But if the market trends continue the early 911 will continue to appreciate and you will easily recover any money you put into the car. Also, individual parts may be more expensive but it's a simpler car so there is less to break.

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1970 280SE Cab
1983 300D Euro 4-speed
past MB's:
1971 280SE 3.5 s/r
1981 300D
1985 300TD
1987 300TD

Yeah... you know it's bad when the parts guy sits down before giving you a price.
I keep folders for all of my cars but there are few reasons I can find for totalling them up.

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When life gives you lemmings... make lemmingade.

I'll take the house, I have 21$ for the down payment....

If my disability ever kicks in, I really want to use my settlement to buy a shack in the woods for me and a carport for my car....

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Yeh..I've got the place out in the woods now, but the place we moved out of in 07 has been vacant since we moved. It's a good bit closer to my work in RTP but wife doesn't want to move back there.

MB content: Pulled the turbo drain tube. Getting the flange bolts out was actually easy, but couldn't separate the upper and lower, wasn't enough room, suspect the lower had backed itself up some out of the hole. Since I have a new lower just sawzalled the old one off. Pan is off and tomorrow after work will reassemble.

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Eric, CPO, Submarines, retired.
Here's a sig line...
Mine: '68 Corvette LS1/4L65E, 83 240D, 2000 GMC 4x4, 08 FLSTC Anniv
Hers: '72 Corvette 454/4spd, '99 MB SLK, '93 Metro vert, 78 240D, '92 Silverado, '65 Fjord Rustang, '59 Fjord Fairlane, '17 Slingshot.

Wow sitting for 7 years, why are you having so much trouble selling it? Or is that where you are stashing all your toys at, so the wife won't locate them

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disability what a joke that whole thing is, pay into it then when you need it NO the gov will give it to people that have a mental breakdown but if you are able to flip burgers part time at McD's you're stuck!

ANYWAY....
what do you count against the car? i have never counted regular maintenance items like oil changes, tires, plugs etc.

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"NEW" 1984 300D TD needs some love

Yea I so know, I have a rare forum of arthritis and PTSD....I have been fighting to get it, because I am 29, went to college and I had my own business...so they assume I am perfectly fine....people don't know how horrible it is to be 29 and have server arthritis you would see on a 60yo....

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Broke my neck when i was 25 C3,4,5. in 2000 i was diagnosed with ulsertive colitis and lost several months of work, 12/09 i had a heart attack(was in perfect health or so the Dr's said just months before) went back to work and had lots of problems thought they had to be related to the heart attack. 18 doctors later they diagnose me with fibromyalgia, i was in bed for 4 months, couldn't move, it's still real bad on meds but they figure i can still pump in a few dollars to the coffers, and by few i mean few, so i best get my butt back to work i guess..... if i do go out and bust my butt today working i can be down for weeks if not a month or more, FROM ONE JOB, drives me nuts, i go down and kick the ball with my kids on the soccer field and i can't get out of bed for a few days to a week or more. All my stuff is auto immune related............ oh well back to the wonderful world of Mercedes LOL

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"NEW" 1984 300D TD needs some love

Old cars are always cheaper....my SD I have about 12-13k into in total maintenance/repair costs, but I bought it a bit neglected. I have driven it for 11 years and over 115,000 miles without it letting me down, only paid about 3,500 for the car. Still using it every day as my snow/winter driver and to haul trailers in the summer. Original engine, second trans (at 280k). So essentially about 15-16k to drive a Mercedes for over a decade....not too bad in my opinion. Most 15k cars are pretty beat by 120k. Also in MI it costs me about $34 a year to register, and about $29 a month to insure. It has saved me thousands just in that alone.

My 420 was bought very maintained, I've done about 2k of work in 2.5 years to it....its a very inexpensive car overall.

My 190d conversion has only cost me about $2400 total including buying the car, replacement engine, and all associated parts to complete the project. Drove it for a year and then the flex plate failed recently, so I am fixing that at a cost of about $240 total. Still very cheap.

In comparison, our TDI costs about $6500 a year in total ownership costs. This is over twice the annual cost of all 3 of my MB's put together...next summer its going away and I am going with a W210 or W211 in its place, its not worth the cost at all...and the fuel savings are not mentionable over say an E320.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

To be fair to MB, I didn't do my due diligence and bought a flipper car on ebay. $3600 for a turbo CD wasn't out of the ballpark high, but having to put another $2500 or so in repairs and deferred maintenance immediately means I should have found a car in better condition.

In all likelihood I could now drive the car for many years with minimal additional cost. This turbo drain replacement I'm doing is the last mechanical need the car has.

