94 and 95 are the only years with these headlight though you can put them on 93- 300E's. I'm not sure when reliability issues started. I'm not a fan of the 96-02 E320 headlights and general styling, 03 and up it got better IMHO. I know W124 guys on benzworld.org look down their noses at anything 96 and up.


Thanks Matt, yeah, it's a good mixture of quality and style that creates a cult following in these cars. It's a daily driver you don't mind putting money into with a variety of upgrades. God help me if I stumble across a C36 engine.

Mazda CX-5

Nissan murano

Lee,
I'm pretty sure you won't rest till you scratch that wagon itch. Anything else is just going to delay the inevitable. Besides, I've been feeling it as well. I've been looking online at wagons for awhile and this thread has me looking more seriously. I really liked that Volvo 855 I had and like the look of the '03 XC70 Cross Country. But these MB wagons move the car guy in me. I took my son to the Pavilions last Saturday and he REALLY liked the 1970 VW Bus. Told me I should get rid of my truck and get one. We saw Frenchy's ( Aaron's bud and guy I sold the deep sixes to ) 32 Ford with the V12 Lincoln engine. Time to get Aaron up there in his and meet up.

Shaun,
Be sure to post another thread about your new rig. I need to go drive one of those. I like.

A W124 wagon with a C36 engine and a manual gearbox would be just about heaven to me. I would REALLY love a wagon as a DD, but it's so hard to find a sport wagon with a manual. The ones that I know of in the $15k or less price range:

Volvo V70R - really hard to find
Saab 9-5 Aero - FWD, hard to find
BMW 3/5 series - I'd like a 5 series wagon, but again really hard to find with a stick
Audi A3/A4/A6/S4 - Audi reliability scares me, but it's actually halfway easy to find one with a stick. A 2002+ S4 Avant with a 6-speed would be heaven....
Lexus IS300 - again, hard to find a stick
Subaru WRX/Legacy GT/Forester - Not blown away on interior quality but fun to drive
Mazdaspeed3 - hatchback but similar, drove one and didn't like it
VW GTI - hatchback, reliability scares me similar to Audi, nice driving cars though

Any other enthusiast friendly wagons with a stick shift out there?

Don - I'd love to but I'm not (allowed to be) driving until my busted foot heals up.

Today is day 44 of no weight bearing on my right foot. :( The worst part? Having to be shuttled around in my wife's Mazda 5.

Lee, I know you like(d?) yours, but I hate the thing. Sitting in the passenger seat is worse than coach class on most airlines.

Have you thought about a WRX wagon?

No - haven't looked at the WRX. I didn't think that it had very much cargo capacity. I think I've figured out that my main problem is that I want a $25K car but only want to pay $15K or less.

I'm still a fan of the Mazda5's platform. If I could fix the tire wear/shimmy/alignment issues I'd stick with it. What year is your wife's 5? I think the Mazda5 seats are fine until I get in the sport seats in my wifes 2011 Mazda3. When we've driven 12 hours to TX with minimal stops, I never really had any complaints about the seats - either in the 2006 with cloth or the 2009 with leather. I did sit in the new Mazda5 at the dealer recently and thought the new ones weren't as comfortable.

I looked at a 2011 Outback yesterday. I think it would work for me, but the price tag was just too steep on a CPO car. Seemed really nice inside.

I'm questioning the sanity of the E320 idea. Sounds like budgeting for expensive repairs is the norm with those cars. There are so few on the market I've yet to find one close by that would be something I would consider buying.

Rav4 V6 Limited is another possibility. 6.7 sec 0-60 getting 26mpg highway sounds reasonable. But, like the benz, it's not an extremely common vehicle. Nice ones are pricey.

I had a thought on my Mazda5. I'm wondering if a good body shop would be able to figure out the alignment issues. It's just bizarre to me that a car that's had a detailed 4 wheel alignment by a tech who made ever effort to nail the center value of the specs (ie not just "within" the specs) would pull so hard to the right.


Don - Here's a '95 project for you. Says he'll take $1000. Says it needs work on the shift linkage, u joint, and battery. 204K miles. Claims the car is in very nice condition inside and out.

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/pts/3215648229.html

Lee, have you talked to kiasen (Eric)? Maybe he can hook you up with a better deal. Worth a shot.

It's either a '11 or '12; it's the new body style with the swoopy lines in the bodywork. My knees hit the dash, my feet have no room, and I knock myself silly on the tailgate when it's up.

I was able to walk completely upright under my Golf's tailgate; maybe I'm spoiled.

Looks like the W123 has a large fanatic following on the MB boards.

Same here.

I was driving next to a Black B6(?) 3.0 Avant the other morning outfitted in the S-Line appearance package. To say it caught my eye is an understatement. Great looking car, especially at speed.
A quick look tells me that these are in short supply, let alone in a manual. Too bad, as I have yet to warm up the later generation’s laaaarge grill opening.

A 94/95 E320 Wagon ($3K to $4K) with equal money thrown into it would be hard to beat. Bringing the suspension back to factory new for $1K pays huge dividends, and you can modify to taste: modern BMW firm to touring cushy. Be preventive and take care of known issues for another $500 and then call it a day or go a little further with your R&R plan. A proper service history is important in buying the right car. Mine had the transmission rebuilt and whoever did it, did it right.

Don, I'm doing my suspension this weekend and will post a bit about the car. Great driver that I'm focusing on mechanical first, then body. Hopefully with be painting lower cladding to body color before it gets cold and am on the hunt for a perfect Zebrano console. It's the little things that are fun, the big that are very rewarding on this car. But my sense is there'll be a 3.6 in my 73 sooner than in the 94. :)

A Subaru Outback XT has 250hp with 250 ft lbs of torque and it has paddle shifters that's why it gets lousy gas mileage

Well, to me that doesn't explain pretty low highway mileage but it doesn't really matter much so I'll leave it there...I do love the Outback in the snow though. Good, clearance, good tires, AWD and rear LSD work great!

