Seing as a few people have owned mercs, what is..

£900 + £600 that the headgasket, back brakes, service and top mount cost. Oh and the Alarm (which should now be fixed thanks to a test by the manufacturer/importer tech and the insertion of a 50p resistor). *******************************************

Ooof, taking a hit then. But I bet it'd make a grand on Ebay if you list all the work... And add photos of the bills.

A grand for a leggy 9000?

You're having a laugh.

On eBay? Maybe more if he's lucky heh.

Heheh, hurry up and put the engine in!

CIHAGM?

(c:

The =A3920 I paid was matching the winning bidder who dropped out. When I bought it he told me that the garage he bought it off (the same=20 one I've used for work) was going to buy it back for =A3900 if it didn't=20 sell. I asked Richard if that was the case when I took it in for the gasket.=20 He said yes, he had had it as a trade in, and Mike who I bought it off=20 needed something for a couple months till he emigrated, and it was=20 always agreed he would buy it back.

I've found that my car doesn't need the =A370 resistor pack. It needs the =A3180 tranistor pack. But I've seen a couple of apparently=20 working pulled ones on ebay for =A315 I'm going to punt one of those and=20 take a chance before I shove it on.

If I can get that working I can sell it as fully working which it is,=20 even if the overall condition reflects it's age well.

I'll get back what I can. I put the spends into it hoping it would keep=20 going, but I like things to work and too many bits are popping at once.

--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream:

cost cutting. No properly rust protected.

Engine / transmission etc are as robust as (and based on) previous mercs but the bodyshell was made using cheap steel and not rustproofed. From certain dates they were fully galvanised, W211 panels are either galvanised or aluminium.

Build quality suffered too again due to cost cutting - some of the fit and finish on early south african built W203s is atrocious, again dealers fixed them under warranty and a good one will remain a good one.

Car 22 Bob Sherunckle Car 122 Skinny Doug

It's what I had in mind all along - make no mistake.

Double driving at speed events - YKIMS.

AFAIR Mercedes models run like this:

Classic - bog standard car with no "extras" equipped to a level that would have been regarded as luxurious in 1979.

Avantgarde - has a few extras but in bizarre combinations that make no sense to anyone. For example an extra large sun roof but no aircon, seats in clashing colours but no leather. Cheapo radio/cassette unit crappy speakers but a pair of "tweeters" ostentatiously on show.

Elegance - has all the bits you'd expect in the average Mondeo. Top of the range Merc model.

You're getting less than which figure? And you say it doesn't have the aero transmission fitted? So is it a genuine aero that's had the gearbox replaced with the normal one for the injection model, or a normal injection car that's had an aero lump whacked in?

If you're getting a tad less than the combined then that tallies up with my general "realistic everyday driving" theory on fuel economy - if I go for the mid-point between the urban and combined figures, then I rarely find myself disappointed.

My view is that getting a small loan for a car up to 3 or 4 grand isn't

*neccessarily* a bad thing, but only if you give it a bloody good lookover (and if neccessary get someone who knows about that model to come with you), and also only if it's a model that you can be confident (from various different sources) isn't likely to give you much trouble.

Given the rust issues that are well known with the W210 E-Class, I'd be giving this (and any other W210s) a bloody great wide berth.

Bung them another 50p for another resistor, and use it to halve your fuel consumption. Job's a goodun :-)

Heh!

Old skool.

Given how often I used to change the car, all the staff at the local one know who I am the minute I say 'hello' when I ring up... lol

********************************************************

Heh, we had loads of customers like that, the amounts of bills that were paid late was shocking - bad way to do business technically - but it kept the customers happy and our office had a really good reputatuion locally so we had pretty much every farm and big business. Also it was because we were so flexible, it wasn't done with click boxes that just yea or no'd. The whole 'risk' was written down, passed to underwriting, and they worked out the premium by getting it all the fit the system (not in a dodgy way) sort of thing.

NAHAY?

1. Learn to snip sigs properly, noob.
2. Try not to post c*ck dribble like the above again in here unless you want everyone to realise you really are a f****it.

HTH

-- JackH

They're not so flexible on that these days - HQ administer all the direct debits and are a bit more ruthless than the local offices when it comes to any issues with these.

-- JackH

Um, you're happy with a car for about 4 weeks then get itchy feet, so that ain't going to happen.

LOL, when they said resistor, that is what I first thought, Hmm ebay,=20 "chip tuning".

--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream:

That was my thoughts, shame really, because they are such stunning looking cars, with decent equipment, bullet proof mechanicals, and not bad economy let down by crap steel work.

My cars have all been cheap tat compromises, even the good ones for the money, either mechanically spot on but tatty looking, good lucking but worn mechanically, or a combination.

Two cars I've owned I regretted selling, when in reality it would have been far cheaper to put them right. The tatty looking silver 900, and the GT4. Both were oil leak related, and the GT4 was even fairly economical with the boost up and handled like a gocart with the suspension/brake work I did. Spending on a pallet engine from a low mileage import would have made much more sense.

A car that didn't have the threat of major failures hanging over my head would make it easier to live with long term.