First car for a student

Three is a crowd?

The most important advice that you need to know as a student is that three is not a crowd if you can hook up with two sweet bi chicks.

And one of them should have a car so its a two fer.

Now go study.

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E300, in good condition.

Well, I'm no mechanic, but I can hold my own when it comes to technical knowledge about cars, spotting potential problems, and performing simple replacements (taking off air filter to replace spark plugs and wires, changing shocks, etc).

Thanks, will look for a local dealer to test drive one.

If you have the financial resources for the maintenance, a 300D is a good choice assuming diesel is easy to buy where you are. However be prepared for the expense of parts and labor (if you can't do it yourself) on any MB model more than 10 years old or with more than 100,000 miles.

Marlinspike's advice may be brutally honest, but it's worth considering.

Reliability, Student, and Mercedes-Benz are not three things that commonly appear in the same sentence.

If you cannot afford to spend at least $80 - $110 per hour (Benz dealer around here charges 110 last I checked) for labor, or cannot troubleshoot and repair the car yourself (and afford the shop manuals and all the tools needed), then you don't need to drive behind the three-pointed star.

Get a Toyota if you want a reliable car that's easily fixed.

"Celica Dude" wrote in news:3Iduc.9273$ snipped-for-privacy@nwrddc03.gnilink.net:

Japanese part's are obscenely expensive! Buy a late model General Motors. They are cheap to buy and repair, and are reliable.

If it has to be foreign, nothing beats a well kept Mercedes 300E (I own one).

Eh. Not for the earlier cars, especially diesels.

I was under the impression that older MB were very reliable. My family currently owns two of them; both have more than 160,000 miles and have had only minor non-engine related problems (window switches, plugged A/C drain hoses, wiper motor, etc).

Are you off your rocker? Nothing beats a 300E? Maybe you have one of the MB's that doesn't need to ever be fixed? Hahahah!

Get a Camry or something else with a 4-cylinder.

I used to work for several years on these older cars. I know how expensive they can be to fix. Good luck finding a cheap, reliable 300D. The "cheap" ones will need lots of repair and or be rusty. The reliable ones will be scarce and come at a premium price.

Stay away from 78-81 mercedes of *any* type. The heater controller is a nightmare if it breaks.

I don't know Richard (george jacob jinglehiemersmidt, thats my name too). If, like most people I know, three's a crowd knew nothing about maintaining a car (i.e. had to have a shop change spark plugs and the like), things could get very expensive. Since he/she says replace his plugs (and hopefully can change brake pads...pretty simple on Benz's), then I say a W126 (1981-1991 S-class int he us) Richard

how many owners have these cars had? You've done all the maintenance at the proper times, correct?

Maybe it's just where I live, but most Benz's around here that I've seen with that mileage that have had multiple owners are utter pieces of crap. The ones with that mileage that are nice, people do not sell.... unless they are gasoline cars. Which brings me to my original point.. if they are selling, there is something wrong.

I dunno, there's so many electrical doo-dads on a 126 that are all failing jsut about now it's not the car I'd recommend. 300D turbo or non turbo or even a 240D if you can live with a truly slooooooooooow car.

The all time minimal maintanence MB in my book would be the

76 115 chassis non turbo 5 cylinder 300D. Manual seats, windows, locks, power nuttin. But they rust like mofos and they're pretty old; but if you live a in a non-salt state and can find one that isn't all worn out this would be the one to get.

I can only snicker at the notion of buying a cheap Toyota; there's nothing as expensive as cheap Toyota; my bother went that route. I'm still laughing 5 years later (and he dunped it 3 years ago)

My parents have, yes, and had I been the owner I would have been able to afford to perform the preventative maintenance myself. One of the cars-- a 1988 300SE (which has a value of ~$3,800 in my area today)-- has had a total of about $4,000 worth of maintenance on it. My parents are the second owner of it.

Personally, I don't like the car very much or I would just buy one of those; instead I thought I would look for a recommendation for something similar.

Then again, perhaps the car is ready to crack a cylinder head the next time it is started, so I shouldn't go by that...

considering.

You're crazy... I worked on german crap for years and I have been driving Toyota for the past 4 years. 50,000+ miles in two different Celicas and it's been the cheapest driving of my whole driving experience. I can't believe you guys think that MB is cheaper to operate and maintain than Toyota. It's just not true at all. The cost of the parts is somewhat equal, however..... the *quality* of the Toyota parts is a lot better. Translation = less-frequent service.

Only the diesel mercedes come close to the reliability of the Toyotas.

If you already have that car, why not drive it? I doubt the cylinder head is going to go North on you without any warning at all, especially considering that your parents are the second owners..

Seems reasonable to drive it for a year or so until you find something you really like and then get that... or heck, just keep driving the 300SE for a long time.