1986 Mercedes-Benz 300-Series

300 SDL Turbo Diesel Sedan

3.0L I6 Turbo Diesel

Automatic

WDBCB25D8GA273947

Clear

Diesel

Attention: Dictators, Vegas Road Trippers, and Veggie Oil Mavericks... For your consideration is a 1986 Mercedes 300 SDL. It is dark blue with tan interior and has 165K mi. The car drives beautifully - largely because it has nearly $10K in receipts for work done in the last year and a half using all Mercedes parts. Some of the distinguishing features of this car are: - Recent engine rebuild - valves, injectors, belts, etc (see picture of receipts) - New cooling system - radiator, fan clutch, expansion tank - Nearly new Bridgestone Potenza tires - LoveCraft straight vegetable oil (SVO) kit - New Bosch battery - Front and rear heated seats - Power reclining rear seat - Becker radio So why am I selling it? As much as I have aspired to be each of the three characters listed at the top, I missed one very fundamental element when I bought this car just over a year ago - a diesel, even one in perfect running condition, is not the ideal car when you primarily drive on surface streets. Put another way, if one were to drive aggressively - less dictator, more Stig - then a diesel could be a bit frustrating. Get it out on the highway and it is a dream, but I simply don't often get the chance. This is not my primary daily driver, I have a few other cars, and I would rather sell this and focus instead on my classic British roadsters. Let me try to give you some additional color on the car so you can make an informed decision. Engine When I bought this car it was with the intention to run it only on vegetable oil. I used pure, new oil from Costco to try it out. It ran perfectly fine on this with no difference in power or milage. Then after only having the car for a week or two, the car rapidly started overheating. Essentially no part of the cooling system was working properly - radiator, fan clutch, expansion tank was leaking. A prior owner completely neglected maintenance and when I got the car in the shop, not only was the cooling system in need of replacement, but also the engine needed to be taken apart and gone over. To be clear, this was due to negligence in prior ownership and not the fuel it was running on. I found a very good father and son shop (D.A. Import) where the father (George) started working on these cars decades ago in Germany and his primary focus was Mercedes diesels. With the head off, we addressed everything that needed replacing and used only Mercedes parts. It now runs beautifly - my loss, your gain! Since the rebuild, I have been using regular diesel fuel. This car does have a LoveCraft system installed, but I would recommend having that gone over by someone specializing in these systems before going back to vegetable oil. If these systems do not heat the oil properly the higher viscosity could clog injectors or not run optimally. I am not an expert in these systems, so I won't be able to answer any questions on this system. I would have gone to a SVO (Straight Vegatable Oil) expert as a next step, but haven't done so as I knew I would be selling the car. Exterior The car looks great from a few feet away, if you get up close, you will notice imperfections in the paint. Described another way, most of the car has been resprayed - but the work done by the reseller was simply not what I would call high quality. I believe the hood and trunk are original paint, but the sides of the car were resprayed. When they did the respray, they did not blend it into the trunk, so if you are looking for it, in full sun, you will see a slight color difference between the trunk and the rear quarter panels. I saw the car beforehand and mentioned several dings and scratches in the sides and as part of the deal he agreed to paint it. It was an improvement, but not what I would expect from a quality shop. Ironically, the paint is one of the things I frequently get complements on. Overall it looks quite nice, but on close inspection you will see flaws. In the first set of photos I took, the pictures honestly looked better than I thought it did in person, so I went out and took a couple of extra photos to highlight the biggest flaws I could find. There is a small section in the drivers side fender where the paint in the second stage of the three stage paint process isn't properly covering the first stage, so a lighter shade of blue is "blushing" through. This isn't noticable most of the time but you will see it in full sun. There is also a ding on the top of the grill. I took a picture where the light would bounce off so you could see the ding. The car was originally sold in CA. I do not know its entire history, but all the records and transactions I have seen have been in CA. I have not seen any rust on this car. Interior This is where this car really shines. It looks stunning on the inside. The back seats look like new and the front seats are very good. The wood is very nice - the nicest I have seen on any of these cars. I installed a center console unit - this simply snaps into place and can be easily removed if desired. It has burl wood instead of the Zambrano wood everywhere else in the car. The center console was used in later cars and I have found it quite useful. I do not have a key for it. As stated above, the seats are all heated and the rear are also power reclining. I don't believe they put these in the diesel models as new - they came from another car. The back power seat is very cool and is always good entertainment for those that have not seen this before. The front seats were spray dyed. They look great, and this isn't something that you can easily tell, but I want to make sure I disclose it to the next buyer. This was once again something done by the reseller as when I first saw this car, the seats that were in it were torn up and were not acceptable, so he put these in for me to buy the car. The carpets look near new and the floor mats are new. All the power windows work and so does the sunroof which recently had the entire assembly (rails, gears, etc) replaced at a cost of $2K. Additional Information / Quirks While the overall condition of this car is substantially better than nearly every one of these diesels I have seen, I do want to point out as many things as I can think of so any buyer won't be disappointed if they are unable to see it in person. - Rear defroster button light does not come on when pressed, but the defroster appeared operational when I used it a few weeks ago. - The drivers side headrest went down when I tested it, but then refused to go back up. - The analog clock in the instrument panel is intermittant. It didn't work most of the year, then after a service visit where the battery was replaced it worked great for a couple of months. Now after the last service visit it isn't keeping time again. I don't think it has completely given up the ghost, but it is currently non-operational. - Power mirror for passenger - I don't recall this ever working since I have owned the car. The mirror has a pretty wide angle so I have never considered needing to move it. - Climate control system works well overall. The AC blows cold but more of the air is directed toward the windshield than the center vents. I'm not sure if a duct is stuck or what the cause is for this. - Radio is a Becker radio, but after looking at the instruction manual, I do not think this is the exact model that came with the car, but it looks very similar. Frankly I find the whole Becker radio controls to be over complicated. Perhaps if I were German, they would be simple... My suggestion: keep the antenna down (it functions perfectly) and then use an FM transmitter for your iPod. It actually sounds pretty good because if the antenna is down, it will only pick up your transmission and not stray radio stations. - Digital thermometer is very confused - it usually thinks it is 136F. Probably the sensor in the front of the car, but I do not know for sure. - When the gas gauge is half full, it sometimes bounces back and forth a bit. It will settle down between it's bouncing so you always know what your real fuel level is, but it is a bit odd when it does this. - The springs in the front seats could be replaced or reinforced. From what I have heard, this happens to nearly all the cars over time. Basically, if you put your weight on the outside edge of the seat, such as when you get in and out, you will notice that it will droop. - The steering wheel is slightly crooked when you are driving straight. When the reseller replaced the old cracked vinyl wheel with this leather one, he got it off slightly. - Below the ashtray is a button for a "two tone horn" - this button is only there because it came with the other two buttons from the seat heaters when this was installed in the car. So there is a reason this doesn't do anything. Inspection / Terms of Sale Thanks for taking the time to consider this car for purchase. I welcome potential buyers to come see the car in person and will also accommodate professional inspections from serious buyers. In addition to this auction, I reserve the right to end this auction early and sell the car locally. This is a no reserve auction and I have set the opening price at a reasonable level. Absolutely no low-ballers! I do not need to sell this car and am willing to wait for the right buyer.