[tickingtimebags]

Let's get this out of the way: I just registered, first time poster, so if you're not inclined to read my ramblings, feel free to ignore me. But this is obviously the best place to come for opinions:

I'm shuffling the herd a little bit. I've owned 20-some cars, many older and German, and am a reasonably accomplished DIYer (mainly full BMW suspension rebuilds, Volvo this and that, etc). Right now the daily driver is the lady friend's 2003 Lancer, which costs very little to run and has done no wrong, so naturally I hate it. One of the replacement cars on my radar is (always) a W124 wagon. I usually talk myself out of falling in love because it's a lot to take on for a used daily driver in terms of potential needs and their costs. I just think they're lovely cars though, with that bank vault build quality MBZ still had back then, and such nice places to be.

Anyway, I went out to the east side of Seattle last night to test drive a very pretty aqua colored '94 E320 (1994 Mercedes-Benz E320 Wagon). Bizarre setup - he's a small time buyer/seller on the side, and had about 20 cars parked behind a furniture store that lets him use their back parking lot. Funny German(ish) guy, mid-40s with some bleach blond streaks in his otherwise dark hair. Showed up with a man satchel which he upended on the ground to find the right key amongst the 20 sets (after first setting it on the hood of a white Avalon, which set off its alarm). Hilarious. Off to a promising start.

230K miles and he'd bought it at a donation auction so no records (also, yes, promising)...but a clean Carfax and obviously kept up over time; the thing could have 60k miles by the looks of it! Crazy clean, one or two light scratches, one barely there shallow dent in the liftgate, one cracked headlight, and cracked windshield. Virtually everything worked: heat/AC, cruise control, rear window equipment, all windows, sunroof, seat adjusters and memory. Even a set of matching Michelins on this thing. Obvious problems were a substantial and obviously long-term oil leak from the head gasket/timing cover area (does this sound familiar to anyone?); a check engine light (of course he swore it was new); and curiously, a wet passenger side front floor (not coolant, just water). Price was $2850 and I got the impression there was room in it, and rightly so. The guy even offered to let me take it home and live with it over a day or two to see if I liked it.

So the lady friend and I took it for a drive...it was out of gas so I stopped and put a couple bucks in...went over some bumps, took some turns, everything felt reasonable to great for a 230K mile car...got on the freeway, put my foot in it through 3rd gear, let off the gas and blew the head gasket in a SPECTACULAR fashion. Huge cloud of white smoke pouring out the back and a matching one from the front, covered the rear window in oily mist (hey, that's cool how the window squirter pauses to let the wiper by), coolant sprayed all over the engine room, coolant light on, the whole shebang. No kidding, it got donated, you say? In this condition, you say? I woooooooonder why?

So I had to limp that bastard (still running like a top, mind you) back to its owner about a mile at a time in between filling up the reservoir with water sourced from a Brown Bear carwash wand, a Taco Time drink fountain and a random dude smoking pot and watching TV in his cul de sac house. Never let it overheat but man, what a night.

I was bummed. The seller was sad but apologetic and asked if I wanted the car for any amount of money at all, to which I replied I'd think about it and he'd have to know it'd be an insultingly lowball offer, which he confirmed. I've never done a head gasket before and I'm not sure this one is a good place to start. After a good night's sleep, I am doubtful that I need to help this particular problem child because of what all I don't know about it...but I thought this group might appreciate the story, be able to talk me up or down, or hell, even be interested in lowballing the owner themselves. What say you?

I still have an irritated throat from breathing in clouds of vaporized oil and coolant...

Chris

 

[TexFinn]

If you are at all handy with tools, the head gasket can be changed for just a few hundred bucks. Easy to follow instructions here. Pelican Technical Article - Mercedes-Benz W124 - Head Gasket Replacement

Read it through and think about whether it's something you'd be willing to take up on and then lowball the guy very badly and see what happens. The car looks really nice otherwise and if everything was working (AC, transmission, power accessories etc.) it might very well be worth saving.

And of course one thing to keep in kind is the ecojunk wiring harness. May have been changed, maybe not. Just another bargaining tool if the guy can't show any proof of replacement. Just read up on the sticky here about the harness stuff and you'll see how to identify whether it was changed or not.

I'm about to emabrk on the headgasket journey myself with my 95 wagon very shortly. Just now collecting my thoughts and getting all parts together.

 

[Real1shepherd]

Trannies are good on average 150,000 miles. So it was rebuilt, or partially rebuilt and/or it's on borrowed time...did you check the delay in reverse? There's $2,000+ depending on how handy you are slipping in a reman. The head gasket is only part of the story....all kinds of suspension ills in the front to address most likely, flex discs, the whole rear suspension including diff mounts and sub frame mounts. Don't assume because it's a nice looker, that it's been well maintained mechanically all these yrs...that would be your folly. Evaporator is gonna fail if it's original, unless you don't care about AC over there. Check the build date on the wiring harness....or you'll be sorry.

I suggest you try to find someone from this forum that lives in the Pacific Corridor and get them to go look with you. Pay next to nothing, go ahead insult him....he'll do nothing about the HG, he's a total flake from your description....not even a hipster dweeb.

