Mercedes 280 SE 4.5

i'm very seriously considering selling my 2003 Mazda6 and living out the everyman fantasy "Life's too short to drive boring cars." the non-boring car that has my attention this week is a 1971 Mercedes 280 SE (sedan) 4.5. looking for first-person experience with these cars, from either the driver or the mechanic.

Nothing to add, but I fantasize about making that exact model into a C-Prepared car.

Caveat - I haven't owned one but I've looked at a bunch of them and toyed with the idea of buying one for a long time.

The biggest issue with these is rust, rust, bondo and did I mention rust? Mechanically they're pretty good but I vaguely recall that fixing the fuel injection isn't a cheap hobby. But it's supposedly one of the cars that you buy on the condition of the body as long as it's driving OK.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1969-Mercedes-Benz-300SEL-300-SEL-6-3-Original-Car-Limo-W-Many-Spares-/140608852435?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item20bcf0d1d3#ht_643wt_1165 If you are going to buy a money pit, why not go all the way?

That pit's probably an order of magnitude bigger than a 4.5 pit. The air suspension parts tend to be in the "sorry, I didn't want to purchase your whole company" territory.

In reply to BoxheadTim:

dang, that's too bad because i just found a "not driven since 1992" 300 SEL that kept me awake last night. and it's only a 4.5, so all the expense without all of the thrust.

I wouldn't discount the 4.5 liter. I'm really surprised at how much power it makes. The 450sl I just bought kinda hauls ass, especially once it is underway. Mine is a low-compression 1979 version too, I'd imagine the earlier ones may make more power.

I'm not sure how much the coupes weigh but for reference the SL is about 3800 lbs.

In reply to AngryCorvair:

The 4.5 should be a lot less expensive than the 6.3 to run as the expensive high tech stuff all went into the 6.3 (like the air suspension). The 4.5 is much more conventional and thus easier and cheaper to look after.

BoxheadTim wrote: In reply to AngryCorvair: The 4.5 should be a lot less expensive than the 6.3 to run as the expensive high tech stuff all went into the 6.3 (like the air suspension). The 4.5 is much more conventional and thus easier and cheaper to look after.

my research says that the air suspension was tied to the vehicle model, ie all the "300" (W109) cars had air suspension, while the "280" (W108) cars had coil springs. i agree with you that the 4.5 is a lot cheaper to operate and maintain than the 6.3.

FWIW, all 6.3L cars were W109's, but not all W109's were 6.3L.

Try posting on the peachparts forum too, a bunch of people there have them.