Thoughts on this car? (1972 M-B 250 Sedan)

YTNUKLR · YTNUKLR's Garage

1972 Mercedes Benz 250 2.8L ** Classic Car All Records **

1972 M-B 250 Sedan for $1895.

I wouldn't mind an old tank and don't care about speed, but is it reliable? Expensive to fix?

speeder · 07-18-2010, 08:11 PM

That looks like a pretty clean example. I've owned several of that exact model, it could be a good car for you depending on many "ifs":

-If you can work on it yourself and you are really good with carburetors. It has dual 2-barrel carbs w/ a lot of vacuum-control aspects, this was the early times of smog regulations changing quickly in CA. and even mercedes was struggling to make their remaining carburetor cars compliant. It no longer needs to be smogged but that has nothing to do with getting it running well. You are not going to modify it, (that would be an entire other can of worms and destroy ANY value the car has), you need to get it back to mechanically original and perfect condition. Believe me. I've done it with the exact same car.

These were good cars, (as are all Mercedes from the era), but they were the cheap cars in the line. Everything else was injected or diesel (injected). They do not have a real financial upside in terms of dropping $$ into them. Notice that I am not telling you not to buy the car, it's a clean one. If these are in average/worn-out/edgy condition, they are worth nothing. Scrap metal.

-If the car checks-out, obviously. If it's not running well at this time as the ad says, I'd want to do a compression test at least and a leak-down if possible. If the engine is tired, forget it.

HHI944 · 07-18-2010, 08:30 PM

That's a clean looking car and like speeder says, if compression is good and you can do a leak down, go for it. That body style always struck me as very stately.

If you're really not worried about speed, but want something reliable, get a 240d. They are absolute tanks and stupidly reliable (I drove one 80 miles home with a massive leak in the fuel system), but they also have the vacuum systems from hell. When I first got my 240, it wouldn't shut off when the key was turned off. It was a vacuum leak that I eventually plugged with a golf tee and a zip tie. The auto door locks don't work now, but it's just my ol' reliable stand-by car...

speeder · 07-18-2010, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HHI944

That's a clean looking car and like speeder says, if compression is good and you can do a leak down, go for it. That body style always struck me as very stately.

If you're really not worried about speed, but want something reliable, get a 240d. They are absolute tanks and stupidly reliable (I drove one 80 miles home with a massive leak in the fuel system), but they also have the vacuum systems from hell. When I first got my 240, it wouldn't shut off when the key was turned off. It was a vacuum leak that I eventually plugged with a golf tee and a zip tie. The auto door locks don't work now, but it's just my ol' reliable stand-by car...

Aww, come on...the vacuum systems aren't all that bad. Not sure why people get intimidated by them, they're actually fairly simple. The door lock actuators are always the culprit, virtually 100% of the time. The lines never got bad, except for the short rubber ones under the hood that are easy to change. I just replaced two DLAs on my '82 300D, got them at the SSJY for $5.00 each. Car shuts off fine now, + the locks all work.

HHI944 · 07-18-2010, 08:56 PM

One day, I'll get around to fixing everything the right way, but for now, it runs and gets 35+ hwy...

speeder · 07-18-2010, 09:05 PM

Where are you located? I can fix it for you in SoCal, otherwise I'll walk you through it. Let me know.

island911 · 07-18-2010, 09:17 PM

All good advice above.

A few days ago I bought a 77 240D for my niece. The great thing about Mercedes is that EVERYTHING is serviceable. Interior bits need a bit of trickery to disassemble. You can buy the factory manuals on disk from Mercedes for cheap.

The costly parts ar those which are missing or completely worn-out or broken. Most everything is tough.

I happen to be tracking-down a vacuum leak. It's not that bad to figure out...should have started with the trunk-lock actuator (seems to be the weak link in the system -- a thin rubber boot/bellow) Anyway, I'll also note that the lines are color coded - Yellow with red is to pull the locks, locked. And the yellow /w green is unlock. There are three door lock actuators, plus a trunk and gas cap door actuator. One just tests each actuator.

speeder · 07-18-2010, 11:17 PM

Exactly. Just go around the beast w/ your vacuum pump and test each actuator. There is no hiding a busted diaphragm in a simple device like these. Connect the vac pump to both nipples of each actuator, (lock and unlock), they should move the lever or shaft in the indicated direction and then hold vacuum in the fully extended (or withdrawn) position. The reason that these components fool some people is that they can be shot but still function, (lock or unlock the door/trunk/fuel door), they just will not hold vacuum once they do that little task.

slow&rusty · 07-18-2010, 11:45 PM

That body style was not one that got my heart pumping. I did not like the carbs on them as Speeder mentioned but these cars are tanks and have good physical presence (that I do like), if you want a solid cruiser of a gal that is cheaper than a good road bike and you not want to win drag races..go for it (the baby blue is so "spot" on for that era too).

Robert Adams · Robert Adams's Garage

I really love these cars for some dumb reason. The quality and engineering are just from a bygone day I guess. They were in so many movies of the day they kind of bring them back when I see one. I never owned one, but I looked at one and I'm still kicking myself for not buying it. It was a MINT condition 70 250 from CA, with around 60k miles on it. 2nd owner put maybe 1k miles on it in a year and decided to put it up for sale for $6k, which was a bit rich even two years ago. But what a time warp car it was with no major imperfections I could fine saving the back door window trim & the front speaker cover; I'm sure it had more issues but the over all package was just awesome. It had the original factory tourist pick-up and shipping info, all service records, tools, manuals and then some. The chrome looked brand new, in fact the whole car looked brand new.

For under $2k, check it out and if the compression, etc checks out, BUY the thing! The color rocks! Looks to be almost one of a kind, I don't recall seeing that color ever, at least on the East Coast anyway? Beautiful car!
Here's a few of the one that got away!
Keep us posted.
Rob