Kevin

 

[LTYLER]

I saw this wagon on craigslist too, Looked very nice with this rare color combination, Hell if you don't decide to take it on i would be happy to lowball a deal for this one The way it stands right now this is another sub $1k W124.

 

[Real1shepherd]

I can guarantee ya this car has $2,850 worth of problems....his German accent is probably even phoney.....lol

Kevin

 

[LTYLER]

I can guarantee ya this car has $2,850 worth of problems....

Kevin

You may be right Kevin, OP never mentioned Transmission issues, If Reverse engagement is ok and not changing harshly between gears it may be worth a gamble, But only at a very low purchase price.

Fake accent LOL

 

[tickingtimebags]

All the feedback so far is much appreciated. I did fail to mention the transmission...I've been a good boy and doing lots of reading, so I was sure to pay attention there too. Reverse took about a second to engage and the rest of the gears felt like they were shifting smoothly unless I was hard on the throttle. Part of my problem is not having anything to compare the driving dynamics to; however I'm well aware of the weaknesses in this tranny and also have virtually no interest in horsing one around in my driveway, so I paid attention.

Re the harness, it had a white Delphi tag on it by the battery BUT I didn't spot a date code. It felt generally soft and pliable but I'm unable to be 100% certain on it. Of course the seller had no idea.

Bushings and ball joints and accumulators, oh my! Suspension stuff felt on the positive side of reasonable to me (see above about having nothing to compare to). Perhaps a bit wandery off center. That's the sort of thing that's least intimidating to me, as I've rebuilt suspensions/steering on several other bushing dependent euro cars and have the presses and whatnot to do so.

If I was just looking for another side project car, lowballing this guy and rolling the dice would be a no-brainer to me. But with limited space and my current requirements, maybe it's not the right time. Leetyler, maybe your time to shine? It seems like an awfully nice car.

 

[Real1shepherd]

It could be that the reverse alone was addressed sometime back....members in here have even gone that route and then flipped their cars. Just consider that an expensive unknown.

I'm not kidding about the accent...I've had that shite pulled on me in the past. You'd be surprised what a little pain can do to a phony accent.

Either low-ball this car unmercifully, or just walk away. Best advice I can give you. Be like me buying another 4Matic and that would have to be for dirt.

Kevin

 

[TexFinn]

As said, use the HG and wire harness (regardless whether it has been changed or not) as your bargaining tools and tell the guy it will cost at least 2 grand for you to fix those, so the offer is $850, or less, and see what he says.

I'm pretty sure he didn't pay much more than that at the auction and I doubt he'll be interested in spending any money to fix it, so he might be willing to cut his losses and move on to the next one.

 

[LTYLER]

As said, use the HG and wire harness (regardless whether it has been changed or not) as your bargaining tools and tell the guy it will cost at least 2 grand for you to fix those, so the offer is $850, or less, and see what he says.

I'm pretty sure he didn't pay much more than that at the auction and I doubt he'll be interested in spending any money to fix it, so he might be willing to cut his losses and move on to the next one.

My bet is he paid about $500 or so for this car at auction if the HG issue was identified up front, My guess is the guy knew it had a leak, Maybe he just thought it was a slow one??? Either way unless your in it to part out the car, It's price margins are somewhere in the $400-$800 Range with the repairs that are needed.

 

[ZedStyle]

i want you to buy it just so you can come back and periodically make posts like your first one
(i think you could get if for $500)

 

[Check Codes]

I enjoyed the OP.

If I could get the car cheaply enough, I'd be in for the engine work. But it all depends on how much time you have and if you have the facility to work on it.

I'm in Zed's camp, I think ticking should get it, just so he could update us on the process/progress.

 

[dtsdig]

I completely agree with what has already been said. If the body and underbelly are as clean as they look from the few photos and you can snag it up cheap, I'd love to see you buy it and give us the updates. That color is surely not for me, but it certainly is unique!

 

[tickingtimebags]

I can guarantee ya this car has $2,850 worth of problems....his German accent is probably even phoney.....lol

I'm not kidding about the accent...I've had that shite pulled on me in the past. You'd be surprised what a little pain can do to a phony accent.

Hah! Yes, this I don't doubt. I just wondered in what order, and how quickly, that $2,850 would be consumed. Ain't that always the question. Now, regarding his accent, by (ish) I meant more "from that very general part of the world, and even though I'm normally very good at identifying accents, this time I couldn't quite tell from where." It's definitely for real though, one look at him and you'd know. Only one other German car in his fleet too, so no appearances to keep up in that regard...

Either low-ball this car unmercifully, or just walk away. Best advice I can give you. Be like me buying another 4Matic and that would have to be for dirt.

Every week I drive by a MBZ mechanic in a less than encouraging part of town; every week he has three decent looking wagons parked out front as if they had invisible FOR SALE signs on them. I finally pulled in to look and all three are 4matics! Glutton for punishment that I may be, the passing interest resumed passing at that point.

My bet is he paid about $500 or so for this car at auction if the HG issue was identified up front, My guess is the guy knew it had a leak, Maybe he just thought it was a slow one???

