It’s an uncomfortable truth, but trying to buy a fun car in 2024 can kinda suck. With multiple generations competing for a fixed pool of roughly similarly-aged cars, and the internet opening up cars to more attention than ever before, the bar of entry feels higher than ever. However, every so often, an olive branch is extended. Someone scored this 1983 Mercedes-Benz 240D, a genuine four-speed car, for just $5,650 on Bring A Trailer. The catch? A whopping 297,000 miles on the clock, although thanks to a combination of a warm climate, good caretaking, and that classic Mercedes-Benz build quality, it wears those miles with the pride of a megawatt smile.
First, let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way — the Mercedes-Benz 240D is a slow car. It’s unlikely to win a drag race against a garbage truck or a hoverboard or the average Brooklynite on a Schwinn, but that’s okay. Not every car needs to go from zero-to-60 mph in less than, um, 17 seconds.
Instead, the appeal of the 240D is that it’s one of the world’s most long-lasting cars. With its under-stressed, naturally-aspirated diesel engine, the build quality of a pyramid, and the durability of the sky, just about the only thing that can kill one of these cars is a case of terminal rot. Happily, this example has lived its life in sunny California, a locale that does a good job of keeping the tinworm at bay.
On first glance, this 240D looks pretty great. Sure, there’s some patination on the front valence and the front license plate is attached at a jaunty angle, but the chrome still gleams, the color-matched hubcaps still look terrific, and blue is still an excellent color choice. Sure, it may be rocking amusingly-named off-brand tires dubbed Arizonian Silver Edition III, but name-brand tires in 195/70R14 sizing aren’t exactly everywhere anymore, so we’ll take what we can get. Overall, the exterior of this Mercedes-Benz 240D looks well-loved but not abused, which we totally dig.
Even on the inside, the sheer use this car’s seen is disguised well by vintage MB-Tex, which as far as I can work out, is the only textile ever to be made from recycled anvils. It just doesn’t wear. There are no unsightly cracks in the seats, no sag in the bolsters, just yards of pristine blue. Sure, the door cards are a bit saggy and the driver’s door seal’s in the same shape as Elmer Fudd after he accidentally blew himself up, but those aren’t complete deal breakers.
Speaking of things inside this 240D, something between the seats immediately grabbed my attention. You never see these cars equipped with manual transmissions, a welcome sight as shifting your own gears in a 240D offers two benefits. Firstly, acceleration times improve dramatically with the manual, and secondly, the manual gearbox is generally more robust than the automatic.
While certainly not a flawless example, this is a car someone picked up for sensible money that could genuinely present well at many local shows. It’s nostalgic, intriguing, and dare I say lovely, three things many people look for in classic cars. Sure, Bring A Trailer may have a reputation for upmarket dealings, but you don’t have to be a zillionaire to buy something genuinely awesome from the auction site. Besides, I’d trust this thing over fragile exotica any day of the week.
(Photo credits: Bring A Trailer)
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I dig it. Been looking at this vintage SL’s for a new toy/cruiser.
This one is in much better condition than my hilarious heap of an ’85 300D, but then again, mine cost me just $2,500 last year. I think that W123s are finally starting to appreciate and cheap ones are disappearing. That is a decent price for a worn but serviceable 240D, but you could get an extra cylinder turbo in a 300D for that money. Not bad for BaT prices at all.
It’s amazing what you can get if you’re willing to go a bit more obscure. I’m not talking used-to-be-obscure like a Cosmo or 190E, I’m talking Italian and French quirk-mobiles like the Fiat 850, Alfasud, Citroen CX, most Renault Gordinis, Audi C1/C2, classic liftback Passats, Malaise-era luxury cars begging for an exhaust and carb to liberate the ponies, even some sports cars like the Lancia Scorpion/Montecarlo, Alfasud Sprint, non-VR6 Corrado (there’s a supercharged one), and so many more if you’re willing to go FWD or work on it a lot. Just give up on one thing you think you need, like RWD or reliability, and you can get your hands on something really special.
It was the mid 90’s. We had married young, went to a good half dozen colleges around the world, and it was time to retreat back to the midwest for a few years to have the kid (in the US, obvs). Unfortunately kiddo racked up some serious bills in the hospital. I let my Porsche (that I had shipped, ahh!) go along with most of my savings but was determined to drive something interesting while we recovered.
