Pre '92 W124 purchase on a tight budget?

[flagstaff]

i can vouch that the 12V 260 motor is thirstier than the later 280 24V, as i've run both. none of them are what you'd call economical: when i first got the 280 i drove very gently, and saw up to 380 miles to a tank; but now i've had it a while i boot it around quite a bit, and now i'm lucky to see 300 before the orange light starts flickering. the 12V motors are, however, much quieter in operation. that said, i put up with the extra noise from the E280 because most of it is induction roar, which keeps the old adrenalin going nicely. the perfect combination of engine and chassis would have been the estate coupled to the 260 lump - and mercedes never made one in right hand drive. strange.

 

[hawk20]

Don't you hate it when threads like this come to a premature end? Like a 'soap' taken off the air before the story is finished? Did Chris get what he wanted? Was it a 280 or a 300? Straight six or a simple four?
My two cents would be that the 280 was a truly great engine. One of the finest I've ever owned. Of it I remember Autocar said words to the effect "It is the finest engine of any size, of any make, in any car, anywhere in the world" It was awesome. Got off the ferry at Cherbourg early one morning and we were on the beach in Perpignan - South of France, almost on the Spanish border- by late afternoon. And we had a damn fine lunch on the way down. What a car. What an engine. Hope you found one Chris.

 

[Chris_124W]

Well, Have to confess I am guilty of leaving this one hanging . Thats mainly because the budget I had for the Merc purchase got wiped out by some fairly urgent house repairs after water damage.

The upshot is that the Merc purchase has gone on hold until I can save a few pennies again :-(. I guess the upside to this is that as time goes on the prices of later model 124's should come down, and more of them should become eligible for classic policies.

Also wanted to say thanks to the folks that PM-ed me about cars for sale, and apologise for not getting back to you - I didn't realise I had the email notification for PM's turned off and I don't get over to these forums much since the purchase went on hold.

Maybe later in the year I'll be in a position to look at this again and the story will have a happy ending... in the meantime, no change folks .

Chris

 

[hawk20]

Thanks for keeping us posted even if it's not the happy ending we all hoped for for you. Let's hope things improve for you in the near future and an E280 turns up at just the right price and in fine fettle. Good luck.