If I remember correctly, I think my Legacy GT automatic (same drivetrain) got 24-25 MPG on the highway.

Your Legacy GT had a turbocharged engine? What year?

2005, it had the turbo 2.5. Fun car, I bought it with a down pipe, cold air intake, and Cobb Accessport tuner. It was pretty quick, too bad it was an automatic.

I see a few out there but their condition is all over the map. I haven't called about the 'project' one. I afraid it'll be too irresistible to me. Then again, I would like tinkering on it with my son. He's talking more and more about playing with cars.

I really know very little about these cars.

How about this one? I think it would be worth a closer look.
1994 Mercedes Benz E320 Wagon

Yeah, that looks like a nice one for the money. If that were local, I'd definitely be taking a look.

Auto Brokers of Jackson | 1995 Mercedes-Benz E320

This ad has 60 decent pics but the car is overpriced. The want $8k. I only post it for the pics.

From my reading it was '94 and '95 that had the head gasket and wiring issue. All sortable issues.

That car in CA looks like a very nice car Don.

The red one isn't too far over priced but what is clearly missing is what maintenance and repairs have been done to the car. It's red, and that's worth a premium if you like it.

A few ultra clean W124 E320s have popped up recently. Here's one:
Mercedes-Benz : E-Class E320 station wagon | eBay

Other CL ads I've seen for 70K mile cars that are nearly perfect have been going for $8-$10K. IMHO they are worth it. Wish the one close to me was still up, the black wagon looked right off the showroom floor. Either they realized it's better to keep the car or they sold in 2 weeks.

$25k?! Nutty. Though you guys aren't helping me resist wanting a W124.

I keep thinking some little old lady in Sun City is going to post something like this for $2500. Just hope I'm hanging out on Craigslist when it happens. I wonder how many people are looking locally for old MB wagons. I may have to post a faux ad for a nice one to see how much response I get! :D

I'd be happy to drive it to AZ Don! :D

1994 E320 Wagon - 73,000 mi

I don't know guys. I realize this car saved Shaun's life recently - but it is almost 20 years old. Stuff breaks on cars that old, regardless of mileage. Do you like to fiddle with the daily car all the time or drive it? I nowadays lean towards having a newer daily driver that can be the backup for any other vehicle in the fleet, a mid-aged SUV and a classic Porsche.

G

That's a tough one that I frankly struggle with. I tend to prefer older cars as they often have more character and were built to a standard, not necessarily to a price point. The W124 or an older 911 are perfect examples. With that said, it's only logical that a 20 year old car will require more maintenance than a 5 year old one. I think a quality older car can serve as a reliable daily driver, but it will require more maintenance to do so. Like most things I suppose it's a trade-off, reliable and boring or interesting and needy. My pendulum has swung towards the newer preference with my RX8, but threads like this definitely get me thinking.

Aigel has a good point. What was my project tonight? Pulling off my front sway bar, cleaning up all the rust on the ends and then POR15'd it. Last night it was finding a perfect, rare 8 button Zebrano wood console piece. Terrible addiction, cars.

Can't do any welding on my 73, so the wagon is a nice fix, no pun intended.:)

I actually saw that car this morning before I went to work. I was picking random cities on CL and that one popped up. Looks very sweet. I'm just glad there's no interior pics. I bet it looks awesome and I'd still be rocking back and forth at my desk.

Indeed - not to mention the increased electronic complexity over time.

Maybe there is a sweet spot (of sorts) once you hit the years with OBD systems, which I think make it easier to diagnose engine problems compared with the last few years before OBD.

The newer cars break less. Not just because they are newer. Generally they are more reliable. I'd still look at a brand new TDI and not worry about repairs or a penny spent on maintenance for 3 years.

G

Both great points. I enjoy DIY work on my car, it's a source of pride to me and I know that nobody else would be as anal as I am. There are many things that I cannot DIY on a modern car, particularly a complex luxury car. At least my RX8 is pretty simple, there aren't many magical black boxes like you find in a modern Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, etc.

Personally I think the sweet spot was mid-1980s through mid-1990s. Reliable yet relatively simple EFI systems like Motronic were the norm, most cars had normal power features like windows and locks but they were simple systems. No body control ECUs, OBD systems with a multitude of sensors to monitor your every move, and no worthless electrical gizmos. Generally speaking cars of this era, like the W124 and 911 Carrera, were still mechanical devices. Today's cars typically require complex computer diagnostics to find problems, then the component is replaced. There's really not even much repair work done, it's all just R&R components which is reflected in component quality.

I have a sticky window switch in my 911. The fix is to take apart the switch, clean it, and put it back together. It is robust enough that the actual components rarely fail, instead a good cleaning will get it back in order. Modern parts aren't made this way, they are meant to be replaced. Something about that just doesn't seem right. Today it's pretty easy to find a 20 year old BMW, even in rough shape they are hard to kill. But I predict that in 20 years, you won't see many 20 year old modern BMWs on the road. You'll see the older BMWs from simpler times that are worth keeping like the E34, E30, and 2002, but I can't imagine time being very kind on a modern iDrive equipped 550i.

I went and saw this car. Yikes, it was a mess. The interior is in pieces and the muffler in in the back seat. Clear coat is shot, paint is very tired. Surprisingly, the engine looked pretty good and the dash was nice. Oil looks decent and smelled ok. I didn't taste it, tho.
I don't think this car has been started in at least a year, maybe 2.