Tales of Beater Luxury Cars, part II
09-27-16, 03:35 PM
#1
Lexus Test Driver
Thread Starter
Tales of Beater Luxury Cars, part II
so I talked about the roached 87 750IL bmw, the 90 740iL that was a spectacular fail in every possible way, the bangle butt 745Li that burned to the frame, among others. today ill be talking about $500 Mercedes from the 70s and 80s that ive had some interesting experiences with.
they say the most expensive Merc youll ever buy is the cheap one. True Story!
ive always had a Lexus Ls400, but before I was a Lexus Man, I was a Mercedes Man.
ive had a total of 59 cars in my 16 years on the road. ive tried just about every flavor of germen engineering, lots of old American steel, and plenty of old Japanese cars as well. mostly beat up cheap luxobarges. lucky for me I came to age at the right time in the right place, florida, where up till 2009, the streets were still filled with aging 3-pointed stars dating as far back to the carter administration. well as you know the CFC program took most of them. id say the hardest blow was to W126 models from the 80s. hundreds of thousands of them. I remember walking through junkyards looking for parts for my at-the-time 1991 Ls400 circa late 2009 early 2010, and seeing vast rows upon rows of murdered W126 families, with those pink spray painted engines. one of the saddest was a black/tan 84 500SEL with only 70k on the clock that still looked brand new. paint was still mirror fresh. today old Mercs from that time period are getting hard to find in any condition.
anyway im going to rewind this back to right after the turn of the century. 2002 happened to be a really easy year for me cause I was living at home, working 50 hours a week at 12.50+hr with absolutely no bills to pay for. not bad for a 17 year old kid. being a car guy I wanted new toys to play with. I wanted to explore Mercedes-benz a bit, well, actually a lot, as in have every damn different one they made. well I quickly realized that was going to be impossible considering ones from the 90s were still out of my income bracket. I always liked the old school look of the W126 and W116 cars and at that time they were getting up there in age, old enough that people were scared of them and still too new to really be considered classics. sort of like the Lexus of the mid 90s are today.
the W126 and W116 were sold in absolutely massive numbers and were still very solid cars. they were not too hard to work on and parts were not super expensive and the U-pull and Pick always had an assortment of them on some level. plus they were absolutely butthole cheap.
first one I snagged was a 1986 420SEL. I saw it one day riding around my neighborhood sitting under a half collapsed makeshift carport, with flat tires covered in dust. it was gunmetal grey with grey leather seats. I knocked on the door and after a short talk I bought the aging w126 for $400. it ran but barley. I cleaned it up and sold it for $700, which got me a grey / black1981 300d turbo diesel. this car wasn't bad but it was stinky noisey and very slow. painfully slow infact.it also had severe rust problems, but hey it was something different so I drove it for about a month, till I sold it for the same price I paid for it and with an extra $500 I slid into a $1,200 1988 560SEL, black on tan, with 319,000 on the clock, but somewhat maintained. paint was a little faded but the interior was still nice and everything worked well, for a bit..
I really liked this one. it had much more power than the 300d and was actually running on all 8 cylinders unlike the 420. it had that old school corded analog phone in it, massive interior and had the rear reclining seats, which I thought were the coolest thing since sliced bread.
keep in mind though.. this was an $85,000 car, in the 1980s, that I bought for less than the price of a decent 20 year old Honda. I liked it so much I made it my main car, and drove it all over the place for several months, before the $h1T hit the fan, and when it did, it really did..
