Hi gang, fabs here...the past month or so, i've been lured into looking at a used mercedes. I currently own a 2001 suzuki esteem..good little car, good on gas. Seeing as i'm getting married in 3 months and my future wife doesn't know how to drive standard and that i want a safer car for us and the future kids, i thought that upgrading car is a good idea..

I came across a 1987 420sel. I don't know much about mercedes (except the higher main. bills and more gas). I do know they are reliable SOLID cars (which is what i'm looking for). I read a few reviews about this model car and read many good things. I was hoping that some of you can shed some light on it? are they good? reliable? easy to fix/work on? how is the fuel cost on these beasts.
if you have ANY info, please let me know.thanks
fabs

 

Just know what you are getting into. Things to keep in mind is that at one point this was a $60,000+ car and the maintanence cost haven't really gone down with the price of the cars these day. They are really easy to work on, just need a few special tools for a few certain things (Just like you'll need a few certain special tools for any make or model.)
The Mercedes, especially given it's age and stuff is just about as reliable as you going to get even by today's standards, but follow the maintence closely as is this is a 1987 car and it probably seen a fair share of road and time. The fuel cost is not that bad in compare, but it will be higher consumtion than that 2001 susiki, but in trade you get comfort, ride, style, power, untouchable safety 9name another make with an airbag, standard in 1987?), everything. and the Mercedes requires premium 91 octane and up, but most newer cars these day do also.
You are making a good choice as long as the car you are buying have been well maintained and these things will last a very long time and the style will never go old. No matter what year or time period people will know that 1987 is a Mercedes no questions asked.

 

Blackwolf..thanks for your reply. It was quite an optimistic answer..haha it does sound quite promising. I forgot to mention..in terms of kilange the car was posted as having 200 000km on the clock (or 125 000 miles). on a car like this, with it's age, is it pretty good? or too high? I've heard some say that the engine is just starting to "break-in" at this point? haha...
What i like about this car is that it is a real mercedes. I've heard many say that the older models are the real thing, and that many of todays models are not quite as ruged as the oler ones?
thanks again.
fabs

 

Just another quick question...i would plan on using this car as a daily driver and we tend to have some heavy-duty winters here in montreal...(snow and pretty cold at times).. would this car be okay to handle winters? reacommended?

Does this car have a carb or is it fuel injected? thanks
fabs

 

125,000 for a 1987 is really low mileage per year. Hell, it's hard to find a 1998 with less than 100,000 on the clock now. And it is ture that the car is just starting to break in at that point while most other products are starting to break. Back in them days, the engineers basically ran the show. And Mercedes was notorious for being over engineered to the point that they sometimes "missed" deadlines when they changed something because the engineers felt it wasn't perfect just yet. Them dat are gone. Now the guy counting the money but really don't know a splick about cars is running the show. Deadlines and profit and money is everything now. It's about throwing as much electical stuff in a car as you can, whether or not it has been tested for bugs, and throw it out there to the public. Plus to me, the new ones don't have that "Mercedes driver-I'm succesful, get like me" look to it anymore. They are not ugly cars but, they don't stand out. People have to look either harder or second guess what kind of car it is. With the W126 (420SEL for example.) everyone from the grandma to little kids know it's a Mercedes and in my opinion it has more curb appeal than the new ones. Mine is an 1989 but people who don't know too much about cars keep thinking it's an 1995-1999, because the style doesn't look outdated. And prime example is that I'm seeing a lot of complaints about the W220 surfacing these days about how it's look totally outdated next to the new W221 2007 S-Class. But the W126 nor the W140 looks outdated next to it. (hmm I wonder why.) Even when the W126 came out the prior S-class didn't get ugly, but gained a classic look that cannot be replicated. Then came the W140, it had a big bulky pompous get out of my way red carpet look to it. They all had something that is missing in todays cars. Personality. Mow the W220 just looks like a normal car with Mercedes badges on it. Not ugly, but lost some personality.

Winters. Remember this car was built for Germany, and it snows like crazy over here. For real, it's actually quite sturdy for snow. BMWs or that same era while called the king of handles and luxury combination tends (E23s E32s) to be a little too torquey for snow causeing it to fishtail real easy. But never had or have heard of anyone having too much problem driving that car in the snow within regular sensible manners. But like in Germany, due to the heavy snowfall, it's customary to have snow tires and you should be fine, and it's a large heavy tank car giving it a slight edge over the smaller 190E.

fuel injected. EFI

 

BLACKWOLF..What you wrote was exactly what i had hoped for..if you were here i could kiss you!!! hahahaha

As for style, when i say the picture of this car my jaw just dropped! i must say for an almost 20 year old car, it's timeless!!! I still have to see it in person, but it looks really sharp. I can just see it now, big, long, heavy(don't worry i'm still talking about the car...hahahha) . I can even hear the hard "thud" when you close the doors, and that is real important to me.