The local Merc shop had a rust free late 70’s 240D. Abandoned by the prior owner for a CV joint. Automatic, of course. But the price was right (think it was $500) and it had klasse.
Drove that thing everywhere. Great MPG – and that was when diesel was cheaper. Got passed in the middle of intersections only for them to pull into the next right turn. But always got compliments. There was something just right about barreling through the country at 45 mph with that big three pointed star in the lead. And the stories – the old german couple that begged to take our picture with the car at the park, the time the vacuum locks decided to lock themselves at the airport, the slowest powerslide in the world through a long curve in a snowstorm.
As we paid our debts and our practice took off we got to the point where we sold it. I think we often thought of it as a punishment car, the car we drove for three years because we had to. But regrets. We have nicer faster more efficient cars now, but we let go the one with the most character.
My daily driver is a cheap W123. $2,500 is the new $500 anyways. It was competing with mopeds at that price. I absolutely love it. It has many highly questionable flaws, some from the factory and many from age, but no other car as accessible, affordable, and fun would draw the compliments it gets me. People just like seeing it and I just like driving it. It’s been a great introduction to wrenching as well. Now to do something about that big ol’ hole in the rear floor. . . .
I love this car, but I hate the engine. Not just for the slow, I can’t do D-smell no matter how good it is.
And why isn’t everything in the world made of MB-Tex?
What about bio-diesel? Can you handle a constant smell of french fries?
No. Either makes me sneeze. When I’m behind one, I go for the “recirc” button.
It couldn’t be slower than my 58 VW bus. It’s a siren call tempting to the dark side.
Damn, that is in great shape. Gotta say, though, we had the turbodiesel version and it was 0 – 60 in……..yes. Can’t imagine how slow this one would be. Still, the manual version would be a cool thing to have.
This is a perfect example of when Mercedes Benz built high quality vehicles that were far superior to everything else, and would last practically forever.
MB has gone downhill since, and now look and last like Hyundais.
I was able to outrun plate tectonics in one of these once, I was lucky that day
I love the cockpit, the layout, all of those rocker switches, the 3 dial HVAC controls, beautiful in its functionality and simplicity. However, I’m always disappointed to see a manual with a clock instead of a tach. But maybe with this vehicle a clock with no second hand (or perhaps a calendar) is more appropriate for your 0 – 60 times….
This slow-ass German shitbox really is a gem.
I almost bought one for $600 back in ’12, except it was a rusted-out hurricane-damaged shitheap. A rusted-out hurricane-damaged shitheap that ran, non-the-less. And also a manual. I passed on it.
Those Mercedes automatic transmissions are expensive to fix, but if cared for properly, do commonly last 250k+ miles.
The 240D was greatly less efficient than the faster S-class turbodiesels, while being lighter. 240Ds are possibly the most stoutly-built car Mercedes ever mass produced. The turbo makes the latter cars delicate in comparison, and they’re rightfully cherished as German road tanks, especially regarding ride comfort and durability.
Good news is that you’ll still be able to pick one of these up until the heat death of the universe, so you haven’t totally missed your chance.
They’re more likely than cockroaches to survive a nuclear winter. Literally. Cockroachs’ odds of survival are really dependent upon the humans’ survival. Arguably the 240D would still run because of its minimal electronics and ability to run on all kinds of random crap you could pour in thanks to mechanical injection. But would there still exist a human that knows how to run it?
This brings back memories. My parents had a 1982 300TD that had 380,000 miles on it and had an interior that looked even better than this one. The exterior didn’t look as good, thanks to fade on the horizontal surfaces and the interior, non-color matched bundt cake wheels. The MBTex wore like iron, if you can even say it wore at all. The turbodiesel was a far sight better on performance than the 240D, but was also saddled with an automatic. I bet if it had been a stick, my dad would still be driving it today with probably a million miles on it now.
The color matching wheel covers are WONDERFUL!
I’ve always admired the precision with which those were masked. I’ve never seen anything less than perfect alignment between the star (which is stamped into the wheel cover) and the paint.
