Current Want

"gmctavish needs more space" (gmctavish)
11/02/2019 at 16:44 • Filed to: unnecessary car shopping without E90M3

It seems like 9 out of 10 of these were all that super boring champagne colour that every 80s/90s German car is. Not only is this one a real colour, it’s in good shape, and it’s not expensive. The only thing it isn’t, is a diesel, or manual. Though I’m told that Mercedes manual transmissions aren’t the nicest to use. Anyways. I want it.

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DISCUSSION (7)

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > gmctavish needs more space
11/02/2019 at 17:28

My 300E was a great car, but the one thing I will say is the transmission was one of my least favorite things about it . The auto that is. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fine transmission mostly, but for fuel economy Benz set it up to start in second gear under 99% of driving conditions. This meant that certain circumstances, like left turning while oncoming traffic rapidly approached, felt like you were taking your life in your hands. The car would dutifully but most definitely not swiftly drag it’s ass, laboring along in second gear, unless you pegged the throttle to the floor to depress the kickdown switch. This meant you found yourself doing a lot of WOT starts, or realizing too late that you should have done one, at which point you nail it and it downshifts mid turn sending the revs to the moon and making you look like a hooligan. It also takes a toll on second gear if you find yourself sending it all of the time.

Great car otherwise though. Handled and braked uncannily well, especially for something that old. Very well balanced, easily rotatable, could burn the tires off of it if you so desired. S tout solid good cars.

Then came the disintegrating wir e insulation of the early 90's, and whatever questionably built stuff from the 2000's and beyond . 80's or earlier or still under warranty are pretty much the only reasonable B enz purchases anymore. And the latter may be questionable, but I’m not in the socioeconomic bracket to comment I guess.

That is a really nice wagon though. I’d drive it.

gmctavish needs more space > This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja:
11/02/2019 at 17:41

Hmm that sounds an awful lot like the trans in my Legacy, which does really bother me. That’s good to know.

threewisemonkey > gmctavish needs more space
11/02/2019 at 18:27

I have a 300SD, so I know how slow this era of MB can be off the line until you find the sweet spot in the throttle that moves the revs appropriately. You can also start from 1st if you shift down to Low gear, which I do when I need to be quicker, like at a l eft turn with no arrow.

W124 wagons have been going up in price over the last year or so, so get it while the prices are still reasonable! I'm planning to get one once both kids are in forward facing seats.

Grindintosecond > gmctavish needs more space
11/02/2019 at 21:59

Of the time, yeah MB manuals pretty much blew. Dad had an 87 300td sedan. And boy it just pulled like a train...endless constant rate push. A mint sorted wagon like that would be wonderful

gmctavish needs more space > Grindintosecond
11/02/2019 at 22:21

Speaking of diesels... https://vancouver.craigslist.org/bnc/cto/d/vancouver-1987-mercedes-benz-300d-turbo/6986458503.html

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja:
11/03/2019 at 11:30

Huh that is really interesting to read. I wonder in that case if you could adjust the kickdown or WOT switch to be more... Reasonable

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
11/03/2019 at 11:39

Unfortunately the switch was mounted to the floor under the pedal, almo st like a 60's high beam switch, so I don’t think there was much you could do there . I do recall some people talking about some sort of valvebody mod, but I never pursued it because they reported it led to failures not long afterwards.

Another commenter mentioned they were able to shift to low to get a fi rst gear start. I don't recall that being the case on mine, but they still have theirs and mine has been gone for years so I shall take their word on it.