The person told me that he pays hardly anything on insurance (i guess due to its age?) which is a good thing.

I was worried in terms of the winter months, I would deffinitly get the car rust proofed, no doubt! I was just worried that it would have a hard time starting, cause i thought it was carbed, but seeing as it's fuel injected, we're on a roll! i can at least put in a car-starter...woohoo!!!!

The other thing to do is the sun-roof, it has some mechanical problem with it, it seems to open but can't close and it must be closed manually. He said it should cost somewhere btwn 700-100$ to fix. Not a major problem, i'm not too keen on it anyways and it doesn't leek water inside..vary important!!!!

as for the milage, i made a mistake it's not 200 000km ..it's 152 000km (or 95 000 miles!) on it...not bad ay? if all goes well, i might be able to sway my suzuki for it..keeping fingers crossed! one last question..how is this tank on gas? i know it takes premium fuel, but does it drink like a fish? thanks
fabs

 

Well 95,000 is really considerabley low mileage.

The sunroof, yeah exspensive to fix, but alot of cases, the railing just needs to be cleaned and lubed and or the cable needs to be adjusted after being basically forgotten about since 1987. But if it's a mechanical problem for real, it can get up to $700+ job at a lot of places. But if it's not leaking water, then half the battle is won already.

And these things should have no problem starting. One of them good massive batteries that come with the car carries quite a punch. I keep thinking they hooked them Mercedes up to heavy duty truck batteries or something.

Gas mileage in compare to most Accords and stuff, yeah it's low mpg. On record it says about 17 city and 19 highway but that's numbers for a 5.6 V8 and I usually get over 415+ miles doing 70-80MPH with hills included before the gas refill light even thinks about coming on. The 420 gets a little better gas mileage and it's good in the sense it's a two ton+ tank with an engine to match. I think they was more honest about gas mileage back then or someything. Now and days you drive a mile per hour over 55 and the posted miles per gallon on new cars drops signifcantly and hope you don't see a hill. Trust me, I had a guy follow me in his so called economical Accord 14 hours across country on a road trip. One, he had a hard time keeping up, two, he had to stop for gas way more than me, three, them hills was killing him. And four, he had cramps at the end of the trip while I was still fresh. (While he drove my car back and no pain in sight.) But for real though, he had the upper hand in the city. Them 420/560 things drink water like a foot-ball player after a super bowl game drink gatorade. But there is always something you have to give up for luxury and gas mileage is that thing. But all hope is not lost for them people that want to be frugile on gas. A 300SDL, though you lose some power and acceleration, give you all the comforts of the 420 and is a fuel sipper.

 

I own both a 560sel and 300sdl and the difference in mpg is double but Blackwolf is right u do give up some power but not as much as u would think. When that turbo kicks in the car moves i have never had any problems passing anyone and it will certainly outperform ur suzuki. As far as the sunroof goes once again he is right if u just need a cable its cheap but if u need other parts it gets expensive real quick but once its fixed it is good for another 20 years. But if i had the chance at a 87 420 with 95,000 on it i'd jump on it.

 

HEy guys, wow, these comments sound quite promissing...My thing is that i live about 6minutes away from my work(by car), so my "in city" milage is not that much..i usually average about 10 000km (about 7000miles) / year..not much really.

Tell me if this makes sence, i'm turning 30 in about 1 1/2 weeks from now and i'm getting married in 3 months. We plan on having kids within a year or so, and although my suzuki is a good econo car i don't really feel that it would be a safe car for my family. does this make sense to any of you? sorry just having an "in depth" moment here..hahah i know many people would say that (especially with todays gas prices) it would be a crazy thing to do, but i see it the other way around.

In terms of repairs,more importantly, maintenance, what would i be looking at in a years work of work? (oil change....)???
just curious..
well hope to hear from you guys soon..ciao
fabs

 

300Sdl? never heard..it's a turbo diesel i believe??? how are these cars compared to the 420? about the same? any better on gas? i was searching on the same site and came across this one..(gonna try to attach the link..it's in french though..)

les pac

hope it worked...it's an '88 300 sel...not too many km on it, never winter driven...whatcha think? i'll try to add the link of the 87 420sel...hope this works
420sel

let me know guys..thanks
fabs