I drove a manually shifted 1980 240 D in Brooklyn for years after a series of Mercedes Benz Diesel hand-me-downs left it in my hands to replace a 1962 Ford 2dr Galaxy that was a little scary for transporting my infant son.
Thanks to a lot of rotational mass, pretty low first gear, and a clutch that is massively over-built I can say that zero to 5mph times are remarkably brisk and tire spinny. The cardinal rule of Brooklyn driving is to make your intentions clear so that came in handy.
On the other hand some hills in San Francisco kind of overwhelm a 240D with 5 on board and a couple passengers may need to get out and walk a block.
Delightful car that only died when the Manhattan Mercedes dealer over tightened the oil filter leading to catastrophic oil loss on the west side highway. Miss that car.
I owned a 1978 240D with a manual. Despite what seems to be obvious, the factory-quoted 0-60 times for the automatic vs. manual transmissions were exactly the same.
28.5 *SECONDS*
And both M-B and the aftermarket seem committed to offering parts for these even at 40+ years old. Long after the last Tesla car ever sold is in a scrapyard, someone, somewhere will still be daily driving a W123 Diesel.
I wouldn’t worry about the off-brand tires. Even those should be speed rated for occasional 50MPH operation. I wonder if this example has holes in the roof for the taxi sign?
Most people’s commutes are under 30 minutes, which isn’t enough time to reach 50mph in these.
I love these to death no matter what engine is in them. They truly don’t make them like they used to, blah blah blah. Not a boomer. These are legit supreme cars. Everybody should own a 1974-1991 Mercedes.
Fun fact, those tires are made in the US by Cooper.
I had one of these I traded a riding lawn mower for. It didn’t run at the time. A few weeks of fiddling with the injection pump timing, bleeding the fuel system, and swapping glow plugs got it running pretty decent.
The glow plugs would constantly get dirty and lose connection. I kept a clean set in and some tools in the glovebox so you could swap them when you stopped somewhere, and then couldn’t get it to start. My girlfriend (now wife) got used to me swapping them out so we could get home. She has a lot of patience for my automotive hobbies. When I got home, I’d clean up the glow plugs I swapped out and throw them in the glovebox for next time.
My god it was slow. It is by far the slowest car I have ever owned in my entire life. The riding lawn mower I traded for it felt faster. It always made for knuckle biting merges onto the freeway going 20+mph slower than traffic.
The most fun I had was “banging” the gears onto the freeway driving home from work and having the shifter come off in my hand when going for 3rd. I drove in the next 12 miles in stop and go Seattle rush hour traffic in 3rd by slipping the clutch and timing the gaps. I did figure out I could reach down though the console and move the remaining nub to shift. It made the last surface street part of the commute much easier.
It was a comfy car that rode and handled nice, but I don’t miss it at all.
Are they really *that* slow? I was under the impression these did 0-60 in under 20 seconds, which is slow, but not extremely slow.
It’s not even just that their fastest 0-60 isn’t especially fast. These cars somehow feel slower than they are, but yet you somehow don’t care. They have a way of getting you to drive them at the speed at which they like to be driven. You’re never in a rush in a W123. It’s the most relaxed driving experience of any car I’ve driven.
I can understand that. My f150 with the 300 six can do 0-60 in about 14 seconds, which isn’t that bad, but I never drive it that fast. It doesn’t like it.
The difference between driving my W123 normally and hard is how long you floor it, not necessarily how often. Admittedly, I suspect it has lost a bit of power and I’m still investigating causes, but 80%-100% throttle is normal in my car for relaxed driving where I live. Admittedly, all the power is at the very end of the pedal travel.
Lol thats exactly the same as my pickup. It’s not until you try to floor it that you realize you’ve been driving it around town at 90% throttle all day
Your question made me think harder and I just realized mine was a 1972 220D so it had 8% less power than a 240D.
Yes it was slow. Painfully slow. Nowhere near the speed limit at the end of the onramp slow. I’m sure mine wasn’t in top form but, I wasn’t at a position to spend any money on it. Once you finally got up to speed it really drove great though.
Ah, a 220. I don’t recall ever having seen a 220 W123.