first, the AC went. theres no such thing as an old Mercedes with working AC to begin with, but this one did. the blower motor locked up and smoke started pouring out of the air vents.. it was okay because I have always typically driven with the windows down anyway all the time, so it wasn't much of a loss. but then one day about a week later, I lost all the interior lighting at once. I checked the fuses and everything was okay. poked around and never did find anything obvious. about a month later, im driving in a full blown central florida summer, windows down, with the sunroof opened, when along came one of those ferocious afternoon thunderstorms that drop several inches of rain that we get here just about every single day. went to close everything.. but no response. windows were all suck down, and the sunroof was fully retracted. the storm I had to drive through happened to be a downburst none the less, with absolutely torrential rain, 70mph winds, pea sized hail, and lightning striking every 3 seconds about 2 feet from the car. when all was said and done, myself and the interior of the poor 560SEL was completely soaked. standing water on the floor pans. which by the way, once I got home with it I tried with one last attempt to roll up the windows, as some of us know, the window controls are on the center console, which is real wood, like the actual real thing, I pushed the rocker switch and SNAP!!! damn thing went right through. it was at that point that I pretty much said the hell with it and I had it sold for $500. as I was driving it to the buyers house, I lost the transmission out of nowhere. like, with no warning at all. im at a red light, the light turns green, I step on the gas, and the car isn't moving. great! ended up selling it to the U-pull that I typically got my parts from, for $300. I decided that I wanted something really decent, so I saved my money for a bit and bought a not-too-bad then ten year old 400e for $3,500. don't get me wrong, it was fast and fun to drive, but it just wasn't the car for me. I liked the old school ones and at that time, it didn't have the soul the other ones had. I sold that and bought a 1982 500SEC, which I loved! I sunk a few grand into a boom system for it and slapped some 20" daytons on it but it had some rust on it but it didn't really have the pickup I was hoping for. the compression was off on the engine, then it started overheating until one day it blew the head gasket and well, that was that.
1972 450SLC
one day I was at a friend of mines house out in the sticks. across the street there was a barn. well there was an older guy at the barn door, which he opened just long enough to reveal something German looking with a dusty chrome bumper. curiosity got the best of me so I walked over and started talking to the old man, who had a german accent. he opened the barn door to reveal a 1972 450SLC, covered in dust, flat tires, and ten year expired plates. as soon as I saw the car I made up my mind immediately that I had to have it. sure, it was in poor condition, with swiss cheese rusted floor pans and a dashboard full of earthquakes and seats with the stuffing coming out, but.. OH!! OMG LOOK ITS A 4 SPEED!!!! this one was coming home with me because racecar, and well, because racecar!!! turns out it was a grey market import. domestic german car. the man told me stories of how he used to drive it on the autobahn and that he was a retired doctor from berlin who had moved to the states in 1974 and brought his car here with him. he didn't want to give it up but informed me he had terminal cancer -how ironic, and that he realized it was going to need too much work for him to live long enough to enjoy again. he told me it was mine for $1,200 if It would start, and $600 if it didn't. well, it didn't and I couldn't get that $600 out of my pocket fast enough! I towed it back to my house.
when I got it home I made some discoveries. the car had been off the road for over a decade. when I popped the hood I saw something had been living in the engine bay for awhile. lucky me the engine wasn't stuck! woohoo! so I drained the gas tank, engine oil with all the other old fluids, and replaced them, put some new spark plugs in it, and dropped a fresh battery in it. like I said the car was in bad condition and some things had been modified. nothing under the hood but the car had no locks and not even a keyhole. it had a pushbutton starter mounted next to the AC controls! a two stage. toggle to turn on accessory mode and a metal button to crank the engine. clearly not factory but I gotta admit I thought it was kind of neat. so I flicked the switch and everything on the dash lit up and the vent fan came on and blew a bunch of dirt from the air vents... ok so far so good. the car was halfway alive. then I pushed the starter. it was sort of hard to crank but after 4 tries it fired! it blew all kinds of nasty crap out of the tailpipes and ran terribly backfiring and vibrating, but it was alive. I let it idle for ten or so minutes which after it warmed up and the juices started flowing, it managed to collect itself and everything leveled off. exaust was a little loud but everything looked good on the dash so I revved it for a few minutes and threw it into gear. it went through all four gears smoothly and it felt legit enough to take it on an actual road so I threw a plate on it and went for a ride. I just putted around with it for 20 mins or so till I was confident that it wasn't going to explode on me before I kicked it down but it felt okay. I slammed it into first dumped the clutch and the tire roasting began. it was faster than I thought it would be! no computers at all. not like newer cars that have all kinds of systems that have to think first before opening up. just.. instant power to the rear wheels! I liked the others but this one was FUN!! got it a full tank of 93 octane and stayed out late that night ripping all over town in it! but it couldn't be THAT easy lol. the problems started about a week later. it started first with plopping down a little too hard down on the drivers seat. the cancer was so bad.. it moved. then one day I went to hit the starter and it shocked the crap out of me! for the next few days I used a glove to push the button. lol. I ended up taking it on the highway one night and pushed it as hard as it could possibly go. speedo said 160. got it up to 130 -which was horrifying in that thing, and never did it again. one morning I walked outside and I saw smoke coming from inside the car. the ignition button shorted and was burning my dash! swapped it out and it was okay again. I ended up keeping this one for a few years. had a lot of problems with it but it was so cool, plus it was very rare. it ended badly though. I moved to south florida in 2005 and didn't think it would make the trip, so I left it at my fathers ranch where he was supposed to store it for me in his barn. well, it didn't work out that way. it sat parked under an oak tree for 3 years not started. when I came up to visit and planned to take it home with me, the elements had gotten to it. it had sunk into the dirt, it was full of mold and bugs, and the engine wouldn't turn. this was a car that was already so rusty that you could hear it crumbling when open and closing the doors anyway. ended up donating it to goodwill.
