly the greatest car on the road ever. (ok, maybe not that far) but the w124 Mercedes are great, and u can get a 1992+ it's still the same build as the pre 90's models, what you don't want is a Merc that was introduced after 1992 (w202,w210,w220, the m class, these are all things to stay aweigh from, mainly the 2003my, its gets complacated, hit me up and i can give you more information) however the 2007+ Mercedes are built ALOT better and more like they were in the 80's, so those are good too.

CloakingDevice said...

No, no, it was after 1995 that the overengineering stopped, and the accountants took over. My 1993 300TE is essentially the same car as the 1990 version (with a few minor improvements, and one added flaw--a biodegradable wiring harness).

If you want to avoid all the electronics and, say, have your car survive a massive solar storm or a distant nuke, then the W123 diesel models are just the thing (pre 1985).