I dove in, folks. I bought a 99 E300TD for my wife. For years I always had the flashy American muscle cars while I stiffed her with a Toyota Tercel; which she liked, but she deserved better.

Its in Phoenix so I have to fly out and do a final check, but I put a deposit on it. Here is the Ebay auction (disregard the price; I negotiated outside of Ebay). I'm very excited. I think I got a fair deal; its a couple grand below KBB and NADA.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...PIC&ih=020

 

congrats man

 

Curt, congrats. How many miles on her?

The areas of concern on these are glow plugs and on-going fuel leaks. Be certain you service the transmission if that hasn't been done recently. I think they're very good machines otherwise. Very powerful, fast. Fuel economy is a bit disappointing, but I knew that prior to purchase.

Supplies are plentiful and fairly prices. Learn about the various places where you can purchase parts. AZAutohaus is a good name to know. They offer free shipping on orders > $50... a real bonus today with high shipping costs.

 

Ok, thanks for the heads up. The car has 175k on it. The carfax report showed hundreds of visits to a mercedes dealer for what they just called "scheduled maintenance" so one would assume thatthe trannywas done, but I'll check for sure. EDIT: I just checked Carfax and it actually does list the tranny service times. It was serviced at 20k, 78k, and 138k. Unless this dealer serviced it, should I do it again?

I was also told to expect the head gasket to go at around 250k and if I'm lucky it won't crack the head, so I knew that going in. I'm also familiar with famous German electrical gremlins but so far he said everything works and there aren't any random dummy lights.

One of the things I will need is a good shop manual. I've had Bentley manuals before and quite honestly hated them. Are there official MB "blue book" shop manuals available?

I'm always looking for cheap parts. I do have a buddy at a wholesale distributor who can usually undercut most prices by 30-40% so its usually my first stop. Its a nice little connection. He looked up glow plugs for this car and they start at $7 each for cheap ones. I can get a starter for something like $138 and an AC compressor for something like $234. He can even get me a new fully assembled head with gasket for $1120. Insurance is what's going to kill me [:@] $1400 a year for full coverage. Yikes. Gotta love Los Angeles.

 

NICE MAN, IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL. BET THE WIFES HAPPY. CONGATS.

 

Flew to Phoenix yesterday, drove the car home today. Alan at www.arizonamuscle.com is a top notch guy. His description of the car and the photos were perfect. I was pleasantly surprised by its condition.

Yes, the wife was happy. So happy that I have to keep this short, if you know what I mean....

See you after the cigarrette.

 

looks like a nice ride.