Merc 380 SE on E-bay

[heightswitch]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1985-MERCEDES-380-SE-AUT...

I saw this and thought it was a good looking thing so thought I would have a punt. i don't really know a lot about the Older big mercs but it looks very well preserved. what are the major mechanical pitfalls and are there any good independant sources of spares?

is it correct that these are considered as the last of the properly Built Mercs and relatively simple to maintain with none of the complex electrics etc??

N.

Edited by heightswitch on Thursday 22 September 07:41

[chazola]

There's a good saying on the US Merc forums along the lines of 'there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes'... which can be true, though I bought an old 70's S-class off ebay for £600 once and ran it for best part of a year only having to change the front discs & pads.

Anyway, 380SE will be a M116 V8, so expect about 16-18mpg if it's in decent tune, listen for timing chain rattle. The 126 is built very well with a good amount of toys but not too complex and is probably at the bottom of it's value curve at the moment, so can be a bargain if you do your own mechanicals. If things start to go wrong then used bits are easily available from breakers and ebay like for the 124 I run as a daily driver,new parts are readily available from Merc/ebay/GSF/ECP. It's just garage bills if you're not doing it yourself. They can soon add up to more than the car's worth if you're unlucky.

Edited by chazola on Thursday 22 September 10:14

[rassi]

Sold for £400...