Perhaps a better descriptor is the one offered by a tech at an indy Autohaus: "they don't break". -- Sent from myMail app for Android Sunday, 04 January 2015, 07:39PM -0500 from Curt Raymond via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com>: "sadly, we haven't had anywhere near as much trouble getting parts for either of those as we now do for the old W123."Not really a fair comparison, the newest 123 cars are 5+ years older and considering their cost when new much less common... I think when most people say "bulletproof" they mean "maintainable". The real killer for me on 123 cars is the inability to find one that isn't all rusted out. Most of the cheap ones now have descended to the level of real beaters that even I don't want to tackle. I saw a couple on Craigslist in the $2500 range with no exterior trim, terrible interiors and many signs of neglect like rust, failed paint, leaking windows/sunroof and failed ACC. Last summer when my Jetta quit on the highway (failed wiring to the shutoff solenoid) a friend said "Geez I thought those were reliable..." Its a 16 year old car I drove 20,000 miles in a year with only 3 breakdowns. One I was able to drive home from, one I could have driven home from with a little more knowledge and 2 feet of jumper wire that I now carry. Sounds pretty good to me. -Curt Of course the Jetta is down right now awaiting a new radiator... From: ernest breakfield via Mercedes < mercedes@okiebenz.com > To: Mercedes Discussion List < mercedes@okiebenz.com >; Dwight Giles < dwight.gi...@gmail.com > Sent: Sunday, January 4, 2015 7:29 PM Subject: Re: [MBZ] W123 vs W140 people seem to love to say this; but the long lists of parts we've needed to replace on our MBZs seems to imply that these cars are definitely not "bulletproof", as does the fact that there are local junkyards that they have so many of them that they won't take them unless you tow them to their doorstep and sign them over to them. they definitely are not "bulletproof'; the appeal (to us) used to be that they were reliable and perpetually maintainable while running B100, but the parts availability has changed to where that's not even any longer the case. sad, because we enjoyed over 125,000 miles on our 300D running almost exclusively BioDiesel (without any troubles related to the fuels), and don't know what we're going to get to replace it. in fact, we have a 20 year old J**p that's done far more severe duty and has more miles on it and has been cheaper to keep (even including all the modifications) than our MBZs, and an early 90's Toyota Corolla with over 325K miles on it that puts both of those to shame while still getting over 30MPG. sadly, we haven't had anywhere near as much trouble getting parts for either of those as we now do for the old W123. cheers! e On 04/Jan/15 13:55, Andrew Strasfogel via Mercedes wrote: > The main joy in driving Mercedes diesels is that these cars are > bulletproof, which is something to enjoy regardless of where fuel prices > happen to be. > > On Sat, Jan 3, 2015 at 11:24 PM, Dwight Giles via Mercedes < > mercedes@okiebenz.com > wrote: > >> Amen. >> On Jan 3, 2015 11:23 PM, "OK Don via Mercedes" < mercedes@okiebenz.com > >> wrote: >> >>> The fuel prices will continue to flip around for years to come. Do not >> make >>> long term plans, or regret past decisions based on the current aberration >>> or variations in prices. >>> Enjoy the Diesel engine for the technical master piece that it is, and >> that >>> it is not the same as every other engine on the street. >>> _______________________________________ >>> http://www.okiebenz.com >>> >>> To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ >>> >>> To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: >>> http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com >>> >>> All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those >>> individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner >>> has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor. >>> >> _______________________________________ >> http://www.okiebenz.com >> >> To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ >> >> To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: >> http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com >> >> All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those >> individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner >> has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor. >> > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those > individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has > no control over the content of the messages of each contributor. > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor. _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor. _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor.