Note the inside lights are smaller. They are fog lights, not headlights. It’s a two headlight system.
While the 450SEL was fun, it wasn’t intended to be a long term keeper. I was driving past a small, one man used car lot several times a month. And one day, he had something that caught my eye.
It was a 1980 Mercedes Benz 300D, in this color. I think they called it Orient Red. It had the painted wheelcovers instead of the bundt wheels you see here. And it wasn’t shiny like this either…..it was chalky, almost white. I guess you could say the very weathered condition is what caught my eye.
The interior, however, looked pretty good. It was tan MBTex, which is a quality vinyl that’s pretty impervious to sun damage or wear for the most part.The carpet was rough and stained, but WalMart carries cheap car carpet in black and tan. They did then, anyway, and it is on their website now in “Prairie Tan” for $39.92, 40 inches wide and 15 feet long. I recarpeted the car with the tan which was conveniently a good match color-wise. I covered the floor and sides of the trunk in the black carpet for good measure.
The 1980 300D was a nonturbo 5 cylinder diesel, basically the 2.4 liter four from the 240D with another cylinder added on. Power was about 77hp as opposed to 62hp for the 240D. So, we’re talking small numbers here but every bit helps. And that’s about a 25% increase if I am doing that right in my head. The legendary 300D and 300SD 5 cylinder turbodiesels were born for the 1979 model year, and increased output to a NASCAR worthy 110hp, relatively speaking.
The 1980 300D, while motivationally challenged, was quite a nice car when new. Some cursory looking on Google says the MSRP in 1980 was about $21,000.00, or over $62,000.00 today! A lot of things we take for granted today were standard, at a time when they were truly “luxury” and they were usually optional at extra cost on most makes. Power windows; power antenna; genuine wood trim; landing strip-quality fog lamps, vacuum central locking for the doors, trunk and fuel flap; rear defroster; 4 speed automatic transmission when more than 3 speeds was exotic; AM/FM stereo; and automatic climate control were included. The few options included electric sliding steel sunroof, AM/FM/cassette player, leather, metallic paint, and cruise control.
And of course, the build quality of the W123 body is legendary to this day. Sold in the US as diesels (the 240D, 300D turbo and nonturbo) and gasoline (230 briefly, and 280E), it was sold in coupe, sedan, and station wagon form though not all engines were in all bodies. And the rest of the world outside of the US saw even more engine choices. I think the coupe is still a looker! Especially a black 1985 300CD turbodiesel like you see here, with the Bundts that were standard by that time.
Not the actual lot, but one like it, that dot the USA
Back to the one-man car lot though. He was a retired franchise car dealer from Florida, who moved to our more temperate clime to retire. Out of boredom, he opened a little used car lot and filled it with this and that, which he would bring up from his contacts in Florida. There usually were 8 or so cars. And if he wasn’t there, the door was locked and you’d just have to come back later. He was doing it for entertainment, not income.
One day, the door was standing open so that meant he was there. I pulled in to look over the 300D. It had low miles, about 80,000 and this was 2000 or so. It was so chalky and weathered because of being in the Florida sun for 20 years and apparently never being waxed. The interior had held up, but the paint was thought to be shot. It ran pretty well overall, but had a rough idle and a hesitation from a standing stop.
He didn’t want to buy or trade for the 450SEL but he would consign it, so I bought the 300D for $1,800.00 and left the 450SEL on consignment.
The wax I had been using on the 450SEL that had done wonders was KLASSE. I don’t recall how I found it, probably a paper catalog back in the late 90’s. But it seemed like a miracle product. And in fact, as an aside, I still use it. It has no abrasives but cleans and removes scratches, bird dropping marks, etc., like you wouldn’t believe. I used it today on the door handle cups of my latest COAL, a 2016 slightly used somethingorother I bought 48 hours ago, and I’ll write about once I log some miles. The red bottle is the cleaner/wax, and the silver bottle is a polish that can go on second. I keep them both on hand, but use the red bottle for the most part, for all purposes (cleaning as well as a protective coat that beads up very well).
