Help me pick a new daily driver

I guess this is sort of a what car thread, but I have a few specific questions about some of the cars I was thinking about. My daily driver right now is a Milano, and its not bad, but there are a few things that I am getting quite tired of that arent easily fixed. The headlights are really bad, and the high beams dont work at all, the HVAC system is completely non functional (both of these could be fixed, but it would cost as much as buying another car), and it has very little room inside for other than a driver and one passenger, and even at stock height (and slightly bigger than stock tires), the ground clearance is close to being unacceptably low.

I want to try to sell it this summer and get a different car that gets better mileage, has a working heater, and more ground clearance (enough that rough gravel roads and/or an inch or so of snow wouldn't be an issue). Good headlights are also essential, and room to carry 2 or 3 normal sized people in the car with me would be nice. Decent handling would be nice, but it would see mostly freeway use.

I do not want OBDII, ABS, or air bags. I would prefer a euro car, and I dont really care for japanese stuff. I would also want to be able to buy good quality struts (like Bilstien HD, etc).

The cars i have though about are :

SAAB classic 900

Mercedes 123 300D

SAAB 9000

MK2 Volkswagen Golf/Jetta (I pretty much know what they are like because I have worked on and ridden in them, and my sister has one).

For the other cars, what are the common things that need replacing? The timing chain (and what appears to be a timing chain driven vaccum pump) on the mercedes kinda scares me, along with the exploding SAAB transmissions.

Any other ideas? I have driven an E30, and its not really want I would want, they aren't alot different than my Milano is, and although a Subaru pretty much fits, my dad has one and parts are quite expensive, and you cant get good struts any more (as far as i know).

What's the knock against OBDII?

I live in California, so a replacement catalytic converter is $6-700 rather than $3-400, and there are many more issues that can create emissions testing problems. The best would be no emissions testing at all, which is why i was asking about the Merc diesels.

I know you said no E30, but it fits all your requirements...

Come on, they don't call it God's Chariot for nothing.

The area where I live is not good for cheap E30s, id be looking at under $2k cars for the most part, and all you can get for that price is a beater automatic 4 door that hasn't even had the oil changed in years. If i had 2-3x more to spend id seriously consider a 325ix though.

If you can get a 300D Turbodiesel in good condition, that would probably make a very nice DD. The non-turbo requires a lot of patience, but they go on forever if rust doesn't kill them first. Think third world taxi with 2 million miles on it that gets an oil change once a year if it needs it or not.

BTW, I sometimes see decent-looking E30s for less than $2k on Reno CL - of course that depends on how far away you are...

http://www.summitracing.com/search/Brand/MagnaFlow/Product-Line/MagnaFlow-California-30000-Catalytic-Converters/?autoview=SKU

Staying away from everything from about 1995 and on because of this seemed a little silly and then I found those.

In your price range I would probably be looking at civics, integras, e30's, 240sx's, maybe an e28 with a manual transmission.

Does anyone here have a 300d or know anything about them? I see them almost everyday, but information about fuel economy (reported as anything from 11 mpg to 38 mpg), and maintiance needs/common problems is hard to come by. I drove a 240d once, it was actually pretty nice. There was too much traffic when I drove it for it to feel slow though.

In reply to Travis_K:

I too have been intrigued by the idea of Saab 900s lately because they're so cheap and so unique. The (mostly uninformed) opinion I have of them is that they're durable but a PITA to work on when they break. But, again, I have no first hand knowledge of these cars. Also, I'm talking about the pre-92 (?) 900s, not the newer models.

While we're on the subject of Swedish cars, how about a Volvo 240? Easy to find, easy to work on, cheap to buy, and can be made to handle well. A little tough to find with a manual transmission, though. A good Volvo 740 may also be worth considering. ...

E28. Simple H4 headlights (easy swap to Euro units), high quality parts readily available, decent ground clearance, good handling, room for four (five is tight). Plus easy to work on and fairly indestructible except for rust. If you opt for the M20-engined 528e vs. the M30 533i/535i, you will get good mileage (30+ hwy vs. mid-20s) but will have to deal with periodic timing belt changes.

