For many years I wanted German cars and all my friends told about the exorbitant cost of repairs and maintenance. Meanwhile, I owned american, japanese and english cars. I met a friend who had been a german auto mechanic for 30 years, (by now 40) and who was factory trained at Stuttgart by Porsche. By now my fears about maintenance costs were gone, having learned how to work on all my other cars to date. With these cars you are much better off taking care of their needs yourself, or having a buddy do it. Actually, working on these 124's makes you appreciate them all the more, when you see the insightful engineering that they built in. My '88 300e needed a fuel distributor, which up until that time I didn't know the car had one. Dealer quoted something like $1700 for the part and another $500 labor. I parked the car in my garage until I flashed on an idea: Why don't I look for a used fuel distributor? Found one within a week for $95, took me a couple hours to put it on, using the proper tubing wrenches. Voila! Started right up, ran perfectly, and less than a hundred bucks spent. That is the best way to own these cars, at least for me! I know my cars are happy to be in my care. I do everything on my cars except the front end alignment!