1979 450SEL 6.9...
ever drive one? ever even touched one? one day I was surfing craigslist when an ad popped up for a "69 mersadez" extremely dim witted owner.. the ad was misspelled and the pictures were awful. but what it revealed was a silver on black 6.9 450SEL! paint wasn't great, seats were cracked, and it looked like someone had been living in it since the carter administration plus it was on a very sketchy side of town but the price was right. $1,100. lucky me I was the first one to see the ad. I called on it immediately because I had always been curious about the 6.9 and wanted to experience one for myself. at the time it was the fastest production sedan in the world! top speed of 150 mph supposedly. when I spoke to the owner on the phone they could barley speak English but said something to the tune of, "it was my grandfathers and ive had it for a few years but got a new car", and that he already had 20 other calls on it in the 30 mins the ad was up and 5 people coming to look at it. this was at 11:00 at night, but I rode over to see it like my *** was on fire!! had a buddy with me and cash on hand. the car was filthy, faided paint, mild body damage, but started right up and everything seemed to work okay! gave him the cash he gave me the keys and title and I got the hell out of there as quick as I could cause it was in a very very bad part of town. was it fast? dear lord was it ever. for such an old heavy car it launched like a rocket ship and felt very small once it was really rolling. but like all things old Mercedes, it lasted about a month before the hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension system started giving me trouble. it was a weird, very complex, and hard to work on system. couldn't really even wrap my head around it. one thing that was neat though is that it had a **** that could drop and raise the car on the dash, however I got the suspension warning light a few times. it had well over 200k on it and it was close to 30 years old at the time and was all but used up. I will say this though. even though it was in its final days, it was still an amazing car that impressed me every time I drove it. it was big, fast, cushy and really the closest thing I can compare to a Lexus Ls400 in ride and comfort. that 6.9 really roared though. then one day im driving it down the highway when the car suddenly lost its suspension. the warning light came on and it began to sink slowly. it got so bad I wasn't able to get it home. I would have just pulled the tag and abandoned it like the 1987 190e I paid 250 for, but this was a 6.9! the dream car of every drug dealer in circa 1970s Miami! got it home and I just about defecated myself when I found out how expensive the suspension was going to be to fix. I thought it deserved a second chance so I didn't send it to the junk. I put it on craigs for $2000. and even in the shape it was in, it sold in only a few hours! so I got to drive and own one of my dream cars for a few months and sold it more than I paid for it even after it took a dump on me!
I wonder if its still out there somewhere.....
they say the most expensive Merc youll ever buy is the cheap one. True Story!
ive always had a Lexus Ls400, but before I was a Lexus Man, I was a Mercedes Man.
ive had a total of 59 cars in my 16 years on the road. ive tried just about every flavor of germen engineering, lots of old American steel, and plenty of old Japanese cars as well. mostly beat up cheap luxobarges. lucky for me I came to age at the right time in the right place, florida, where up till 2009, the streets were still filled with aging 3-pointed stars dating as far back to the carter administration. well as you know the CFC program took most of them. id say the hardest blow was to W126 models from the 80s. hundreds of thousands of them. I remember walking through junkyards looking for parts for my at-the-time 1991 Ls400 circa late 2009 early 2010, and seeing vast rows upon rows of murdered W126 families, with those pink spray painted engines. one of the saddest was a black/tan 84 500SEL with only 70k on the clock that still looked brand new. paint was still mirror fresh. today old Mercs from that time period are getting hard to find in any condition.
