1996 c220d elegance help on buying

RAXAN

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Hello, I am thinking of purchasing a 1996 N-reg C220D auto with 120k FSH as a run around a commuter, what should I look out for? The car is being sold in a local car dealer for £1095 and it does seem very straight, cloth interior, alloy nice burgundy metallic paint 3 previous owners. The price seems to be ok but any help info etc would be most appreciated!
 

Alex M Grieve

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B Class d200 Sport Premium Plus (66)
Hello, I am thinking of purchasing a 1996 N-reg C220D auto with 120k FSH as a run around a commuter, what should I look out for? The car is being sold in a local car dealer for £1095 and it does seem very straight, cloth interior, alloy nice burgundy metallic paint 3 previous owners. The price seems to be ok but any help info etc would be most appreciated!

Very solid model. They tend not to rust and the mileage is modest for the age. No ball of fire but will keep up with the traffic nicely and be frugal too.

At that age, no particular points but worth looking through the service history (diesel engines do enjoy their oil changes) and note items which may need to be changed soon - tyres, brake pads/discs.

Otherwise, if it looks good and drives well, then it probably is good, and where else do you get that much car for £1,000?

It will be good to hear how you get on and to see the proof if you buy it.
 

bigasotonuk

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C43/55 AMG 1999 / C230K 1997
Hi,
Be warned W202's of this age do have a tendency to be low spec and can be notoriosly hard to sell on.
I,m not saying not to buy it, if its what you want but also bear in mind MB's own mpg figures for this engine are worse than the 230 Kompressor engine, in fact the diesel engine versions of the prefacelift 202 are the least economical engine variant of all bar the C36.
 

Alex M Grieve

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mpg

I don't know how you will fare commuting, but I have known mini cab drivers achieve 50 mpg plus with this engine (runs to airport and between towns. Perhaps others can comment?
 

bigasotonuk

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Alex that maybe the case but i,m only quoting the official MB figures, i found it hard to believe and looking at the figures again the diesel versions are the most uneconomical of all the engine variants (inc. the 280) of the pre facelift 202 cars bar the AMG C36.
 

Alex M Grieve

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Alex that maybe the case but i,m only quoting the official MB figures, i found it hard to believe and looking at the figures again the diesel versions are the most uneconomical of all the engine variants (inc. the 280) of the pre facelift 202 cars bar the AMG C36.

Quite understand Andy - but there are cars where the diesel variant was not the most economical - early Toyota Carinas, some Volvos before direct injection, and the early Land Rovers. I guess people bought them for durability.

I suspect that the government testing regimes did not do the older generation MB diesels (201s and 202s) any favours, probably over revving them and falling off the power curve. I remember when diesel 4 ton trucks were introduced to the army (Bedford MK), it was almost impossible to get the drivers to use torque at low revs. The drivers tried to rev them in the lower gears and hated them for not behaving like the petrol RL.

Motoring journalists still take pride in driving diesels like petrol cars, and criticizing them for not matching up. One periodical I contacted, which specialized in fleet sales, refused to publish the torque figures for diesels as it was information which no one wanted - the diesels consequently looked pretty anaemic compared to their petrol counterparts.

Ah well, no one ever said it would be easy!
 

robparker

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Pretty sure the injection pumps on those c220d's can give up quite prematurely, think they have the lucas pumps, quite hard to get hold of if they do go. The c250d ones on the other hand seem to be really reliable.
 

poseidon

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Hi,

I have been driving 1996 c220d for over 5 years.
It is driven daily taking kids to nursery/school on short runs. Overall mileage is low at 89k.

I have owner's manual. It is most economical of all C class models.
8.5l at 120km/h, 5.9l at 90km/h, 8.5l in the city. The fuel consumption on my13 year old car is in agreement with these figures. On average it is around 35-40mpg, city driving.

It has maximum torque of 150Nm at 3100-5200rpm which is quite high for diesels. Because of low torque and high revs driving resembles petrol cars.

If it pulls to the left you will probably need around £500 to fix track rod and many ball joints.

This probaly one of the last cars that you can actualy fix something by yourself.

I did chnage lot of parts, but I have no intention of changing the car untill pistons start flying out.

Browse through the old threads for known faults.

Pose
 
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