A Canadian needs a car

NAIDANAC A

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 30, 2006
Messages
4,440
Location
Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
300E
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Maintaining it is going to be expensive and it's so slow as to be unsafe in modern highway traffic.

If you must have a Merc and don't have a huge budget, get a diesel W123 or a W201 instead.
 
Yeah I figured so, I wouldn't actually take it on highways anyway but I saw it for dirt cheap and said what the hell, might as well ask.
 
Aaaaaand cue resident old Benz master Austere, enter stage left. :mrgreen:
 
Well, I can only speak for Germany, but over here parts are quite reasonably priced, the car is quite solid and mostly easy to fix. And many parts are used in other models. The one I drive is 38 years old, has almost 200.000kms and still feels tight as a drum.

I never had any problems power wise with the 220 petrol. And that includes the de-restricted Autobahns.

The downside is mostly rust on sills and footwells, water coming in through the fire wall seems to be a common problem and the cause for this, another thing is the fuel consumption, even if you take it easy.
 
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Over here in North America, parts for pre-W123 Mercs are expensive, difficulty to find (or you have to wait forever for them), and repair techniques are poorly documented. (Mostly because Mercedes either didn't bother with translating the manuals into English or worse had them poorly translated.)

Also, North American highways often have short to non-existent acceleration lanes. You need power to get up to speed or you will be run down by a large tractor trailer rig. The W123 turbodiesels are barely up to the task, I don't want to think about what the 2.3L petrol engine is like.
 
Over here in North America, parts for pre-W123 Mercs are expensive, difficulty to find (or you have to wait forever for them), and repair techniques are poorly documented. (Mostly because Mercedes either didn't bother with translating the manuals into English or worse had them poorly translated.)

Also, North American highways often have short to non-existent acceleration lanes. You need power to get up to speed or you will be run down by a large tractor trailer rig. The W123 turbodiesels are barely up to the task, I don't want to think about what the 2.3L petrol engine is like.

The car is one of those cars I'd love to own once in my life time because of the look of it and everything, but it is not plausible at all. I found at 91 NSX for $5K (pretty sure its a error on pricing) with less than 100kms on it. That would probably been more reasonable then the Merc, and its a bloody super car.

I have a feeling my dad will just grab something crap from gm/ford/dodge as that is usually what he does. I don't think I have a say in it at all (kinda fine by me) but I'd rather get a Subaru...how about a SVX...lol I wish they were even remotely feasible...

Here is the link for it anyways.

http://autotrader.ca/result/detaili...rt=70&CompanyID=ON20090217102416551&r=ontario


I think I might borrow my grandfathers kit-car until we figure it out and I'll drive to work in it, but maybe I can convince my dad to get a Saab.
 
The W123 turbodiesels are barely up to the task, I don't want to think about what the 2.3L petrol engine is like.

I would have thought a 2.3 petrol would be decent at accelerating even compared to a newer diesel. I wouldn't have thought it to be over 20 seconds 0-60, and thats reaonable from most 70s-80s cars.

It'll need regular matinence to keep it in good shape though, nothing too complicated just routine stuff, I don't know how parts avaliability is in the US but here in the UK its not too bad, and prices are fair. As long as nothing big or important dies I'd think a car, especialy a old Merc, would be quite good as a daily.
In the US you might not have the huge rust problems we have int he Uk either.

(Do note though I don't own one and am no expert!)
 
I would have thought a 2.3 petrol would be decent at accelerating even compared to a newer diesel. I wouldn't have thought it to be over 20 seconds 0-60, and thats reaonable from most 70s-80s cars.

It'll need regular matinence to keep it in good shape though, nothing too complicated just routine stuff, I don't know how parts avaliability is in the US but here in the UK its not too bad, and prices are fair. As long as nothing big or important dies I'd think a car, especialy a old Merc, would be quite good as a daily.
In the US you might not have the huge rust problems we have int he Uk either.

(Do note though I don't own one and am no expert!)

20 seconds to 60 is pretty well a death trap with our highways over here.
 
I would have thought a 2.3 petrol would be decent at accelerating even compared to a newer diesel. I wouldn't have thought it to be over 20 seconds 0-60, and thats reaonable from most 70s-80s cars.

It'll need regular matinence to keep it in good shape though, nothing too complicated just routine stuff, I don't know how parts avaliability is in the US but here in the UK its not too bad, and prices are fair. As long as nothing big or important dies I'd think a car, especialy a old Merc, would be quite good as a daily.
In the US you might not have the huge rust problems we have int he Uk either.

(Do note though I don't own one and am no expert!)

Once again, Captain Seventies, who thinks the Marina is an acceptable car despite the fact that he's never driven one, speaketh his expert opinion. :p
:lol::rolleyes:

1. He's in Canada. Most places in Canada have worse rust problems than the UK.

2. In North America, 20 seconds 0-60 is considered unacceptable and unsafe. Few cars in the NA market were that slow. 14-15 seconds is about the limit, at most. 20 seconds will probably get you killed by the semi that couldn't stop before ramming you when you tried to merge onto the freeway.

20 seconds to 60 is pretty well a death trap with our highways over here.

Yup.