Three or four coats of the red bottle Klasse made the weathered orient red paint shine up pretty close to the Orient Red car shown above! It was amazing. Erma Bombeck said dust was a protective coating for furniture, and maybe the chalkiness was a protective coat for the rest of the paint that laid there, waiting to be rediscovered.
Another product that came to the rescue was Power Service Diesel treatment. We had used this in mom’s 1979 240D at the suggestion of the dealer, and it always ran like a top. Running the silver bottle at twice the suggested dosage for a couple of tanks, together with an “Italian tuneup” or two on the interstate, cured the rough idle and hestitation from a stoplight. It’s at WalMart too, and probably a lot of other places as well. Sea Foam is another, similar product that I have used regularly over the years to cure similar symptoms. You can use Sea Foam in gas or diesel, but I seem to reach for Sea Foam for gas engines and Power Service for the diesels.
After the all the paint buffing, the new carpet, and smooth running restored, I had a pretty good looking, low mileage 300D for not a lot of money. I kept it until we moved into the new house we built, right about the time of 9/11, coincidentally. Why sell such a creampuff? Well, of course another beater COAL caught my eye. Think the same car, but with more gusto this time.
Have you ever sold or traded a car for the same make and model?
Wax before polish?! Only de Germanz!
I’ve always gone for the same make, and for a long run it was the same model. Once you love Benz, it is hard to change.
Another nice “beater” from Importamation.
In late 1978 I put down a deposit on a condo in Northern NJ. I was anxious to get out of my rental apartment on East 29th Street in Manhattan and to have a lesser income tax burden. Federal, state, and NYC income taxes were exceptionally high at that time, and probably still are.
One day while walking around the condo building site and looking at the slab that would be my new home, I found the builder’s new-ish yellow 240D. Mercedes were never on my radar but this looked like the taxis I saw in Amsterdam and seemed to me to be a more mature choice than my new baby blue 280Z. The builder saw my interest in his car, tossed me the keys, and said “…take it for a spin – and bring back some coffee for the both of us”.
Interesting! It was noisy, slow, and as solid a piece of conveyance I have ever experienced. The body felt like it was made of much thicker steel than the Datsun, the seats were perfect, and the switch gear had an old fashioned design that moved in a manner that could only be described as elegantly solid.
“This is nice” I thought, it was slow, dignified, well built, and mature.
After I moved into the new condo, a neighbor invited me to drive her 450SL. The quality was similar to the 240D but boasted a large gas V8 and removable hardtop. What I most vividly recall from the SL was that it has two parallel fan belts on a power accessory (power steering?) on the front driver’s side of the engine. Like, in case one broke? The 450SL did not seem to invite being tossed around like the 280Z because it seemed long, wide, heavy, and soft. I didn’t try out the engine’s power because, well, in a 450SL that would not have been dignified. And Mercedes were dignified.
My experience-based sense of frugality has always kept Mercedes off my list of serious car considerations, but I must admit the two I drove back in the late 1970s were very, very nice. Totally different and yet very much alike at the same time.
What are Mercedes like now?
(Don’t ask me to test drive one; I don’t want to get “involved”.)
Those are excellent descriptions of the quality feel inherent in these cars (though for me, they are cold things as I’ve said below).
I don’t think there’s ever been a car built by any manufacturer after the 240/300D that has been as solid. Back then this car could easily do 400000 miles .and still feel solid. No Mercedes built today could touch what mercedes was. The quality was immense. And being a mass produced car makes it more amazing. In a way I think this was a time when engineers ran the show. Today it feels like the marketing Dept does.
These have always appealed to me. As my 1985 graduation from school approached, I briefly harbored the idea of the perfect car: a taxi-spec W123 with a small gas engine and a stick that could be bought for the price of a Buick Electra but would be good for decades of use. I quickly discovered that no such animal existed here. By then, there was no low spec car offered, no gas engine offered and it was priced more like 2 Buick Electras.
Every once in awhile I still get tempted by one of these.
