Faults:

Battery drained; needed replacement due to short, fixed short.

Replaced guide rods.

Replaced air filter mount bracket.

Replaced valve cover gasket.

Replaced rear wheel bearings.

General Comments:

This car is a tank! It's so reliable! I drove it from California to Texas with no problems. This car is amazing, and even if it's old, it's still a Mercedes! And looks good! The best manufacturer of diesel engines in the world hands down!

The interior needs some work, i.e. the seats are worn, dash is cracked, passenger side window won't go down, but that I will fix with time.

The paint is still shiny after all these years. The clear coat is peeling from some of the hood in small patches, but again, that can be fixed. The body is straight as an arrow.

Rear window leaks water in hard rain, but a new rear glass gasket and glass will solve that (common problem on these.)

I would buy a Mercedes Benz diesel of the 80's anytime!

Faults:

I paid $300 (three hundred dollars!) for this car last month. The driver's side window did not roll all the way up, but it would go down. The passenger side window did not move at all. The radiator neck was broken (and poorly patched with some fiberglass tape and what appeared to be a hot glue gun repair). The A/C was converted over to the R134 in 1997, but the system does not operate at all now. The sun visor clips are both broken, and the vinyl that surrounds the front seat belt pillars has come un-glued. The wood trim throughout the car looks terrible. Leather still looks okay, and dang if the Becker Grand Prix radio don't play like brand new.

General Comments:

I had to replace the entire window assembly in the driver's door (junkyard parts), so I took the good window motor out of the driver's door and installed it into the passenger door, so now all four power windows work properly. The passenger door window motor had rusted itself solid. The driver's door motor was good, but the metal arm with the gear teeth on it was coming apart, and several of the teeth had already stripped off the gear (which is why the window would not go up all the way). Had to replace that before the rainy season started. I also replaced the radiator, and a couple other small things here and there, just to get it all looking as good as possible. I found an '84 300SD in a local junk yard, and the lot guy told me I could take whatever (and however much) I wanted for $100 bucks. So, $400 dollars into this, I got a very nice Merc to get me around sunny Florida. I am not looking forward to summer without A/C, but I didn't have it in my '77 Lincoln Mark V, and plus... now I have a power sunroof.

Faults:

Broken radiator neck at 215,000 miles.

The raise/lower motor of the driver side seat failed.

Right rear window lifter broken (not uncommon).

Radiator thermostat wouldn't open. (easy cheap fix, made my car run much cooler than before too).

General Comments:

What a car, wow! Bought the car for only $1500 from my neighbor with 200,000 miles.

I just spent $300 for all new pads, new front rotors, and new break lines for the rear breaks from my local Mercedes mechanic. It is amazing how quickly the big beast stops!

Excellent highway car, but on long trips my back starts to hurt due to the worn down seat padding.

Not a good Chicago interstate car, runs almost 3300rpm at 75mph. The newer models have better gear rations I hear.

The engine stays happy with regular oil changes with Mobil Delvac 1300 super 15w-40.

Still gets about 450 miles to a tank on the highway, 350-400 in the city.

Words just cannot describe the 300SD. They run forever if you take very very good care of them.