GO FOR THE OLD D's (UPDATED October, 2003)

Below find the first review I ever write for epinions, one of the few writers' spots that has actually managed to
survive.

If I could change the title I would have it say GO FOR THE OLD D's (UPDATED October, 2003) and it would be about a 1983 Turbo Diesel.

I publish it here because it still is relevant. As I write
there are two older Mercedes diesels outside the door. One is a 300D Turbo from 1983. My friend and I own it together. Our investment was $500 apiece. This car is as good as any new car out there.

The other is was a near mint 300D five years ago when I picked it up. It is still running. It's a battleship. It doesn't have the pickup of the turbo. But it's cool for local trips.

I guess the main reason for writing this is that all good things come to an end. The old Mercedes diesels can still be bought at a real advantage. But probably not in as good condition as you could get them when they were 10-20 years old.

(Hey, you might want a car 30 years old, given the
horrendous, thin-metaled idiocies out there in the road
these days. Sorry for the vent!)

Here is the original review written July 16, 1999.

The smartest people on the road today, in my not so humble opinion, are behind the wheel of a D-class Mercedes for which they paid less than $8000. I see such drivers around Manhattan where I live and I see them out West where I go to vacate. And I am the proud owner of s string of Mercedes D's.

The D stands for Diesel and there are really only two of these that I would heartily recommend: The 240 D and the 300 D -- both discontinued but easily maintained if you're judicious about your purchase and willing to
trade off between a low purchase price and a high maintenance bill if something goes wrong.

The 240 or slightly fancier 300 D is a squarish 4-door sedan with a motor that is generally good for over 200K miles originally and when rebuilt. If the strong and safe body is sheltered from the worst winter weather and salt attacks, it's also good for around 15-20 years.

What can I say? The transmission is automatic, there's a cassette and a radio, there's air. The thing runs on diesel and generally gets well over 20 mpg. It is safe
and if you,like me, buy an old enough model with a few cosmetic glitches, you are all to the better. Who wants to steal it? Or insure the body?

I share my present Mercedes 240 D (I paid $5500 for it and no one had ever sat in the back seat) with a former drag racing champion who says it is the best street-road car he's ever driven. He compensates for the sluggish pickup by revving it up through the low automatic positions like a racer, with no apparent effect on the transmission. When I am out there driving it,I feel I have the equal of the new generation of gas guzzling vehicles that cost in the $30K and up realm.

I have owned a total of 5 Mercedes Diesels. One of them saved the life of a woman I sold it to when I was living in Boston, where ownership of a car is a tacit admission of a death wish. She was hit on a hairpin curve of treacherous Route 2 in Western Mass. and would have perished, she swears, in a lesser vehicle.

As I suggested earlier, you'll pay if something goes wrong, but big things rarely do. Most recently I had to restore the air conditioning for around $600.

I can think of nothing sillier than to buy a new car (contra Bruce Springsteen in the song 'Used Cars')foot the insurance, worry about depreciation and go ballistic at a nick or small dent in the body., when the same amount would more than cover the total cost of all the Mercedes Diesels I've owned for the last 20 years or so.