Outside of the ‘grey-market’, the closest thing available here in ’85 would’ve been a stick-shift 1982 240D with manual windows and hubcap-wheels.
Maybe you could’ve found one of those for the price of one new Buick Electra.
Happy Motoring, Mark
There are some grey market gasser W123’s floating around in the US. However, at least one less than there was in 2009, as I shall explain. I bought 1985 280TE wagon back then thinking it would be cool to have something no one else in town had. I quickly realized it was going to become somewhat of a money pit. But what really led me to sell it after only a couple months was that at the same time I also owned a ’93 Olds Cutlass Ciera wagon, and I realized that the Olds was quieter, got better gas mileage, had more cargo room and was easier to get in and out of than the Benz. (If you are short and have the driver’s seat forward in a W123, the foot clearance between the seat cushion and the front of the door opening is limited). So I put the 280TE back on eBay, honestly described this time, and sold it for about a $1200 loss to a buyer from the Netherlands. Maybe it’s happier now that it has been repatriated to Europe.
Great old cars. A friend of my sister bought one of these on e-Bay several years ago (a 1983) with around 200k miles. She paid less than $2000 (Canadian) for it, and all it needed was a new set of glow plugs. Her husband brought it home on a trailer, replaced the glow plugs, and it became her summer driver. She calls it her Tiger Tank. I don’t think a newer Mercedes can touch these for their sheer excellence and quality. They may not be fast, but they’ll still be running long after many lesser cars get scrapped.
Before Mercedes was one of the first to clear coat their cars, they used the paint that left unwaxed would chalk out until almost white, however, there was plenty of it on the cars and buffing would bring out near new results. At my restoration/detail shop I would end up painting the peeling clear coat models and buffing the uncoated paint. This usually needed to be done a couple of times a year, but much better than the cost of stripping and painting. A friend of mine was a distributor of Klasse products and these work best on the German paint. Because of taking off so little paint when buffing and waxing, I preferred them. I was one of the original shops on the brochures recommending Klasse in California (not sure how much further it was distributed), my recommendation was next to a photo of a black Tucker I took care of the paint on for decades. Over the years I think I drove nearly everything Mercedes built in cars and suv’s (and most other makes as well) and owned quite a few. even a 55 Gullwing for a brief time, bought for $500 because it didn’t run, and looked like hell. After the body and paint and fixing the fuel injection I found it wasn’t a car I wanted to drive often. My favorite was a Mercedes 280 SE Cabriolet (3.5) in claret, with tan interior and top. I haven’t owned one in years. a close friend has a fleet of various engine and body styles and has said if I ever want to use one just call.
I lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. A member of our Armenian Church, a gentleman named Tom (I guess his Mom liked the name as much as mine did) had a Mercedes 180-D. He bought is used, drove it for at least 140,000 miles before he sold it and then afterwards remarked that he regretted selling the car. It just ran and ran reliably. So, when M-B advertise, “The Legendary Mercedes Diesel,” they are correct and in their right. Of note, I used to call on a school bus operator who runs over 120 60-passenger and more school buses. He remarked to me that when he switched to Diesel power in the 1970’s that his drivers gave the engines (DT-466’s from International) rave reviews. Why? As this man said, you could always rely on the engine to perform as expected with no surprises and no stalls (automatic transmission equipped). The gasoline-powered units with automatic transmission palled by comparison.
Twice!
In 1980, I bought a 1971 Audi Super-90 wagon to replace my accident damaged, but still driveable 1972 Super-90 wagon. Both were dark green too, but the ’71 was a better car – higher compression so more power & better mpg, and a nicer interior with more insulation and big Mercedes style seats, instead of the high-back VW style seats that came in the ’72.
However, both were trouble prone.
In 2010, I bought a 1982 240D with a factory replacement engine and a solid, nearly rust free body (quite a find on the East Coast) to replace my very rusty (but still loved) 1981 240D.