In that case, maybe you’d like a 300D. Those do get up to highway speed by the end of the on ramp. They’re not quick, but they’re not slow. I certainly love daily driving mine even around the hectic, high speed streets of Atlanta.
https://opposite-lock.com/topic/89783/dieselification-professional-sunset-photo-shoot
What it looks like BTW
I’m amazed the seats haven’t parted at the seams. All my Mercedes had, and they were only 20ish years old when acquired.
The veneer on the console is a huge deal. I replaced it in my 300D because the car had been repainted and was quite nice. I worked at a piano shop at the time, so it shouldn’t have been a big deal. Not so: that curve combined with the rounded cutouts was a bit of a pain. I think it took 3 tries before I got the fitment right plus the correct gloss. Worth it—but I never did it again.
IME the MBTex seats don’t rip or part anywhere.
After 39 very, very, very hard years, my W123 has a few small cracks in the driver’s seat. I don’t know how on earth you wear out MB Tex seats in half that time.
It’s a magical substance
Someone scored this 1983 Mercedes-Benz 240D, a genuine four-speed car
Yeah, if those four speeds are tortoise-like, snail’s pace, glacial, and continental drift.
Still a cool car, but I’d rather pay a bit more and get a somewhat older 300SEL.
Yep. I wanted a manual so badly—then I test drove a fairly nice one. Nope. But I had already learned to spool up the turbo on a 617 before the light turned green by then…
Cool Mercedes, but not sure if it’s $6k cool.
I gotta disagree with a couple things though:
“but trying to buy a fun car in 2024 can kinda suck”
Yeah, if you want a 1970 Challenger then it sucks to buy. But there are still tons of fun cool cars for reasonable prices, or, if you’re willing to do some work yourself, really really cheap. I recently bought a manual wagon with VTEC for $800.
“name-brand tires in 195/70R14 sizing aren’t exactly everywhere anymore”
I don’t know why people think this, because this just isn’t true. Drive down to your local Discount Tire and they’ll have them on the shelf, and probably for under $100/tire installed. The only tire store I have ever encountered that won’t sell smaller and uncommon wheel sizes is Costco, which isn’t even a tire store.
Yep, head over to Discount and they’ll sell you a set of these very same Arizonian tires.
Okay, you made me look it up.
https://www.discounttire.com/fitmentresult/tires/size/195-70-14
They have 19 tire options in this size. One of them is actually the good ol Arizonian. But you can also get Toyos, Coopers, Hankooks, or a multitude of other name brands.
Name brand tires in sizes like this are not hard to find.
True. Found 14″ Dextero tires at Walmart recently for the 94 Accord, $50 each. 14″ truck tires are a bit more of a challenge, which are required on my Vanagon camper. I’m still running an ancient set of Yokohamas which are hard as rocks but otherwise perfect condition. Smart folks upgrade to 15 or 16″ rims but I haven’t stumbled across a good deal on any.
I read this and immediately went, “a 1994 Accord can’t have 14″ wheels! No way they would make it smaller!”
My 91 and 92 Accords have 15″ wheels and would absolutely not clear 14s. Had to Google it, but yeah, apparently Honda really did downsize the brakes and tires going to the next generation……. weird.
Yeah, 14″ truck tires are starting to get rare.
Yeah, it’s an LX, slushbox, owned by 2 old ladies (including my Mom) before me. My son is learning to drive with it. We bemoan the abrupt and awkward downshifts and wish it were a 5 speed.
> not sure if it’s $6k cool
Sure it is.
BaT seems to always bring a premium versus other places to buy a car. I just wish the crazy boomers that have money to burn would stop inflating the prices of those sweet, sweet TDI Cayenne and Touareg vehicles that I’d love to daily. But the prices are stupid for them and there are always a few guys on the site pumping up bidders on “low mileage-last of its kind-rare color option” etc stuff. You’d think a 10-year old Cayenne with 90k miles would be cheap… Rant over.
> Touareg that I’d love to daily
I see you’re a risk taker
It’s not just BaT or Touaregs. That’s why new cars are selling for so much over MSRP. That’s why the used car market won’t cool off. It’s also why home prices won’t fall, and starter home inventory is still low.
Thirdly, you have control over what RPM you shift at coupled with how much throttle you are giving it, and can coast with the clutch out, allowing the operator to make use of hypermiling techniques in a way that maximizes fuel economy.