At least with the turbodiesels you can crank up the boost and fuel and get respectable performance out of it.

That reminds me, weren't you commenting not so long ago about how reliable your Caravan was? What went on it, the transaxle or the engine?
 
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Once again, Captain Seventies, who thinks the Marina is an acceptable car despite the fact that he's never driven one, speaketh his expert opinion. :p
:lol::rolleyes:

1. He's in Canada. Most places in Canada have worse rust problems than the UK.

2. In North America, 20 seconds 0-60 is considered unacceptable and unsafe. Few cars in the NA market were that slow. 14-15 seconds is about the limit, at most. 20 seconds will probably get you killed by the semi that couldn't stop before ramming you when you tried to merge onto the freeway.



Yup.

At least with the turbodiesels you can crank up the boost and fuel and get respectable performance out of it.

That reminds me, weren't you commenting not so long ago about how reliable your Caravan was? What went on it, the transaxle or the engine?

Gearbox we think. Everyrthing works, minus holding drive or a gear at above 20kph. Also has no reverse.

It went pretty well until 280K kms (now)
 
Gearbox we think. Everyrthing works, minus holding drive or a gear at above 20kph. Also has no reverse.

It went pretty well until 280K kms (now)

Yeah, failed gearbox in a Chrysler minivan is pretty much par for the course.
 
How does that 92 SVX sound? Only 1000 in Canada, and I read a bit and they said the worse thing about it is the wheel bearing failure, should I completely stay away?
 
I think someone posted up an article about the SVX here a while back. Do a search for it; I believe the gist of it was that early models had problems, later models were better, mechanicals were easy to get replacements for but the electronics and cosmetics could be next to impossible. Worth looking into, though.
 
Dammit...I just realized how many clicks the SVX I linked to has...that seems slightly dangerous.
 
Once again, Captain Seventies, who thinks the Marina is an acceptable car despite the fact that he's never driven one, speaketh his expert opinion. :p
:lol::rolleyes:
I prefer to think of it as un-biased!:lol:

1. He's in Canada. Most places in Canada have worse rust problems than the UK.

2. In North America, 20 seconds 0-60 is considered unacceptable and unsafe. Few cars in the NA market were that slow. 14-15 seconds is about the limit, at most. 20 seconds will probably get you killed by the semi that couldn't stop before ramming you when you tried to merge onto the freeway.
Whoops, should have look at the location and not assumed! :?

I guess the higher US 0 - 60s is due to the mainstream large engines, in the UK 2 litres was about as big as you got for a normal car, going up to 3 litres in the 70s for executive and bussiness class cars.
Most cars in the UK would crank out 0 - 60 in 20 seconds or more, but they had between 1500cc and 2 litre engines. Not even close to the huge V8s populating the yank tanks.
In Merc terms the W114/15 280E does 0-60 in about 11-12 secs, so judging by your figures I'd say a 230E would be hard pressed to reach 60/70mph fast enough.

I guess looking at buying 1.3 cars with 0-60 times nearing 25 secs and top speeds of 80mph has warped my perception of speed! :dunno::lol:
 
I prefer to think of it as un-biased!:lol:


Whoops, should have look at the location and not assumed! :?

I guess the higher US 0 - 60s is due to the mainstream large engines, in the UK 2 litres was about as big as you got for a normal car, going up to 3 litres in the 70s for executive and bussiness class cars.
Most cars in the UK would crank out 0 - 60 in 20 seconds or more, but they had between 1500cc and 2 litre engines. Not even close to the huge V8s populating the yank tanks.
In Merc terms the W114/15 280E does 0-60 in about 11-12 secs, so judging by your figures I'd say a 230E would be hard pressed to reach 60/70mph fast enough.

I guess looking at buying 1.3 cars with 0-60 times nearing 25 secs and top speeds of 80mph has warped my perception of speed! :dunno::lol:

Not unbiased, more like young, foolish and inexperienced. :p

The need for a faster 0-60 is due to the short acceleration lanes and more demanding terrain of our highways. There are many hills in the US interstate highway system that small-engined cars simply wouldn't climb successfully until they got more power in the 1980s.

Also, most American mainstream cars, contrary to the popular and idiotic belief of people in Europe looking for reasons to bash American cars, didn't have V8s until the later part of the 1970s. In fact, up until about 1973, the most common engine to find in an American family sedan was some form of six cylinder, usually an inline six. Sure they sold V8s - but just like today, the smaller engines dominated the sales charts.
 
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How ironic that I should see this- A friend and I have been looking at used Mercs as well. I've found a W116 300SD that I quite fancy- if I get it, my friend and I are out $600 odd dollars.

If you get an older Merc, don't spend over 2500CAD for it- unless you're DIYing everything, it won't be worth it. If you can find a diesel, you should be set, but be very wary of rust on all models. As Spectre said, W201s and W123s are the pick of the bunch. Do not get a 240D model though-the are Citroen 2CV slow:p

However, that first W201 (the grey one) seems to be your best bet- lowest kms, they took multiple pictures without a mattress on top and it has alloys. It's also the cheapest.

Oh, and don't forget '88-'90 XJ40s! THEY R AM BESSTEST! :mrgreen:
 
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