In 1982, 80% of Mercedes-Benzes sold in the US were diesels. All German automakers are bringing more diesel models back to our market today. Photo credit: Daimler-Benz


With inflation, this would be an $85,000 dollar car today if a new one was offered.

I got my 80 240D from the original owners, they paid $19,500 cash for it.
Still runs good with just shy of 385K miles on the original engine.



Charlie

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there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

Thank's Charlie, you're an inspiration to us all...

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83 SD

84 CD

Not sure where you got the $85,000... I get $49k with this:

CPI Inflation Calculator

But the ad is very cool! Thanks for sharing. It's funny to see them say that they could retain 80% of original value after three years -- that's impressive and definitely not the case today (that would be equivalent to the average 3-year-old E-class being wirth $40k).

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

I loved the line about the "built in barometric brain", that would be the ADA capsule acting on the IP governor linkage. A marvelous piece of mechanical engineering.

Also liked the comments about the seats that are not like pillows and steering and brakes that are mushy. I remember the 70s and 80s American cars that were like that. I learned to drive on the mac daddy of them all, a 1976 Oldsmobile 98 Regency. Basically a Cadillac with Oldsmobile on it. That was my mom's car.

Dad had a 1979 Olds Delta 88 Diesel yes the ones that self grenaded at 30 k miles. I was going to get it when I got my license in the summer of 1981. It was on a 2 year corporate lease and my dad was going to buy it out and keep it for me. It self destructed 2 weeks before I went for my test. I ended up with a Ford Maverick.

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The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

[QUOTE=Mölyapina;3567615]Not sure where you got the $85,000... I get $49k with this:

CPI Inflation Calculator

I think it is possible, since the W123 was introduced in January 1976, and it would probably have been possible to add enough options like AC, CC, AT etc. to reach the $20,000 figure that the base 240D hit a few years later. Plug $20K into your calculator at 1976 and you get $83,310.02 Don

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John 5:25

Oooops! I read it as $83K not $85K and looks like you read it as 1982, not 1980. So Charlies $20K in 1980 = $57,528.40 today. Still, you get my drift and I could see someone optioning a 1980 240D to a point where it might CPI out to $85K today. (Especially if one fell into the hands of an "upselling" salesman. Don

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John 5:25

I think that the list price in 1976 was $11,346 ($47k in today's dollars) for a manual 240D... hard to see almost doubling the price of the car with options. And $85k for anything less than an S-class would be pretty drastic (the S-class started at $19k in 1976, )

I think what's confusing this thing is that inflation was pretty high in that time period, so even being a few years off would really skew things:

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Ohh, I was going with the $20k from the ad, you're right, Charlie's 240D was a bit higher than that. Amazing to think of paying that much for what seems like such a basic car nowadays.

I could maybe see a 300D or 280E hitting that price point. They were already in the $15-16k range in 1976, which puts them in the mid-$60k range today.

Holy crap, my 300SD would have likely been around $90k.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Been said before: "They were always expensive" Don

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John 5:25

Some playing with the calculator shows it would need to be optioned up to $29,551 to give $85,000 in 2015.

For those $$, in 1980, you could buy a house in the neighborhood where I lived. Don

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John 5:25

Your dollar for the product calculation is off - a lot. There have been many variables that have not remained consistent since 1982 - to the present day, to make such a statement of $s. My Dad bought a brand new '77 240D AT/AC that listed for $8,500.00. You've elected to take a pricing snapshot in price history that changed drastically over the next 34 years. Another is technology. Technology has advanced light years beyond the ' 80 240D to today.

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'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert

The house next door to me went for less than that, last month...

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Holy cow! How does that happen? Was it in really bad shape or something?

__________________
"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Holy house price, this is why people say New England is expensive!

20540 N James Madison Hwy, Dillwyn VA 23936, MLS # 1522279, Weichert.com

3 bedroom on over an acre for $89k? You couldn't buy half an acre around here for that kind of money unless it was completely unbuildable.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Small house, good condition, gritty town, sucky neighborhood.

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83 SD

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