Neither would surprise me. He did mention the possibility of just re-donating it to the auction, so that should tell you something about his current price expectations. He "has a guy" who fixes stuff, of course, but I could see the proverbial gears turning in his head and the numbers probably weren't working out up there. As for the slow leak, well...I think it probably WAS a slow leak, as everything was fine tooling around town. But I uncovered that little ruse by opening it up...as a responsible adult, I know better than to abuse someone else's car but at the same time, one has to get into it at least once to make sure everything sounds right and no important parts get into fights with other important parts. In this case if I hadn't done it, I may well have bought the car and discovered its little secret on my way home, in which case all my hemming and hawing would be moot.

i want you to buy it just so you can come back and periodically make posts like your first one

I'm in Zed's camp, I think ticking should get it, just so he could update us on the process/progress.

Aww, that's nice. I figured if I'm gonna jump in here asking for advice without so much as an introduction, the least I could do is tell a decent story.

However, my hopes would be that I wouldn't wind up having too much more to say on the subject, which seems unlikely as many have pointed out. Like I said, if it were just something to play with and turned out solid and (relatively) reliable, that wouldn't bother me at all. But I think I have to admit it's the wrong answer to my current automotive question, and let someone else do the experiment.

One issue is this would be a shared car...the lady friend is uninterested but understanding of my car habits, and likes the W124 well enough (mostly in the looks department), but I'd feel kinda bad if it broke down on her much and I'd bet she'd be unnecessarily stressed out driving around in a car which had presented her with such a dramatic first experience. Since we are limited for space for a while, it's a fine balancing act to find something that will keep her confident in her trunk on wheels while at the same time not making me stop it in the middle of the road so I can get out, lay down, and die quietly from boredom. We just sold a beautiful orange 1974 Volvo wagon in an effort to limit the herd to two cars until we're at a place where it makes more sense to have projects; our other car is a Safari van with 220K that treats us well but needs some things also (oddly, I love this big box of GM laziness and it's the first car I couldn't see getting rid of...too eminently useful vs. what it's worth...go figure).

Leetyler or anyone else, if you go for it, you might have to pester the guy a little bit. He's "very busy," you know. I'm painting a picture of this guy, but in all honesty I actually found him pleasant and somewhat entertaining in person, if not quite one's ideal seller of a used, high-mile German luxury car.

 

[gatorblue92]

Offer $600 and see if he takes it. Top dollar IMHO is $750 in the condition it's in.

 

[Real1shepherd]

Agreed....it's a sub-$1K car...really sub....lol. You'd buy a car like this for dirt and expect the worse. And therefore anything better than that, brings smiles.:grin

Grab the man purse and the color streak in his hair...pull him to the ground with those grab points. Have some fun.....

Kevin

 

[magicbigdaddy]

I stopped by and looked at the car today. Busted passenger headlight, windshield held together with clear tape, front tires bald, chrome wheels bubbling, cracks (busted) front and rear bumpers. Front seats have major cracks in the leather. Car had sticker on rear window front NY state. Inspected front and rear brakes and rotors, both had large lips on them indicating rotors are on their last leg. Plentiful rock chips on front hood etc. As usual, internet photos look a lot better than live. I don't know who these guys are that have this car but the other 15 around all had red flags as either fender dents, high miles, broken bits, missing parts, excessive wear etc. My feeling is they get ALL these cars from a donation charity for no more than $300-$1k each. These don't look like normal dealer auction cars. Paint had wax residual on it but still felt very rough and gritty. Like it was polished poorly at one time and that's it. Believe me I have seen worse but many much nicer. I did not meet the seller but spoke with him on the phone. He was all over the place about the price and kept insisting that the car runs great. My opinion his accent is more slovik than german. (I am by no means a language expert)

So the bottom line is that the cost of getting it safely on the road would cost a minimum of $2k if your a damn good DIY wrench. If you pay someone to fix it then add another $1k+. Then you still have an OK wagon with 230k miles with no history etc. Just waiting on the next $500-$1000 problem around the corner.

Any one looking for a wagon should think about buying a members well maintained car and enjoy it, no riding around in a time bomb. If I'm correct member Sbaert has an excellent well sorted estate in the $4-5k range. Great value!!!

When I first joined this forum I kept seeing the phrase "There is no such thing as a cheap Mercedes" Now many years later it makes more sense than ever.

 

[Komrade 124]

I was very curious about this car when it first went up on CL, a few other similar ads, including a 129 SL, posted at the same time tipped me to him being a flipper, thank you OP (and magicbigdaddy) for saving me a trip and confirming my worst suspicions.

Good luck on finding a sorted 124 wagon, they are uncommon but a good one is worth the wait!

 

[LTYLER]

Thanks for checking it out , you saved me a trip, I called him also and he said the car was running great, that was enough to turn me off coming to view it today. Sometimes you can get lucky with a private owner just wanting to get rid of the old Mercedes they have had for years, this one certainly doesn't seem to fall into that category

 

[LeftCoastGeek]

] If I'm correct member Sbaert has an excellent well sorted estate in the $4-5k range. Great value!!!

I believe he said that car is sold.