Oh, My God! I Think I've Got Mercedes-Benz Fever!

[Bill Crowell]

I've been a good Mopar fan all my life, but watch out. Here's how the M-B Fever starts: first, your son's friends start buying up old Mercedes cheap and fixing them up, and you notice how nicely they are made, and what a quality piece they are (I'm talking about older Mercedes here).

Then your son buys a cherry 1987 420SEL that doesn't run for $500, and you tow it home for him, figure out what is wrong with it and get it running. We're talking about a car that cost $55,000 in 1987. How much would that be today? And if my kid wanted to sell the car, it might be worth $6,000 or so now that it runs well and is smogged. But he doesn't want to sell it. He likes the feeling he gets from cruising around in a luxobarge, if he can just pay for the gas. (Hey, this is a cool car! It has a damn well bulletproof all-alloy 256 C.I. OHC V8 with variable valve timing, 4 valves per cylinder and cross-bolted mains. The stroke is only 3.1 inches, so you'd better believe the thing can rev! Ours has 137K on it, and the compression is excellent.)

Next you discover that this is not an isolated phenomenon: you can almost always buy some really nice M-B cars this way extremely cheaply, especially ones that don't run. In the case of my son's car, for example, when it started to run badly the previous owner bought a new M-B and quit driving the old one. Then the fuel distributor got clogged up from sitting around, and the car wouldn't run at all, so the owner has to sell it cheaply in order to get rid of it.

The trick is knowing how to get replacement parts cheaply. M-B list prices are ridiculous. My son and his friends are good at that.

And then there is the possibility of knowing what M-B parts are in high demand, getting them cheaply at Pick-'n-Pull, and selling them on Ebay. I'm not going to do this myself, but it is a pretty good way for a kid to make money.

It's a whole way of life, I tell you!

 

[GoodysGotaCuda]

we work on a lot of those at our shop. they are nice cars, but i for one don't want one. just not my style, stuff can get expensive..FAST. Ive seen a couple with 500,000miles and still running pretty well. . . of course with a decent buck spent to do that.

Good idea for him to scour a yard for ebay parts. Aftermarket/NOS stuff gets crazy when you need 'that one part'

 

[Bill Crowell]

"stuff can get expensive..FAST"

Yes, after I learn enough about the car, I am going to do all my own work because it would be too expensive to pay a mechanic. I will have to pay a mechanic a little while I'm still on the learning curve, however.

And you've got to get the parts cheaply. I like AutohausAZ.com.

 

[Longgone]

My father always had a Mopar and a Mercedes. The last one was a 72 450SEL, which I went on to get many speeding tickets in! Fantastic cars, really engineered well. I remember the car had aluminum heads and intake, fuel injection, double overhead cams, and a ton of other go fast goodies. The builders spent enormous attention to detail on those cars. The car was a deep Burgundy color with tan leather seats/interior, and the dash used real walnut veneers. What an awesome car that was! I could easily see how anyone could get caught up with Mercedes Benz.

 

[340dartswinger]

well take if from me, i work for a Mercedes Dealer, and i would not want one of these cars. The older ones are nice and run well. but they do cost a pretty penny to maintain.

 

[Longgone]

well take if from me, i work for a Mercedes Dealer, and i would not want one of these cars. The older ones are nice and run well. but they do cost a pretty penny to maintain.

My father traded his Mercedes in every 4 years for a new one and he was real disappointed with the 1976 model year, maybe because of the government mandated emission controls (or for whatever reason) he kept the 72 until he died in `79. It seems the 70`s started the beginning of the end of anything good in almost all cars...........except the Japanese cars. (I know I`ll hear something about that last comment).

 

[yellowdartdave]

When my father retired from after 44 years at P&G, he bought a new 1972 Mercedes. He always had Studebakers until he ordered a 68 Coronet 440 (another neat story in itself).
He walked into a small dealership and the owner came out and introduced himself and asked my dad what he would like to look at. My dad tapped the hood on a deep burgundy one and stated that he wanted this car. Long story short- he picked a 300 SEL 6.3- The Hemi 4 door of the Mercedes line. The 380 cube over-head cam fuel injected V8 out the the Mercedes 600 Limo. What a rocketship and it looked like any other MB.
In 80, it was totaled by a drunk and I found him a a 78 450 SEL 6.9 that was owned by an elderly couple. It looked like it just came off the showroom floor. My dad had just bought a little Toyota Tercel as his run around car.
In the 8 years that he had both of them, the MB cost more to maintain for 1 year than the Tercel did for all 8! His last car was a Supra which was as problem free as the Tercel and was a bit more sporty.

And yes, I did win a trophy at Edgewater Drag Strip with the 6.3. Took street eliminator. It ran within 1/10 all night long!