In the first installment of this rapid-fire overview of the shifting winds of my car enthusiasm, I covered the early years. I had gone from a high schooler not particularly enjoying access to a quirky Volvo to a college student owning half a Chevy Cruze sitting miles away at his parents’ house.
During this two year period of being car-less in practice if not strictly in name, I nevertheless managed to get into plenty of car related shenanigans. Starting with helping my family shop for used cars in mid 2023. I was known for my knowledge of the used car market thanks to my frequent dreaming of a future ride (despite having been on one test drive ever for the Cruze) and I finally had a chance to put my skills to the test.
My sister had briefly taken over my mom’s mechanically and cosmetically challenged Volvo XC90 and nicknamed it the Struggle Bus, since it had very little power and absolutely no traction at all. In famously hilly Athens Georgia it also rains a lot, which made the car’s propensity to lose grip even worse. The car had, however, after a new engine with turbo plus a new cooling system, showed signs it might have finally shaken its unreliable ways.
Then, it got a big bump from behind by a pickup truck and that was the end of it; a new car would be needed for both my mom and my sister. It had to be a Volvo, as my mom has a long history with them. They never failed to break in new and amusing ways every other month; however, that hasn’t stopped her and my sister from developing this baffling brand loyalty.
Given a small budget and the only requirements being “Volvo,” I managed to dig up a 2008 XC70 for my sister that had been only lightly scorched by the Georgia sun. These cars were very rarely in the price range we looked for and I even got my preferred spec for my preferred car. It was even a non boring shade of barely-green. Score! This car is still going strong and could even be considered reliable. That is, if your standards for “reliable” were the previous Volvos in our family.
Then, with the same requirements of “Volvo” but a slightly higher budget, I uncovered a 2011 XC90 R-Design in great condition for my mom. The last XC90 my mom had owned was the worst possible way to spec it from the factory (base model I5 FWD) and it was the most unreliable car our family had ever known.
This non-turbo inline 6 powered one didn’t suffer from the same lack of traction, thanks to AWD and an engine more appropriately matched to the car, even if it still isn’t very fast. So far it’s been relatively reliable thanks to a steady stream of preventative maintenance. The slightly gaudy R-Design aluminum trim and Passion Red paint made it one of the most distinctive cars on the block and fulfilled a super secret mission of mine to help people buy colorful cars. I personally love the way it looks, ridiculous metallic blue faced gauges and all.
I had influenced the various unusual shades that adorn the cars my siblings and parents own, but what about my own car?
I had very little money to spare as an undergraduate student at Georgia Tech. The money I did have had to be spent carefully because I had to go to graduate school, being an architecture major. So a cheap car it would be. But could this cheap car be a manual?
I had been in a manual transmission car once, so I felt sure I knew how it worked. I managed to convince a nice man from a local car forum I was involved in to teach me stick. The BMW Z3 M he showed up in was exactly what I wanted but couldn’t afford, so I was thrilled. I did pretty horribly in retrospect, but it was enough to gain some confidence with a third pedal.
Now, all I had to do was find a car! I set a budget for myself of $3,000 for car + 1 year of parts/repairs. In 2023, the car market had not fully recovered from COVID and the pickings at this bottom of the barrel price range were genuinely dismal.
I’ll save the tale of the adobe BMW I almost bought for another time, but it was so hard to find a car that ran at all, I pretty quickly gave up on getting a manual transmission sports car. I just wanted something I could fix myself when it broke that wasn’t boring.
I decided if the car was going to be pretty janky, it might as well be interesting, so I bought a 1985 Mercedes 300D from middle of nowhere north Georgia. It came with a strong recommendation for reliability by the owner. It also came with a small piece of plywood the owner used as a makeshift floor so his dog wouldn’t fall through the rust holes in the bottom of the car.
It was my first time in a car from the 1980s and my first time driving a diesel. I had very little experience working on cars and didn’t own so much as a screwdriver. Yet, I was in love and immediately knew it would be mine.
I could fill multiple posts with the ridiculous and unlikely events that have occurred due to this purchase. It’s still my only car. Recently I ditched the plywood for a genuine metal floor and took it with me on a cross country move. There will be much to say about the teal turbo tractor in another post, but here’s a few tidbits:
- A past owner clearly drove it through wet concrete and carried on unbothered
- It’s only been on fire once
- The brake fluid reservoir once fell off on a rutted dirt road up a mountain
- It’s never, ever left me stranded
I was already heavily involved in the aforementioned car forum, but with a classic car to call my own, I went on a few outings with the guys from the forum. It was not only a nice break from the brutal workflow of an architecture student at Georgia Tech, but a way to finally experience some different cars. My sun scorched diesel was rarely even looked at when I brought it to local car meetups, but I started going to them regularly after I got to know a few faces.