Travis_K wrote: Does anyone here have a 300d or know anything about them? I see them almost everyday, but information about fuel economy (reported as anything from 11 mpg to 38 mpg), and maintiance needs/common problems is hard to come by. I drove a 240d once, it was actually pretty nice. There was too much traffic when I drove it for it to feel slow though.

Depends which one you're talking about (W123 or W124). One the W123, the biggest issue tends to to be rust on the non-turbo. As long as the engine has been maintained OK (oil/filter changes) and preferably hasn't been run on biodiesel without the necessary conversion.

The W123 turbodiesel has a reputation in Germany of being a little fragile, but given that you don't see the sorts of average speeds on Interstates here that people were trying to achieve in Germany back then it well be less of a problem over here.

The diesel engines in the W124 are a completely different bunch, but I don't think they were available over here.

We got diesel w124s (and w201s as well), but they are rare. Most of the 300ds are w123, w126, and a few w116s.

Travis_K wrote: Does anyone here have a 300d or know anything about them? I see them almost everyday, but information about fuel economy (reported as anything from 11 mpg to 38 mpg), and maintiance needs/common problems is hard to come by. I drove a 240d once, it was actually pretty nice. There was too much traffic when I drove it for it to feel slow though.

I can recommend a W123 300 as a daily driver. I drove mine quite a bit (84 300TD). They aren't too slow, they will keep up with traffic just fine. It had over 250k miles on it. Just don't try to pass any cars on a 2-lane highway if you are going above 65 (it didn't work so well for me).

The only reason I sold mine was the glow plug system needed some work so it wouldn't start in cold weather (under 20F). I would have kept it but I had 2 other cars at the time and I needed the money.

As for mileage, my odometer didn't work so I couldn't calculate exactly but I estimated by filling it up to the top, mapping my exact route on google and filling it up at my destination. I averaged around 25mpg.

Since it sounds like you live somewhere where it gets cold, how was the heater/defroster in the 300d? Also, does anyone have any information about tining chain/vaccum pump replacement interval/how to tell when they are in need of replacement?

The heater/defroster worked great when it was working. I had trouble with the fuse for the blower motor blowing every day so I wired up a modern fuse instead of the strip of metal on a plastic pill that came standard. No troubles after that, it would get plenty hot.

300D's are pretty tough. But they are bog slow compared to, well, just about everything out there except the 240D, with that one you measure 0-60 with a calendar. Still, I have a lot of customers driving those old beasts who swear they will never sell them.

The fuse thing EvanB mentioned is not uncommon. I have seen more than one car with the mount point for the heater blower fuse melted. Mercedes used a 'klima control valve' (that's how they spell it!) on the 'thumb wheel' automatic temperature control systems which, if it barfs, is stupid expensive to replace, like $1500.00. There are a couple of places selling remans for ~$600, or there is a digital servo kit for about the same price.

Timing chain: start the engine cold and listen, if there's an unusual rattle for the first few seconds that's a worn chain and/or bad tensioner. If it's replaced before it breaks or jumps, it's not difficult. You attach the new chain to the old chain, pull the injectors or glow plugs, then crank the engine over by hand to pull the new chain into place. BTW, this works on pretty much all Mercedes engines, gas or diesel.

The glow plug time relays have been known to die and good ones are not particularly cheap. Rock Auto has the Bosch version for ~$130.00.

I have seen two vacuum pumps go bad in a year and a half, they are pretty easy to rebuild. if there is one thing on these cars that breaks all the time it's the vacuum door locks and A/C actuators, those things ralph all the time. Mercedes has, for the most part, quit supplying those from the original manufacturer and the repros come from Taiwan or India and don't last as long as the original. The vacuum system can be a real bitch to diagnose, too.

The battery box will rust out, then it rains in the passenger floorboard. If you go look at one and it smells musty, check that battery box carefully!

Sunroofs are getting old and cranky, it's best to just not open the damn thing. If it does get stuck open, the sunroof motor is just ahead of the left rear wheel well, you can pull the trunk panel out of the way and turn the motor with the (thoughtfully provided) hex bolt and crank the sunroof closed manually.

Other than that, just the usual brakes and stuff you'd expect.