anyway im going to rewind this back to right after the turn of the century. 2002 happened to be a really easy year for me cause I was living at home, working 50 hours a week at 12.50+hr with absolutely no bills to pay for. not bad for a 17 year old kid. being a car guy I wanted new toys to play with. I wanted to explore Mercedes-benz a bit, well, actually a lot, as in have every damn different one they made. well I quickly realized that was going to be impossible considering ones from the 90s were still out of my income bracket. I always liked the old school look of the W126 and W116 cars and at that time they were getting up there in age, old enough that people were scared of them and still too new to really be considered classics. sort of like the Lexus of the mid 90s are today.
the W126 and W116 were sold in absolutely massive numbers and were still very solid cars. they were not too hard to work on and parts were not super expensive and the U-pull and Pick always had an assortment of them on some level. plus they were absolutely butthole cheap.
first one I snagged was a 1986 420SEL. I saw it one day riding around my neighborhood sitting under a half collapsed makeshift carport, with flat tires covered in dust. it was gunmetal grey with grey leather seats. I knocked on the door and after a short talk I bought the aging w126 for $400. it ran but barley. I cleaned it up and sold it for $700, which got me a grey / black1981 300d turbo diesel. this car wasn't bad but it was stinky noisey and very slow. painfully slow infact.it also had severe rust problems, but hey it was something different so I drove it for about a month, till I sold it for the same price I paid for it and with an extra $500 I slid into a $1,200 1988 560SEL, black on tan, with 319,000 on the clock, but somewhat maintained. paint was a little faded but the interior was still nice and everything worked well, for a bit..
I really liked this one. it had much more power than the 300d and was actually running on all 8 cylinders unlike the 420. it had that old school corded analog phone in it, massive interior and had the rear reclining seats, which I thought were the coolest thing since sliced bread.
keep in mind though.. this was an $85,000 car, in the 1980s, that I bought for less than the price of a decent 20 year old Honda. I liked it so much I made it my main car, and drove it all over the place for several months, before the $h1T hit the fan, and when it did, it really did..
first, the AC went. theres no such thing as an old Mercedes with working AC to begin with, but this one did. the blower motor locked up and smoke started pouring out of the air vents.. it was okay because I have always typically driven with the windows down anyway all the time, so it wasn't much of a loss. but then one day about a week later, I lost all the interior lighting at once. I checked the fuses and everything was okay. poked around and never did find anything obvious. about a month later, im driving in a full blown central florida summer, windows down, with the sunroof opened, when along came one of those ferocious afternoon thunderstorms that drop several inches of rain that we get here just about every single day. went to close everything.. but no response. windows were all suck down, and the sunroof was fully retracted. the storm I had to drive through happened to be a downburst none the less, with absolutely torrential rain, 70mph winds, pea sized hail, and lightning striking every 3 seconds about 2 feet from the car. when all was said and done, myself and the interior of the poor 560SEL was completely soaked. standing water on the floor pans. which by the way, once I got home with it I tried with one last attempt to roll up the windows, as some of us know, the window controls are on the center console, which is real wood, like the actual real thing, I pushed the rocker switch and SNAP!!! damn thing went right through. it was at that point that I pretty much said the hell with it and I had it sold for $500. as I was driving it to the buyers house, I lost the transmission out of nowhere. like, with no warning at all. im at a red light, the light turns green, I step on the gas, and the car isn't moving. great! ended up selling it to the U-pull that I typically got my parts from, for $300. I decided that I wanted something really decent, so I saved my money for a bit and bought a not-too-bad then ten year old 400e for $3,500. don't get me wrong, it was fast and fun to drive, but it just wasn't the car for me. I liked the old school ones and at that time, it didn't have the soul the other ones had. I sold that and bought a 1982 500SEC, which I loved! I sunk a few grand into a boom system for it and slapped some 20" daytons on it but it had some rust on it but it didn't really have the pickup I was hoping for. the compression was off on the engine, then it started overheating until one day it blew the head gasket and well, that was that.
