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Sometimes Risks Pay Off Big! PIX UPDATE
p3skyking
Member Posts: 23,916 ✭✭✭
Went to the car auction a couple of weeks ago and a Mercedes caught my eye. It was a '89 300 E Class. Great body, but wouldn't stay cranked. You could tell it had been abused as there were three different brands of spark plugs in the motor and the oil looked like liquid tar.
Anyway, I wasn't going to put much in it, but as the auctioneer kept dropping the price with no one bidding, when he hit $800 and was going to send it on through, I bid $700. All this time he had been asking me if I wanted a car, ribbing me. He said he would have to check with the owner and an assistant and I went into the office. To make a long story short, I got a Mercedes Benz for $775!
The drive home was uneventful. The bald tires were out of balance, I didn't know if the guages could be trusted, the tranny shifted hard, and the headlights were out of adjustment.
Over the past couple of weeks I've changed the oil, put new plugs, wires, cap and rotor in, a couple of cans of Seafoam, and some Lucas transmission stuff. I also put premium gasoline in.
I still need to replace the shocks since I know they are shot, but the car runs great! I got it up to 146 mph today but it was unstable due to the bad shocks, so I throttled back. I also cleaned out the fuse box with tuner cleaner and got most of the electrics back working (fog lamps, head rests, etc.).
I don't have a maintenance book yet, so the sunroof and power antenna repairs will have to wait, but at over 20 mpg and a comfortable leather seat, I'm not complaining. I'm pretty sure whomever had it before used piss gas and made little effort to take care of it.
Now I'm looking for a bumper sticker for my Honda that says "My Other Car is a MERCEDES" [:o)]
ADDENDUM Pictures
Anyway, I wasn't going to put much in it, but as the auctioneer kept dropping the price with no one bidding, when he hit $800 and was going to send it on through, I bid $700. All this time he had been asking me if I wanted a car, ribbing me. He said he would have to check with the owner and an assistant and I went into the office. To make a long story short, I got a Mercedes Benz for $775!
The drive home was uneventful. The bald tires were out of balance, I didn't know if the guages could be trusted, the tranny shifted hard, and the headlights were out of adjustment.
Over the past couple of weeks I've changed the oil, put new plugs, wires, cap and rotor in, a couple of cans of Seafoam, and some Lucas transmission stuff. I also put premium gasoline in.
I still need to replace the shocks since I know they are shot, but the car runs great! I got it up to 146 mph today but it was unstable due to the bad shocks, so I throttled back. I also cleaned out the fuse box with tuner cleaner and got most of the electrics back working (fog lamps, head rests, etc.).
I don't have a maintenance book yet, so the sunroof and power antenna repairs will have to wait, but at over 20 mpg and a comfortable leather seat, I'm not complaining. I'm pretty sure whomever had it before used piss gas and made little effort to take care of it.
Now I'm looking for a bumper sticker for my Honda that says "My Other Car is a MERCEDES" [:o)]
ADDENDUM Pictures
Comments
it's a good thing you can work on it yourself, cause hourly rate at the dealership is $100!
Are you suffering a death wish?[:D]
Mercedes bumper sticker
Dammit, I can't figure out the damn tiny url crap to save my life. Just go to google images and type in "My other car is a Mercedes" and the first site is a site that sells them.
I think this will get you there.
http://www.zazzle.com/my_other_car_is_a_mercedes_bumper_sticker-128643530445949913
146 with out of balance tires?
Are you suffering a death wish?[:D]
I think the speedo was off, 89 Corvette Top rated speed was 150... The redesign that was introduced in 1997 had a 200mph speedo, but the car common top speed in the 160's. GM pegged it at 172, but you can utube it and find speedos hitting 195-200. Now, @ 200mph you are booking some serious ace.
I can't fathom a 89 Benz sick as you described coming even close to 140 in it's dreams. Even off the show room floor. Muchless bald tires and worn shocks.
However, I had a 88 chevy longbed witha 350 and I could smoke mustang 5.0's all day long. The mustang was a joke against that truck. From the factory it was a beast. I have no clue how fast I had gotten up to, but the speedo went all the way around and back to 25 again.
Do you sell the cars you find and fix up? It sounds like you have an eye for hidden treasure....
I just enjoy the challenge of tinkering with something. When I've learned enough out of it, I'll probably sell it and recoup my cash. I had no idea it was as good as it turned out. Nothing really wrong with it, just abused by the previous owners and no one really looked any deeper than the surface. The cap and rotor were the worst eaten up I have ever seen on anything! It's kinda involved to take it off, so no one did.
I did put new tires on it first thing for all the folks worried about the speed, I just forgot to mention it.
I know nothing about Corvettes. Anything made of plastic with no trunk has never interested me much, but I know the MB can go very fast and it did 146 yesterday for a brief time.
I'll post some photos as soon as we get a little sunshine! [:D]
BTW, Thanks Matwor, I found it![:p]
I don't know what the top end was, but it would do 110, and get there fast!
Beautiful cars.
I did some checking, My porsche has a factory tested top speed of 148 . it weighs 450 lbs more than a 911 sc
this is the thing I don't like about German cars, if it were an american car I could add an exaust, intake, change the gearing and get the performance I want for a resonable price, for this car? I need to spend a fortune 6-8 grand might shave half a second off 0-60 times and 1/4 miles. It would be much smarter to sell this car and buy a newer one with specs and performance I like. Even then, it would never keep up with a new corvette.
I am not a fast driver, have a clean record since 01 when I got a ticket returning a gf' purse. 70 in a 60. and it was 10 years longer to the next infraction. But when I want to go fast, I want to go fast. I like knowing that, at any time, I could do a block long smokie burnout or hit 150 without hesitation.
Get one that says:
My other car is also a Mercedes. I know it's not, but won't that make people jealous...