All this talk of old Benzes...

I never really wanted one before but with all the old Mercedes posts I hit Craigslist. I really want this: 1983 Mercedes Benz 190e, one owner, imported from Germany in 1986 Garage kept, never driven in the Winter, original paint 4 cyl 4 speed manual, rare, gas engine, Runs/drives great Interior in great condition, Blaupunkt Radio original! approximately 96,000 miles, in kilometers 153,000 km http://hudsonvalley.craigslist.org/cto/3774829868.html

You can tell that it's not a US market car. Manual transmission, cloth interior and manual windows. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't have A/C.

A neat car. Not sure if painting the grill black was entirely successful looks wise. It does look very clean inside. Shame it isn't a 5spd instead of the 4.

Nope! Won't ever own another old Benz. Nice cars but E36 M3 parts are expensive.

Wow--right in your backyard, Wally. If ever there were a pristine example, it's that. It's mint.

The black grill needs to go.. but the rest ticks all the right buttons

Looks like a good price

So when are you picking it up?

The important question is "which engine" - they came with a couple of different fours in Germany and some of them are so anemic that snails will overtake you.

Hmm... yellow inspection sticker - that's at least 3 years now right? 14 = grey, 13 = blue, 12 = red... I'm going to guess that it hasn't been driven on the street in a while.

BoxheadTim wrote: The important question is "which engine" - they came with a couple of different fours in Germany and some of them are so anemic that snails will overtake you.

This, IMHO, the only 4 bangers to have are the diesel and the Cosworth.

I'm waiting to hear what is wrong with my wife's car, but that could be my new commuter for a little while. As far as being slow I can't really see it being much of a step down from my Cavalier.

Sounds like the best possible Benz LS+T5 swap candidate.

Weird to see a 190e with bundt rims. Looks like a neat car in the barebones taxi type of way.

benzbaronDaryn wrote: Weird to see a 190e with bundt rims.

That was the first thing that I noticed, but it works.

I'm hoping Wally gets this car...

Wally wrote: As far as being slow I can't really see it being much of a step down from my Cavalier.

This needs to make 'Say what'

Buy it!

Anti-stance wrote: Nope! Won't ever own another old Benz. Nice cars but E36 M3 parts are expensive.

In my experience (driving a 300SD for 2.5 years now), the stuff thats kinda expensive is stuff that wasn't really meant to be normal maintenance, so its often easy to find used. Stuff that was meant to be replaced with normal maintenance is cheap as long as you don't go to the dealer.

In reply to Travis_K:

I had an 80 300SD. It was the biggest most comfortable car I have ever owned. I bought it for $1000 with about 380k on the clock. Normal wear items are not cheap for those cars. Junkyards were running out of those cars but newer Benz cars like these will be there. Not any with manual gearboxes though.

I certainly do like the style of this car. Another vote for LS swap.

That thing is awesome. Please buy it so we can all enjoy it at your expense.

Seriously I have a 1994 toyota pickup and a 1978 mercedes and the cost of parts are pretty close in price. Most of the expensive parts for mercedes are meant to be repaired rather than replaced. If you don't know how to repair switches, have an alternator/starter rewound, steering box/pump resealed, etc the parts price might get to you. If you know how and where to find and repair used parts I don't believe an old mercedes is all that more expensive than other import cars, but hell if I know.

I agree normal wear items are expensive: 2$ spark plugs, 20$ fuel filter, 20$ tranmission filter, 12$ oil filter, 30$ per axle brake pads, etc. What normal wear items are the killers? The only normal item that kills me is gas at 4$ a gallon.

Wally, you better not wait too long- I can't see that thing waiting around long. I even had thoughts about flying out there for it. Fortunately, my better judgement took over quickly.

In reply to benzbaronDaryn:

I'm gonna have to retract my statement. Prices seem rather cheap on consumables. Switches on the other hand, yikes. Those are always picked over at the jy.

I got a 190e 2.3 16V. Love it. Parts are not that bad. Even at the dealer, if you show the parts guy some love, usually you get it back...Plus once you show your face a couple times, its easy to chat up the techs for some how to or more importantly what not to do advice.

The 190 has a strong internet support base as well.

Leo

Just by coincidence, Jalopnik posted this up this morning. It's a later model ('91), but still pretty relevant.

Motorweek 190E review