Sure, the AC needs a compressor, may or may not fix that, sunroof cable slips on cold days, but I've got a tub of MB sunroof grease so it's an afternoon job to clean out the tube, grease everything, adjust the clutch and be happy.

Just don't like the damn thing. I'm plannin to have someone drive the 240D to my funeral, that car has pushed the 1st gen saab turbo convertible garage queen out of my favorite car slot, but the CD needs to go to someone that it likes. Have had several wankers on CL ask me if I'd trade for 'X', I say 'sure, lets take a look', and they either never respond or pull no-shows. After the drain seal is done (tonight), I'm doing the sunroof and a good washing and picture session, then off to Fleabay. After that I start car shopping again. Maybe an SL this time

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Eric, CPO, Submarines, retired.
Here's a sig line...
Mine: '68 Corvette LS1/4L65E, 83 240D, 2000 GMC 4x4, 08 FLSTC Anniv
Hers: '72 Corvette 454/4spd, '99 MB SLK, '93 Metro vert, 78 240D, '92 Silverado, '65 Fjord Rustang, '59 Fjord Fairlane, '17 Slingshot.

That's ruff having something like that at such an early age.

We've become such a digital society and your one of the more active posters to this forum. Is there not a computer type of job your illness would allow you to perform?

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You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you just might find you get what you need.

Yeh I can relate. My son is the same age as Coolijay and 100% disabled. He gets social security and medicaid but that's not enough to live on. He 'rents' a place we bought a few miles away and we cover the utilities and most of the food and stuff.

He could do some things work wise but one of the issues of his mental illness is inability to keep a schedule, up for days then crashes for days, and can't handle being around people. Even work from home gigs want you to keep some kind of schedule.

MB content: Got the new turbo drain pipe in. Did have to use the jack and 16mm socket trick to push the old one out. Tried hammer and 16mm and that sucker wasn't moving. Pain it the butt getting new seal to seat all the way around but did. Tomorrow the pan will go back on, some rotella syn winter weight and a road test.

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Eric, CPO, Submarines, retired.
Here's a sig line...
Mine: '68 Corvette LS1/4L65E, 83 240D, 2000 GMC 4x4, 08 FLSTC Anniv
Hers: '72 Corvette 454/4spd, '99 MB SLK, '93 Metro vert, 78 240D, '92 Silverado, '65 Fjord Rustang, '59 Fjord Fairlane, '17 Slingshot.

yeh it really is, i have had problems with my back and feet for as long as i could remember and bone cysts....and no one ever diagnosed me with anything and the disease i have wasn't very well know back then. I just discovered three years ago when i went into the doctors for a sore knee that i thought was due from a fall i had a few years ago....that all my joint problems are related....i was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis...i have shrank 3 inches and my shoe size an inch....like another poster said....i will go out and work on the car for a day and end up in bed for three....i was a big time landscaper and that is out of the picture now...

I went to school for computer science so i know what i am doing, but sadly its hard to get a job in that field as i can not type 30+ words a min....hands are all messed up....can't even sign my name or write a paragraph that can be read.....plus i have been spread around the news like some psycho pathic killer....so anyone who googles me....see all that....what a grand life!

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Wow. I hope the MB suspension is making things easier on your spinal column and you more generally comfortable. The soft suspension is one of the reasons I drive my Benzes.

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Codifex
1981 240D ChinaBlue (Got her running with a donor engine.)
1983 300DTurbo w/sunroof.
1984 300TD manual sunroof. (Electrical Gremlins)

I may have been that poster. I've certainly been that guy, but not at your age, that purely sucks. Up until the bike wreck I was pretty much ironman as far as working on stuff all weekend and then hitting the road for work Monday ready to go.

Beeing in the position of having kids with mental health disorders I guess I'm one of the few that wouldn't have an issue with hiring someone with a mental health condition. Honestly though, you're right, most employers would take a pass on it, either out of ignorance or fear of liability.

Probably best course is wait till the disability kicks in, then pick up work from home IT sidework and keep the income under your disability limit. I know my son could earn up to 5k a year in this state and keep his disability status, he just isn't functional enough to work.

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Eric, CPO, Submarines, retired.
Here's a sig line...
Mine: '68 Corvette LS1/4L65E, 83 240D, 2000 GMC 4x4, 08 FLSTC Anniv
Hers: '72 Corvette 454/4spd, '99 MB SLK, '93 Metro vert, 78 240D, '92 Silverado, '65 Fjord Rustang, '59 Fjord Fairlane, '17 Slingshot.