1988 Mercedes-Benz

SEL Sedan

6 Cylinder 3.0 Liter

Automatic

wdbca25d8ja383276

Clear

Gasoline

4DR SEDAN 300SEL AUTO

Classic lines combined with extreme luxury and excellent ride quality allows 4 adults limo like room in a reasonably priced classic sedan. An amazing, fast, solid, comfortable, high-quality, well-designed car. Quality of materials and fit is better than anything new. Glossy wood and unbelievably fresh-looking leather after 155,000 miles. Feels like you could stand on the open gas flap. Door hardware and latches which are almost "over-designed." Glove box door lines up perfectly with dash. I could go on and on. Quiet details continue to impress after years of ownership, such as wood trim on the dash that wraps around ends of dash, where it's only seen when doors are open. A turn-signal lever that is weighted perfectly. Simple, push-button switchgear that has a positive, solid feel to it. Even the chromed trim around the door handles where you insert the key is elegantly beveled and sculpted. Rear legroom in the long-wheelbase W126 is positively generous, even when front seats are moved back. Everyone gets ample legroom in the stretch S-Class. First comment any backseat passenger makes. A grand presence when parked or moving. I think Bruno Sacco and M-B got this W126 absolutely right in the aesthetics department. There's an absolute "rightness" to the lines. For such a physically big car, the folds and contours of the body make it appear remarkably light and agile. Same goes for the inside styling. Nothing jarring or zoomy or overstyled. There's a real Mies van der Rohe ("Less is more") quality to every line and surface. I am a big a fan of the Mercedes-Benz 126 chassis cars. It was a time when Mercedes build quality was the finest in the world. See how many 126 Mercedes you see on average over the week. I can guarantee there are more of them on the road than any other car from that era. Towards the end of the long run of the 126 Chassis, Mercedes brought to the U.S. some non V8 powered 126 cars. From 1989-1991 Mercedes offered the 300SE & 300SEL for sale in the U.S. With a bullet proof, 3.0 Liter strait 6 engines, the 300 series cars offered all the prestige and quality of its top of the line 500 series brothers, without the high gas bills. The 3.0 wasn't a slouch on power either, pumping out around 180hp and 190lbs ft. torque. Good by even modern standards. The 3-liter six-cylinder engine is smoother than most V8s. It's a little slow off the mark (this is a big, heavy car), but once she's wound up, there's power on tap. Silky smooth and very, very quiet. These are just fantastic cars, and you really don't see a lot of the 300 series around due to their short production run for the U.S. There is nothing like approaching this authoritative, diplomatic machine, slipping onto that perfectly supportive seat and slamming that door. Thunk! Nothing sounds like it! Twist the key and glide away in all that leather, wood, solidity and absolute elegance. This car served faithfully for years and in October of 2009 the transmission started to slip. This all happened very quickly but the car made it back home from Manhattan to Connecticut. Following that the transmission fluid was changed and the trouble went away but it should be noted that the mechanic noted that it was very dark. This was a sign that either the fluid was old or there could be a fault in the transmission. The car was parked after this and did not move until recently. Here are some things to note: The brakes are sticking. The front brakes don’t want to let go after a stop. The ABS light is also on now so I’m not sure if there is a bad sensor or if the rotors are just rusty from sitting. Once you get going again, the brakes free up but the light stays on.There is an exhaust leak. It looks like it is after the catalytic converter but before the muffler so it sounds a bit rough when you are in traffic.On start up, the engine sputters. It feels like bad gas because once you rev it up, it turns over rather nicely.The body work is rusting around the beltline. This has been slowly happening for some time but over the winter, it seemed to become a lot more obvious. Some paint has started flaking but I’ve tried to document all of that in the pictures below.The AC needs a charge. This has been the case for years. Usually it just gets charged up for the summer and its fine till next summer. This car has been converted to the new gas so the refills are very cheap.The driver’s window gets stuck about half way down. On the way up it works fine however. Just needs help on the way down. The rest of the windows are fine as is the sun roof. The switches in the rear need cleaning though as they get sticky and sometimes won’t work without a little fiddling.It looks like the trunk is leaking because the lower pockets are wet. This is new to me, so I’m not sure what is making this happen. It’s not rust though.The center dash console wood is loose. This is a mild annoyance as the wood sits a little far out and the climate controls tend to get hidden.There is a 6 disk changer in the trunk which is hooked up to a Sony head unit. Only AM/FM/CD though. No satellite radio.Tires are okay. You can see in the pictures that Lincoln’s hair is covered, but not by much.At 65, there is a shimmy in the front end. It will stick around until 75 or so. Once at 80, it will be shimmy free and continue as such past 100. I am pretty sure this is a tire weight/alignment issue as it showed up after a hard stop for deer. Don’t worry, the car stops fast enough to avoid deer. As noted, this car has been sitting for a winter and needs to be woken up again. Poor timing and quick judgments are leading up to this sale. I would always rather take this Mercedes to the next black tie event but with payments on a new, this old boy has to go. No dings in the paintwork or chips in the wheels. Not a 100 point car by any means but it’s probably going to be better than most once it’s cleaned up. Be sure look at the pictures as I’m not trying to hide anything. If you have any questions, please ask. As a point of statistics, this car gets a pretty reliable 18 mpg, no matter how you drive it. It also uses no oil between changes. Maintenance schedule on this car is as you would expect, regular but we may have missed the transmission oil due to the clunky ride noted above. We are the third owners of this car as far as I can tell and there are no signs of a collision in the body work.