I am looking at 2 cars 1995 same mileage same price one a E320 and the other a C280, would like some help as to the differances and which one would be the better buy. Both have the 6 cyl. one a 2.8 the other 3.2. Any caveats on these cars????
My wife is the primary driver of the Benz. I am the exclusive driver of the Lexus. The Benz is better in the snow, being 4-Matic. It also has some nicer cosmetics, etc., but overall the Lexus is the better car. The Benz has better low end speed, and it feels nimbler, but it cannot match the LS on the open highway. The ergonomics of the LS are much better than the Benz.
Remember that that the LS 400 is a bigger car, although not much heavier than the E 320. A fairer comparison would be between the LS v the S420. In this case, the LS gets you better bang for the buck in terms of reliability, etc. The S420 is a "nicer" car.
:-) Both are dependable tanks. Both the diesel and gas (66) have over 270K miles. We've had the 300d for 5 years (got it from my mother) and I had a 300sd before, totally LOVE these cars. Heck, my dad put a '77 300d engine into his Ford camper van, was finally happy with it :-) With Mercedes, anything over 1980 is considered recent, excellent daily driving cars, I drive mine 60 miles each day in the worst traffic and never any problems (ok, some axle bearing went once), even after 5 years of daily commuting up a series of hils both ways that would put San Francisco to shame :-) drives very nice on canola too, very quiet at startup (with canola) even though it has bad compression from very bad maintenance from the previous owners, though I always seem to be far ahead of everyone with it in traffic :-)
the 66 I got in January for 500US, rebuilt engine recently (not me), was a daily driver until the year before. Have to fix some rust near the rear, absolutely reliable daily driver (though I currently don't drive it, want to restore it), it's in better mechanical shape than the '81 and seems more solid, amazing car! starts right up each time, even with the choke off after the first time even when cold, 109hp for a 2l 4cyl engine from 1966, amazing! you can tell I'm nuuuuuuuuts about these cars, eh!? :-)
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