Happy Motoring, Mark
Mark, your post reminded me of a work colleague in the SF Bay Area who had a 220D with a manual transmission back in the late 80’s/early 90’s. We had a business-related meeting down in the San Luis Obispo, Ca area and decided we’d take his car to get there. There’s a long incline grade north of SLO and I remember feeling that I might have to open the passenger door, hop out and lend some assistance to get the car to the top. “Slow” doesn’t do it justice.
Ah, the Cuesta Grade! I don’t think I owned a car until the 2000’s that twas capable of actually accelerating up that hill even though I started regularly driving up in in the mid-late 80’s. It just went on and on and on. Not as long as the Grapevine in SoCal but steeper. There used to be a CHiP stationed at the bottom to catch you on your way down at way over the limit or while ramping up your speed as much as possible to delay the inevitable slowing on the way up. My girlfriend (now wife) did it a few times in a Suzuki Samurai – one time she ended up not downshifting fast enough and somehow came to a full stop on the shoulder due to being in too high a gear (probably third in a Samurai). It took her a while to get going again. To this day she hates driving stickshift due to that incident.
Great article. I’ve loved these Mercedes since my neighbour’s relatives had a white one in 1980. The CC effect has happened to me for the first time today as well! We saw a crème-caramel coloured 1979 UK V-plate 240D on our way to Taekwondo this morning. For the first time in only God-knows-how-long I didn’t have my phone so my oldest couldn’t get a picture ?. That roundabout where I saw the 240 has been good to me over the years, giving me classics such as a blue mid-70s Lincoln Continental, various McLaren models, an early E30 M3, some 1930s rods I couldn’t identify and my personal favourite, an Austin 7 Chummy.
My great aunt in Orlando, FL had a 300TD in that maroon red color for probably 20 years. I remember them driving up to Birmingham in it in the 90’s and I last saw it around 2003 or so. I guess they sold it? It was an ’81 I think and was always pristine.
My younger brother – who worked in real estate – leased a new ’79 300D back in the day and that car was about as solid as a car could be. Took a while to get up to speed, but once there, the car imbued a feeling of luxurious security and build quality as it ate up the miles. My father – also a broker – had an ’81 300TD that could be described the same way. Dad put a little over 200k miles on that one and the guy he sold it to put 200k more.
I leased a 2013 E350 BlueTec as (mainly) my wife’s driver and we liked it so much, I purchased it upon lease end. It has been a great car so far, with just shy of 40k miles and a comfortable long distance cruiser. No complaints to speak of… $1800 for the 40k service.
I use that Diesel Kleen stuff in my ’79 VW Rabbit diesel. It definitely helped undo some of the previous owner’s neglect.
I have to take issue with your use of the term “beater” for cars like this. A beater is a car that you beat on to keep the good car in top condition. Here in the rust belt we see winter beaters, some of them are “beater with a heater”. Your cars are the opposite of beaters. They are rescued cars. Cars that benefit from your foster care and finally get the attention they deserve. Well done and thank you for the stories, practical hints and this LOL one liner: “NASCAR worthy 110 hp”.
I agree with Wolfgang. You have been rescueing cars, making them better while you drive them then passing them along to the next owner. I have done that some in the past. Most of my vehicle have been beaters or what a lot of us in south central US call hoopties, cars/trucks on their last legs that are repaired enough mechanicallly to still be driveable but lacking in cosmetic upkeep.
I traded a 2014 Jetta SportWagen for a 2015 Golf SportWagen…basically the same thing.
I sold my 1993 Audi S4 to replace it with a 1995.5 Audi S6 Avant. Essentially the same car but different body style. Although it was what I really wanted I ended up liking the older car better. It had just “molded” to me over the years and I’d had more significant memories with it. I still sometimes wish I had it back.
These were absurdly expensive machines here, bought largely by wealthy farmers who could use tax-free farm diesel in them. At a 2017 cost equivalent to two top-line Commodores ($100,000AUD) the farmer got not only a lot of snob value but literally the slowest new car you could buy. To me, they are like an extremely praiseworthy person who is sadly afflicted with no sense of humour, impossible to fault and hard to like.
I test drove a 240D auto about 8 years back. Did the old 0-100 (60mph) test. Eventually, I got out. I believe it is still getting there.