1972 450SLC
one day I was at a friend of mines house out in the sticks. across the street there was a barn. well there was an older guy at the barn door, which he opened just long enough to reveal something German looking with a dusty chrome bumper. curiosity got the best of me so I walked over and started talking to the old man, who had a german accent. he opened the barn door to reveal a 1972 450SLC, covered in dust, flat tires, and ten year expired plates. as soon as I saw the car I made up my mind immediately that I had to have it. sure, it was in poor condition, with swiss cheese rusted floor pans and a dashboard full of earthquakes and seats with the stuffing coming out, but.. OH!! OMG LOOK ITS A 4 SPEED!!!! this one was coming home with me because racecar, and well, because racecar!!! turns out it was a grey market import. domestic german car. the man told me stories of how he used to drive it on the autobahn and that he was a retired doctor from berlin who had moved to the states in 1974 and brought his car here with him. he didn't want to give it up but informed me he had terminal cancer -how ironic, and that he realized it was going to need too much work for him to live long enough to enjoy again. he told me it was mine for $1,200 if It would start, and $600 if it didn't. well, it didn't and I couldn't get that $600 out of my pocket fast enough! I towed it back to my house.
when I got it home I made some discoveries. the car had been off the road for over a decade. when I popped the hood I saw something had been living in the engine bay for awhile. lucky me the engine wasn't stuck! woohoo! so I drained the gas tank, engine oil with all the other old fluids, and replaced them, put some new spark plugs in it, and dropped a fresh battery in it. like I said the car was in bad condition and some things had been modified. nothing under the hood but the car had no locks and not even a keyhole. it had a pushbutton starter mounted next to the AC controls! a two stage. toggle to turn on accessory mode and a metal button to crank the engine. clearly not factory but I gotta admit I thought it was kind of neat. so I flicked the switch and everything on the dash lit up and the vent fan came on and blew a bunch of dirt from the air vents... ok so far so good. the car was halfway alive. then I pushed the starter. it was sort of hard to crank but after 4 tries it fired! it blew all kinds of nasty crap out of the tailpipes and ran terribly backfiring and vibrating, but it was alive. I let it idle for ten or so minutes which after it warmed up and the juices started flowing, it managed to collect itself and everything leveled off. exaust was a little loud but everything looked good on the dash so I revved it for a few minutes and threw it into gear. it went through all four gears smoothly and it felt legit enough to take it on an actual road so I threw a plate on it and went for a ride. I just putted around with it for 20 mins or so till I was confident that it wasn't going to explode on me before I kicked it down but it felt okay. I slammed it into first dumped the clutch and the tire roasting began. it was faster than I thought it would be! no computers at all. not like newer cars that have all kinds of systems that have to think first before opening up. just.. instant power to the rear wheels! I liked the others but this one was FUN!! got it a full tank of 93 octane and stayed out late that night ripping all over town in it! but it couldn't be THAT easy lol. the problems started about a week later. it started first with plopping down a little too hard down on the drivers seat. the cancer was so bad.. it moved. then one day I went to hit the starter and it shocked the crap out of me! for the next few days I used a glove to push the button. lol. I ended up taking it on the highway one night and pushed it as hard as it could possibly go. speedo said 160. got it up to 130 -which was horrifying in that thing, and never did it again. one morning I walked outside and I saw smoke coming from inside the car. the ignition button shorted and was burning my dash! swapped it out and it was okay again. I ended up keeping this one for a few years. had a lot of problems with it but it was so cool, plus it was very rare. it ended badly though. I moved to south florida in 2005 and didn't think it would make the trip, so I left it at my fathers ranch where he was supposed to store it for me in his barn. well, it didn't work out that way. it sat parked under an oak tree for 3 years not started. when I came up to visit and planned to take it home with me, the elements had gotten to it. it had sunk into the dirt, it was full of mold and bugs, and the engine wouldn't turn. this was a car that was already so rusty that you could hear it crumbling when open and closing the doors anyway. ended up donating it to goodwill.
