Saleofcar.com :Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz 300-Series (1985)
for sale

Price: US $200.00

Description:

This is our beloved Stanley. I bought him a few years ago with the intention of fixing him up real nice but between between being in medical school and the imminent arrival of my first child I just don't have the time or money to finish him (restoring a TD takes lots of both). This has been a good, dependable car for me since the day I bought it. That is, every time I've turned the key the car started and delivered me to my destination safely... it even turned off when I got there. Let's start with the outside and then work our way in...
The previous owner painted the car British Racing Green. The original color of the car was a yellow-clay color (you can see it in the door jambs). The paint job on the car is subpar. The paint is hazy in areas (namely the hood). The haze buffs out, but it always comes back (kind of like the oil spots on the driveway... more on that later). The paint is coming off in a couple of spots (see picture of sunroof--you can see the original paint showing through). As for the body of the car, it looks like the front passenger fender has had a minor repair at some point (see photo). I have no reason to believe that the car has ever been in an accident. The body is perfectly straight. The car doesn't look like it has seen much (if any) winter salt (see photos areas around wheel wells). There are new tires on all four wheels and on the full-size spare, too. I had the windshield replaced about a year ago and there are no cracks or chips in it. There are no cracks or chips in any of the windows, for that matter. The front and rear windshield wipers work and have newish blades. The rear hatch lift gate has new struts on both sides. The rear hatch has a new seal but for some reason water still drips in during a hard rain or trip through the powerwash. The power antenna is stuck at half mast. The two passender side door seals have been replaced. The two driver's side door seals need to be replaced (the rear driver's door seal leaks). I keep it parked under cover at home and at school, but would definitely need to replace the rear driver's door seal if I parked it outside regularly. The headlights, reverse lights, fog lights, and turn signals all work.
The suspension: I had the front end redone when I bought the car--new bushings, new control arms. The self-leveling rear suspension was a nightmare of a bottomless money pit so we had the self-leveling suspension removed and replaced with regular kind (from slsconversion dot com). This took care of the leaky sagginess, but it really could use a new pair of struts in the back. Things can be pretty bouncy back there especially if you have something heavy in the cargo area. The spring on the back right side is missing a bushing and will make a noise if you hit a big bump.
As for the powertrain, the car starts and drives perfectly every time. The turbo spins up good; the valves were adjusted about 10, 000 miles ago. At some point somebody replaced the valve cover with a mirror-polished aluminum one (which I find to be quite hilarious--see the picture of the motor... there's a mirror polish under all that muck). The front and rear driveshaft flex discs are new. The transmission pops right into gear and shifts through all four gears. The car shifts hard for the first minute or so of driving on a cold engine (typical of these cars), but shifts very smoothly after. The brakes were replaced before we got the car and we've never had anything done to them. The power steering works good. And last, but by no means least, is the oil... the jet black oil that drips from the underside of the car. It doesn't lose enough to where you have to add oil between oil changes, but definitely enough to make a mess of your driveway. We keep a metal pan under the car with oil-absorbant gravel in it and we change the gravel every six months or so.
Moving inside, the air conditioning works, but... it's complicated. If it's really hot outside, the air conditioner turns on and blows cold air immediately. But if it's in the 70-80 degree range, you have to put up with a few minutes of hot air before the air conditioner comes on. This only seems to happen in the morning. So if I drive the car into town in the morning and it's 80 degrees outside, I have to roll the windows down and put up with hot air for about 5 minutes before the air conditioner turns on (it always comes on, just not immediately). If I get into the car to drive it again the same day, the air conditioner comes right on. If it's 90 outside, the air conditioner always comes on immediately... even if it's the first time I've driven the car that day. The defroster vents pod (the thing that opens and closes the defroster vent) needs to be replaced (part is about $70). Right now the air comes out of the air vents AND defroster vents all the time. The seats are okay considering the age of the car. They're MB-Tex. The upholstery in the rear cargo area needs to be replaced--it's intact but is very faded from the sun and has stains on it (see photo). The dash has a custom dash cover to cover up the cracks. The tachometer does not work, but other gauges do. The radio/CD/MP3 player works, and there are new speakers in the front and rear. The headliner is in decent shape (which reminds me that I didn't take a picture of it... it's dark now so I'll take one tomorrow). The sunroof opens and closes, and all the power windows work. The vacuum door locks do not work--one of the doors (the rear passenger, I believe) needs a new pod. The cruise control does not work. The stalk switch, servo motor, and solenoid all work so it must be the cruise CPU (rebuilt ones are available online).
If I had bags of money laying around, I would definitely keep this car and restore it all the way. It's not that it's expensive to drive, rather, it's just going to be expensive to do everything to get the car perfect. If you just like 300TD's and want to drive a less than perfect one, this is your car. Like I said, it has been a good car for us and I wouldn't hesitate to drive it across the country as it is right now. It's definitely the slowest car I've ever driven in my entire life, but never have I driven a vehicle that has garnered so much attention. I'm always getting honked at--half the time it's because the car is so dang slow but half the time it's someone telling me they love my car. If you drive this car, people will stop you in the parking lot at the grocery store to tell you how awesome it is. People will leave notes saying the same under your windshield wiper. I drove my new Prius to school for the first time yesterday and there was another Prius exactly like mine parked a few spots away... *sigh* that never happened with Stanley. Whether you're buying him to drive drive daily or as a fixer-upper, I know you'll love him. I've done my best to explain everything on the car as best I can. Please don't hesitate to ask questions... I'll do my best to reply within 12 hours.
It looks like I'm maxed out on the number of photos that I can put in the listing. If you would like me to take/send pictures of anything else, please send me a message. Also, eBay's send a message service is the best way to reach me because it will come straight to my phone. Thanks!
Someone asked if the sunroof leaks but their contact info was in question so I'm posting the answer here instead of the normal way. If it's raining hard and I brake hard, sometimes water drips in on the driver's side. I have never noticed water coming through sunroof when car is parked in the rain or during regular driving in rain. All of the sunroof pan drain holes work, and there are no leaks or holes in the drain lines that take the water out of the sunroof pan.
Two more things I thought of... The integrated roller switch on the front interior dome light does not work so the light does not come on. The problem is in the dome light itself, not the power to the light or the door switches. Replacing the dome light will correct this issue. The rear dome light works when door is opened or when dash switch is engaged. Also the windshield washer squirters don't squirt. The pump seems to work fine but there is a hole in the hose that takes the fluid to the windshield so the fluid squirts out of the hose under the hood instead of onto the windshield.

_{update: 2015-10-19}