My car hobby had risen above reading magazines and was starting to bear fruit. This fruit sometimes tastes suspiciously like a combination of rusty metal and WD40, so it’s clearly not for everyone.
In addition to slowly improving my 300D, I started detailing quite a few of my friends’ tired old cars. Not only did I find it fun, but dirty cars really annoy me. It was still to be a little while before I started being known for parking lot bodges and helping out in marathon wrenching sessions. The infamously fragile MX3 belonging to a friend I have teased you with, will have to wait for another post, however.
This brings us through my third year of undergrad at Georgia Tech. See you soon!
For thos who missed Part 1 of this series, click HERE.
Congratulations! With the W 123, you’ve picked up one of the few cars where it’s worth swapping a plywood floor for a metal one.
May I ask how many miles it has on the odometer?
Which odometer do you want to know the reading of? I’ve put two in it myself. 😉
The mileage is unknowable. It’s probably around 300,000 but I really have no idea. It read 236,xxx when I bought it, but it didn’t work and the car looks way too well worn for such a low figure.
Good to know your 300D has found such a good home.
In that second to last photo of the car meetup, two of them are in my family: Stephanie’s TSX wagon and my son’s “clown shoe” M3 coupe.
I’m surprised that the floor rusted through like that. In my experience, most diesel cars from the 70’s, 80’s seem to stay rust free on the underside due to the oil leaks and greasy film that diesels give off. At the dealership I worked at for many years starting in 1988, we saw quite a few GM diesel cars (rural farming area in the mid-west). Most of them had well over 100K by the time we got them and most ran quite well. After all, those farmers know how to handle a diesel!! But the one thing we seldom saw was underside rust due to the coating of oil and that film.
Enjoy your super cool 300D. Back in the early 90’s, I picked up a really clean 1982 300D (not a turbo) and it was a great car to drive. It was painfully slow and the trans wasn’t shifting correctly, but I got that fixed and it was great looking in that light blue with dark blue Benz-tex.
It rusted from the inside out where the factory undercoating and general oiliness can’t help it. These had good rustproofing for their era, but when the water is already inside the car, it’s less effective.
And let me tell you, it was one seriously big hole it left.
Exactly like what happened with my Jeep XJ. Rusted from the inside out, despite the 4.0 oil shower from below. Spent a whole summer fabbing and welding floor and frame sections, but it was worth it.
I taught my then 15 year old how to drive stick in my E91; but sometimes one does crazy things for relatives. (He ultimately did quite well, all things considered.) Nevertheless, the guy who came with his Z3 to teach a relative stranger may be breaking new ground for the definition of “nice”.
Still, if he was what put you on the path to the 300D, that was definitely nice. As others are saying here, I think you have a keeper. Long after all of the dead dinosaurs are gone, you can still motor off into the sunset surrounded by the sweet sweet smell of donuts and french fries and stout German engineering.
“It’s only been on fire once” LOL!
I did not do a good job of driving stick even for a beginner. Incidentally, the people who I taught to drive stick on my 300ZX all did way better than me for their first try. The 300D is of course an automatic but when I eventually bought the Nissan that experience came in handy.
Nice post. I have to say as a long term Volvo owner, the Golden Rule is never buy a used Volvo unless all the maintenance records are available. If it’s been maintained strictly according to the Volvo factory schedule, it should be fairly bullet proof.
While the P3s are more forgiving, that era of Volvo was still easy to make unreliable through neglect. They are more sensitive to the way they are maintained than some owners can put up with.
It’s remarkable how different the views on this are across our continents. Here in the Old Lands, a Volvo is considered a car that forgives even severe neglect. Until finally, nothing really works anymore.
Well, maybe it depends on the model series. What I’m writing definitely applies up to and including the P80 (= Volvo 850 / V70 Mk I). About recent XCs, I don’t know. But these are Geelys.
Good to read the thoughts of a younger person .
The 1985 Mercedes 300D was a special car full of one year only driveling bits so change the ATF regularly there’s a 5MM drain plug in the torque converter to get most of it out .
That’s “Petrol Blue” BTW .
-Nate
I believe it was called Blue Green Metallic in this application, but the same color. It’s a wonderful shade that is distinctive without being in your face. I love it.
I was originally looking for one of these because it was really the end of the line for a lot of old technology. Everything is mechanical on these.
I like that 300D, and good on you for taking on the project. I’m surprised you don’t get much attention in it. Granted, it isn’t an uncommon or exotic car, but I’d think the dwindling numbers and recognition (everybody 40-something or older remembers one somebody had back when) would trigger growing interest. It looks good from the outside, so hopefully the rust is pretty isolated. I’m a little biased, but I think there’s an argument that the W123 is one of the greatest cars of all time, and maybe even the greatest car of the last 50 years.