The 300D 5 cyl sounds a good deal cooler, but is also in the panic area for acceleration in modern traffic.
You should drive a 1950 Buick Special with Dynaflow in the Drive position.
Ah, but the Buick is glorious instead of virtuous, so I wouldn’t mind. Time to wave at the admirers.
“To me, they are like an extremely praiseworthy person who is sadly afflicted with no sense of humour, impossible to fault and hard to like.”
Rather like PM Malcolm Turnbull, sounds to me ~
The W123 Mercedes chassis _are_ glorious .
True, the 240D (esp. with slushbox) takes far longer to get up to 60 PMH, this just means you learn to conserve your speed and rarely let off the accelerator pedal .
Every time I take SWMBO’s 1984 300TD out, it gets attention ~ yesterday a lady driving a brandy new Mercedes stopped to look at it and said it was nice .
-Nate
I didn’t sell or trade them but I had three times I deliberately bought the same car again and parked the previous one out back. When I was a teenager I ran through a whole passel of 66 valiants. When my parents moved and I had to dump my part supplies I remember talking a complete drivetrain ( motor,tranny AND rear axle) fenders, bumpers and boxes of trim
In later years I did the same with some eighties Chrysler fifth avenues and Olds 88’s
I continually bought Chrysler M-Bodies between 1999-2004, trading a Chrysler for a Plymouth for a Dodge, etc. After driving six of them for countless miles, I sold off the last one, an ’87 Diplomat SE that I put 70k on during a long commute as some parts became sparse here in MA/NH. Still miss it, and of course, lacking sense- still look for a clean one.
“I continually bought Chrysler M-Bodies between 1999-2004, trading a Chrysler for a Plymouth for a Dodge, etc. ”
Wow, Just wow. I bought a Ford in 1997, 8 years used.
Still drive it.
Guess that’s the difference between Ford and Chrysler products.
March 1998, I’m running the detail shop for a local CPJE dealer when one day a 1985 300D in faded red (same color as above) hits the trade-in line. I don’t know why, but it spoke to me… and within a couple of days I’d haggled with the used car manager to part with it for $1200, or $200 more than the dealer had given the prior owner on trade-in for… a 1998 Plymouth Breeze.
The fool!!!!
My new/old Benz had 245,000 on the odometer, but except for the paint and a worn rear half shaft was in shockingly decent shape. Once the shine was brought back it looked really sharp in with its chromed Bundt wheels, the tan MB-Tex looked and felt brand new, and the turbodiesel remained amazingly stout and strong. I had my mechanic give it a quick once-over and he determined the head had never been pulled off the engine, nor did it present any reason to be. All the vacuum accessories worked, as did the Becker radio and even the sunroof.
I put $400 into it to have the half-shaft repaired, and convert the A/C to R-134A. I’d planned to drive it for at least a year, but a friend who’d grown up in Germany fell in love with it and begged me to sell it to her. We eventually settled on $3500; alas, she promptly drove it into the ground from neglect. 🙁
Oh, and I’ve also traded a car in for the same make and model… just this year in fact! I went from a 2015 Kia Cadenza to a 2017. What can I say, I like oddball automotive choices.
These are no longer cheap beaters in the U.K- good ones are worth serious coin now. Always a bloody expensive car, these were bought by higher earning professionals who treated them like their own children meaning it’s not hard to find excellent examples.
Diesels are very thin on the ground, when they were cheap lots got exported to Africa where the robustness,simplicity and longevity made them very popular as bush taxis.
I have always liked these cars, but never pulled the trigger on one. 240’s are definitely too slow, even for someone with stock air cooled VW’s. Test drove a couple of grey market manual trans 300D’s. Still too slow around town, but at least ok on the highway.
I once had a 1987 Buick LeSabre sedan and moved to a 1987 Buick LeSabre wagon. Not the same car though. The wagon came from the factory with the Olds built 350 V-8 RWD while the sedan had the Buick 3.8 V-6 FWD. The only thing that seemed the same was the steering wheel.