hi! im relatively new to this while car buying game, but i found a 1977 MB 300D for sale in my town and ive been lusting after a car like it for as long as i can remember!

I was wondering if anyone owns one - what are your thoughts on it? any common problems that i should be worried about or is it an overall decent vehicle? i plan on using biodiesel in it.. possibly partially converting it to wvo in the future..

also - another question: i was wondering about a ballpark estimate on how much the car is worth? i cant find it in kelley blue book, but i read that a '90 300D with all the bells and whistles and same mileage as the '77 im eyeing is worth about $3200 in good condition. the people selling the '77 here are asking $4900, and that seems like too much. however, i have no idea how much a reasonable price would be!! if it helps, here is what i know about it so far.. i copied it right from the ad:

i have also asked for the VIN number so i can do a carfax report on it.

thanks for your help!!


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The NADA value is anywhere from $3800 - $8600.

Please do not convert this (or any other) car to WVO. Here's the most definitive resource on the argument:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/4022579/vegetable-oil-as-fuel

The long and short of it is don't do it. You get more long term engine wear and increased emissions. Sure, dope-smoking hippies all think this is the latest rage, but dope-smoking hippies don't exactly think and reason rationally.

 

what do dope smoking hippies have to do with wvo conversion?I know some beer drinking idiots who have svo conv also....how ignorent are you cycle boy?keep typing and show us.

 

Well jim, the article also covers beer drinking idiots with svo conversions. The wisdom still says don't do it.

The bottom line is the Mercedes engine was not made to run on anything other than diesel and you will shorten its life as a result of doing so. The supposed savings are a phantom because you also need to factor in the time to acquire and process your fuel and the requisite state road fuel taxes as well as the shortened life of the car.

There is no valid argument for running a Mercedes on anything other than diesel.

 

the firstdiesel was designed and built to run on peanut oil.hows this for a valid reason,i feed my family by running diesel trucks,i made a good living when fuel was 160 a gal,now at almost 5.oogal i was putting $275 to $300 a day as opposed to 80.i converted my ud truck to veggie oil and im raking in the cash again.collecting the oil is a matter of one day a week putting a 275 tank on the bac and drive around collecting the oil.the engine runs fine,i put 25000 miles since mayplus so far so good.

 

That the first diesel ran on peanut oil is completely irrelevant. Engineering in the 1800s is not the same as now, or even 30 years ago. The engine in the original Wright flyer was only made to run for less than 5 minutes before seizing. How does that compare? It doesn't and that's my point.

If you think it's worth your time and the shortened life of your engines, that's your dime. I bill my time out at $40-$60/hour. One day of collecting and processing oil would be a gross loss of $320-$480, never mind the loss incurred by destroying a fine car. The IRS raised the deductible mileage rate in July to $.585/mile from the increase to $.505 (from $.485) at the beginning of the year, an increase of 8 cents. That extra $2.00 (figuring my mileage at 25mpg) per gallon more than makes up for the increase in the cost of diesel.

There are also the additional hassles of storing and processing the oil and figuring out your total use so you can pay your state's fuel tax. My neighbors would have a conniption and I'm quite sure I couldn't get a license for a home-based fuel storage/processing facility within my city limits.

But, the bottom line is that running fuels other than diesel in your car will shorten its life in the long run and, if you don't do a proper conversion, can be disastrous in the short term. You are almost guaranteed to be the last owner of that particular car because it will never get converted back (not cost effective to rebuild the engine on all but the most valuable cars) and you'll just part it out after you blow the engine. But, nobody can tell you what to do with your car and your money.

The guy asked for an opinion and I gave him mine. As we all know, opinions are like a**holes: everybody has one and they often stink.

 

He asked for an opinion about the value of the car, not some diatribe about how WVO will ruin a car, regardless of whether or not your opinion on using it is valid. A lot of 300D owners acquire their cars specifically because it's well suited for running of SVO and a lot of posters act all shocked when their precious model gets used in a method that doesn't involve dumping 10k into restoring the car to original condition and running off only diesel.

 

im gonna convert all my diesels to run on veggie oil.if you read the link cycleboy has posted it states the two tank system is the way to go,it will not ruin your engine,the key is filtering,boil out anywater in oiland deliver to injectors at rite temp.as far as buying an old car, if you dont know what you are doing have a pro look at it,not the owners mechanic,thereare services that look at used cars for a price.chec for rot and rust,car fax is a good idea also.good luck and go green ,save money,less emissions,drive a benz,i love the old ones as they are timeless

 

Good luck Jimmy. There's a lot of pre-conditions to making it work right. I hope you have good success.

 

thanks for the NADA value, that helped me quite a bit.. and i understand your concerns with wvo, i hear a lot of people with the same argument.. but in all honestly im not going to be foolish and just dump it in the main tank and go. i go to an environmentally friendly university and we fuel half our schools vehicle fleet with either our own biodiesel or wvo. weve been doing this for many years with no problems to any of our vehicles. plus, i would definitely do that 2 tank conversion anyway, its a much better way to do it. of course, any wvo conversion to the vehicle wont be happening any time soon, i need to save up and make sure i can filter correctly at home as well as we do at school. for now im just sticking to biodiesel.

p.s. - for clarification, i know a couple of you referred to me as a "he", but im actually a "she", haha sorry i just had to get that out