1979 450SEL 6.9...
ever drive one? ever even touched one? one day I was surfing craigslist when an ad popped up for a "69 mersadez" extremely dim witted owner.. the ad was misspelled and the pictures were awful. but what it revealed was a silver on black 6.9 450SEL! paint wasn't great, seats were cracked, and it looked like someone had been living in it since the carter administration plus it was on a very sketchy side of town but the price was right. $1,100. lucky me I was the first one to see the ad. I called on it immediately because I had always been curious about the 6.9 and wanted to experience one for myself. at the time it was the fastest production sedan in the world! top speed of 150 mph supposedly. when I spoke to the owner on the phone they could barley speak English but said something to the tune of, "it was my grandfathers and ive had it for a few years but got a new car", and that he already had 20 other calls on it in the 30 mins the ad was up and 5 people coming to look at it. this was at 11:00 at night, but I rode over to see it like my *** was on fire!! had a buddy with me and cash on hand. the car was filthy, faided paint, mild body damage, but started right up and everything seemed to work okay! gave him the cash he gave me the keys and title and I got the hell out of there as quick as I could cause it was in a very very bad part of town. was it fast? dear lord was it ever. for such an old heavy car it launched like a rocket ship and felt very small once it was really rolling. but like all things old Mercedes, it lasted about a month before the hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension system started giving me trouble. it was a weird, very complex, and hard to work on system. couldn't really even wrap my head around it. one thing that was neat though is that it had a **** that could drop and raise the car on the dash, however I got the suspension warning light a few times. it had well over 200k on it and it was close to 30 years old at the time and was all but used up. I will say this though. even though it was in its final days, it was still an amazing car that impressed me every time I drove it. it was big, fast, cushy and really the closest thing I can compare to a Lexus Ls400 in ride and comfort. that 6.9 really roared though. then one day im driving it down the highway when the car suddenly lost its suspension. the warning light came on and it began to sink slowly. it got so bad I wasn't able to get it home. I would have just pulled the tag and abandoned it like the 1987 190e I paid 250 for, but this was a 6.9! the dream car of every drug dealer in circa 1970s Miami! got it home and I just about defecated myself when I found out how expensive the suspension was going to be to fix. I thought it deserved a second chance so I didn't send it to the junk. I put it on craigs for $2000. and even in the shape it was in, it sold in only a few hours! so I got to drive and own one of my dream cars for a few months and sold it more than I paid for it even after it took a dump on me!
I wonder if its still out there somewhere.....
09-27-16, 05:16 PM
#2
Lexus Fanatic
The CFC program had good intentions at first, but ended up a nightmare in its execution, efficiency, and actual operation. As you note, it also took out a lot of still-perfectly-usable vehicles. That's because, once the trade-in was final, and the papers were processed and signed for the Government payout (which often took months), a mechanic or technician was REQUIRED to seize the engine up by draining out all the oil and then starting it up. That, of course, prevented its re-sale or re-use......the vehicle essentially became junk, except for a few spare parts.
Last edited by mmarshall; 09-27-16 at 06:45 PM.
09-27-16, 06:31 PM
#3
Cash for clunkers really hurt the working poor. Used full size pickups for example, absolute junk that was $500-1000 was now going for 2-3k, because there was such a shortage for that type of vehicle. A lot of good running trucks got crushed for no reason and really screwed up the used car market for a couple of years.
09-28-16, 06:25 AM
#4
Lexus Test Driver
Thread Starter
it sure did. those old w126s and what not were $1,200 cars at the time. most of the people that traded fed the beast that had them were the working poor. i know that a lot of those folks that got there brand new 2009 Kia spectra or ford focus couldn't afford the payments and lost there cars in the end. i saw it happen to a neighbor of mine. the people right behind me were a Mexican family with 4 small children. they had a late 90s expedition before clunkering it for a new dodge caravan. the expedition was ugly and a gas hog, but it was paid off and it ran. ill never forget them standing around the car sobbing as the repo man hauled it off. not soon after the husband lost his job cause he didn't have a car, and couldn't pay the rent and they were evicted. i never knew what happened to them. i hope they recovered.
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