Buying 1988 W124 260E

I am considering buying a friend's car that has been sitting a while. He claims that it was running good but has a cold start problem that needs to be fixed before he will sell.

Can anyone point me to sites or lists that cover this model's quirks and history? I need a car that is very reliable and trouble free, since my new job is going to be a 50 mile commute daily.

Comments-

MC

Reply to
MC
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Can anyone point me to sites or lists that cover this model's quirks and history? I need a car that is very reliable and trouble free, since my new job is going to be a 50 mile commute daily.

Comments-

MC

Is this the same MC who posts to the Ferrari newsgroup?

If you are looking for dead bang reliability, it is very hard to beat Toyota, Honda, and the Japanese brands. The older Mercedes are generally pretty reliable, but the repairs are expensive.

Larry

99 S 420 (57,000 miles-- so far, so good)
Reply to
REInvestments

I do a 90 mile (round trip) a day commute with a '93 300E (3.2dohc). Its been very solid for almost 2 years now and we're rolling just past 130k miles. Repairs and maintenance is NOT cheap overall but repairs have been minimum. People find it hard to believe its got 130k miles and they will be even more impressed when its got 180k miles and looks the same as it does now. Still maintenance at this point is going to start to add up. Shocks, struts, steering box rebuild, rear bushings and a new set of springs and tires as well as some transmission maintenance is all in the cards for the next year or two and I can expect that on top of other unexpected repairs to add up to about $2500 to $3500 (or about $125/month).

Not bad considering the caliber of car and drive. In 1993 this car sold for $49,800. I paid $13k for it at 9 years old and with 80k miles and a fresh pair of sneakers. Still well worth it and a much better can then most new cars under $30,000 today.

Can anyone point me to sites or lists that cover this model's quirks and history? I need a car that is very reliable and trouble free, since my new job is going to be a 50 mile commute daily.

Comments-

MC

Reply to
fish

charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Reply to
Mike "Rotor" Nowak

no offence, but you shouldn't post to news groups in html ...

Reply to
atwifa

I don't, my OutlookX doesn't by default (its set to plain text) but will reply if the original message is.

And I do take offence. Why? Who are you? Are you a newsgroup moderator? Who said its wrong or wright anyway? Does you comments have anything to do with the topic?

Happy Holliday and mind your own business.

Reply to
fish

Yeah, Mercedes springs are made of a space-age material impervious to wear - LOL!!

Sportline springs are shorter and require shorter struts and shocks.

My Mechanic specializes in Mercedes, Porches, BMW, Jaguar, Rolls Royce and basically whatever is exotic. He's been doing this for over 25 years and have a collection of cars that's amazing. In our town we have several Rolls' and a couple of Lamborghini's which is maintains besides the dozens and dozens of British and German cars.

He's opinion was that by 150k miles the suspension should be replaced (springs, shocks and bushings) to maintain a 'new car' drive and feel. Something a Mercedes is capable of doing for hundreds of thousands or miles, if you want. I agree.

"Mike "Rotor" Nowak" wrote in message news:lzwGb.65824$pY.40977@fed1read04...

Reply to
fish

html can propagate viruses and rogue .vbs files. it is in everyone's interest to not use html when posting to public groups.

therefore it kind of is my business. so f*ck off.

Reply to
atwifa

Get a anti-virus program you cheap bastard! Worrying about propagating potential virus is not my concern - its yours.

That's like telling me to wear a mask in public because I may spread a cold - LOL, what a moron!

I pay for Symantec's antivirus and have not had a virus infect my PC for very many years, and I never will.

Reply to
fish

lol

Reply to
atwifa

LOL?

What do you do steal it?

Yeah, I used to when I was a kid and had no money, but I grew up.

Lets see, you are the one that is afraid of getting a computer virus - I'm not. Is my $29/year worth the peace of mind? Yes it most certainly is. Obviously you don't or we wouldn't be having this conversation. Unless you are just a complete asshole, which is likely.

Reply to
fish

Thanks Fish, you've given some additional items to consider before jumping into this deal.

FYI My previous cars have been older 3 series BMW's (1977 320i, 1980,320i, 1981

320i,and 1983 318i) and found them relatively cheap to own, due to few bills repairs for the first year or two I owned them. Mostly that was due to proactive replacement of the the odd alternator, battery, radiator, and suspension and strut replacement over a 2-5year period on a ten to fiteen year old car is to be expected due to a high salt diet in winters here in the midwest.

I should add the car I mentioned earlier has something like 108,000miles on it. Length of time sitting is a few months (definitely less than a year). Its one of four cars the guy owns, so that explains the reason to sell and low miles. On the other hand most of the life of hits car was spent doing short trips

5-10 miles in suburban driving; I guess I should do an extra close check of the exhaust and brakes.

Agreed. Hence my original posting requesting some sites or lists devoted to the Mercedes-Benz 260E. You mentioned your 300E, does this mean they are the same car except for engine displacements?

springs and tires as well as some transmission maintenance

I would expect that any Mercedes-Benz should not only have better longevity than my old Bummers, but as with any car I am sure that some items require more attention than others but not in the same order compared with other cars. My concern is just how much that cost will be and what items to expect to replace in the next year or so. To be more blunt; what items expect to go on this model between 100-130K miles.

struts/shocks and bushings - Agreed. I expect these will need attention sometime in the next year.

tires - I need to check for this car ( I believe tires were replaced about two years ago)

transmission maintenance - I assume oil flush and filter changes should be enough for an automatic, how often do the shaft seals typically go before replacement? (Most domestic U.S. cars require this around at most 100K miles, my experience with the BMW's was around 120-130K miles)

set of springs - this one seems surprising to me, I never had a car that required this as part of maintenance at less than 130K miles. I wonder if this is typical of all the M-B models in this age and mileage range.

steering box rebuild - this would seem like the proverbial statistical outlier for a car of this quality build.

Suspension joints - Also, would this be a typical replacement item at his age and mileage?

Yep, I agree.

Not bad considering the caliber of car and drive. In 1993 this car sold for $49,800. I paid $13k for it at 9 years old and with 80k miles and a fresh pair of sneakers. Still well worth it and a much better can then most new cars under $30,000 today.

Can anyone point me to sites or lists that cover this model's quirks and history? I need a car that is very reliable and trouble free, since my new job is going to be a 50 mile commute daily.

Comments-

MC

Reply to
MC

Hi Larry,

I haven't been on the Ferrari newsgroup for a very long time if ever. Was there something in particular that someother MC commented that is relavent here?

MC

Reply to
MC

Steering box on my 93 is a bit loose, replacement is in excess of $2000 while a rebuilding (of my own box) is about $600. No its not necessary at

130k but its a bit soft and in another 50k miles it'll be ready.

I had a wiper motor go at 110k, it cost about $450. I also had a heater/AC fan motor go at about 100k and that was another $400. Transmission governor is not as smooth shifting as it should be and a $600 rebuild is expected in the next 20k miles.

From experience and reading (allot here) these cars have some components that are just damn expensive to replace. An idler module that is $70 in an average Ford is almost $500 for my 3.2l. But its not a Ford in any way, shape or form. I'd expect a 260E to be more durable for the most part then the BMW but repairs will not be cheap, even if you do most yourself. My days of DIY are over for the most part but I do stay clear of the dealers and find good reputable mechanics you can trust.

Reply to
fish

No. Just wondering.

Reply to
REInvestments

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