These aren’t efficient cars to begin with, but with careful attention to driving style, one could touch 30 mpg.
I’m not convinced that rpm and shift strategy has all that big a difference in manual vs auto: most automatic transmissions already use a very aggressive upshift strategy and keep the engine at very low rpm. You can also coast in an auto just as easily as a manual.
I think the significant mpg difference mostly just comes from 1. No slushing your power away in the converter, and 2. Manuals usually have more gears.
Also, you’re right about efficiency: if it could only get 30mpg then it’s the least fuel efficient naturally aspirated 80s diesel.
Unlike what is possible with an automatic, with a manual, your shift strategy has a massive effect on its delivered performance. This applies to both acceleration, as well as thermal efficiency. Trying to accelerate your car in too tall of a gear on an incline could lug an engine, but it will probably be operating at a higher thermal efficiency this way if you can keep it operational as close to this point as possible. Make sure the clutch is of sufficient build quality to take it(not all cars have this feature, but this old Mercedes does!). But for a diesel of sufficient power to continuously maintain speed at the lowest rpm it will operate at, hard accelerations can get close to the engine’s thermal-efficiency “sweet spot”. That “sweet spot” can mean two-times or three-times the thermal efficiency that engine gets vs. when the car is lazily cruising along at 55+ mph getting mpg in the upper 20s somewhere. This makes hilly areas and mountainous areas the most ideal terrain for suiting this driving style, allowing you to minimize fuel consumption uphill, and just coast downhill using as little as possible. With no constant engine brake as you would get on an auto(or constantly having to shift an automatic into neutral, whereas with a manual it’s routine anyway!), downhills are harder to take advantage of with an auto vs a manual.
The power conversion losses of the auto vs manual are also significant, but with these simple cars, efficiency is mostly up to the driver with how he uses the accelerator. The manual gives an unbelievable new dimension to what you can do with a car to keep it operating in the interest of efficiency by giving the rider more control of the car itself.
Automatics live up to their namesake, and it took 8-speed automatic transmissions to finally beat out a 5-speed manual on government fuel economy tests outside the margin of error(and the manufacturers set the modern over-computerized automatic transmissions up to score as high on the government tests as possible, but real-world driving often differs greatly from the procedure laid out in EPA testing). These old Benzes are typically 4-speed, with minimal electronic configuration possible. They’re great for this. Mercedes was a pioneer with its transmission, when almost everyone else was using 3-speed automatics. Even domestic US cars made in the late 1990s commonly had 3-speed autos, when Mercedes had 4-speed autos more than 2 decades prior to their existence.
Yeah, upshifting as early as possible and keeping it at minimum rpm is how I drive manual all the time, but that’s also how most autos are. In fact, most autos upshift much more aggressively than I do driving manual; my automatic Accord will grab 4th(top gear) at like 25mph. This is why I’m not sure shifting strategy is that big a deal, at least outside of especially hilly driving.
I don’t mind shifting my automatic into neutral all the time, like you said, you do that when driving manual anyways. I drive automatics like I drive manual.
Three speed autos were not common at all in the late 90s except for Chrysler products, because Chrysler didn’t make any new transmissions since the 60s for some reason. They were making three speeds until like 2003.
I had a Ford product with a 3-speed automatic.
So Wikipedia is telling me that the three speed c6 was a delete option until 1996 on F-series and E-Series. I’ve never heard of one made after the e4od was made standard for 88 model year. Definitely not common though.
Chevrolet Cavaliers offered 3-speed autos into the 2000s if I’m not mistaken.
I could go from my usual 49 mpg in my metro to 58 by only using hypermileing techniques. But it was mentally exhausting.
Carefully surveyed the comments section expecting matching-wheel-cover frotteurism-adjacent behavior. Was not disappointed.
I parked next to a gold/metalic-brown Hyundai Veloster with matching factory wheel inserts this morning.
Those beautiful Mercedes wheel covers are my favorites. I wish Mercedes would go back to that. But everything is shiny nowadays.
Are you sure they aren’t body colored wheels? Based on the number of white, silver, or black cars, there is a very good chance the wheels are the same color as the car already.
Lewin is already bidding. 😉