W114 250 Coupe

[theironduke]

Been looking at those and seriously considering one once my Chimaera is gone.

I'm not a newbie with classics and am spanner handy so the prospect of a 40 odd year old car doesn't bother me and it will only be a sunday car.

However from my reading they seem to be very unloved and nobody has a good word to say about them. I think they look quite pretty, especically in coupe form and have proper presence. Yes they rot but show me a 70's car which doesn't, it's not as though the stuff Britain was knocking out was any better!

So anybody here have one or have any experiences?

Any input welcome!

[74merc]

I had one, sank about £6K into it then scrapped it due to the amount of hidden rot.
The bulkhead is the worse place for it and isn't easy to spot, or fix for that matter.
They are lovely cars though but if I was going to buy another I'd buy at the top of the market. You'd be looking at £10K+ for one of these.

[theironduke]

Jeeeeeees

Thats scary.

Alas I wouldn't have a 10k budget

[chazola]

Like the first answer said rot is the killer. I've had a few classic Mercs of this era and there's loads of cars around that have just had filler and a respray to make them look shiny and cover up the rust. Check everywhere esp. sills, boot, floor pans, bulkhead, door bottoms etc etc. Mechanically they are strong and reliable with a long-lived engine and gearbox once set-up properly and high miles are not a problem. Bumpers/trim etc getting rare and expensive now. My next classic will hopefully be a 250CE, again like the first answer look towards top of the market for original and complete cars, proper restoration or cared for examples. Cheap ones you'll just spend more ££ fixing and sorting stuff.

I love them and the S-class of this era though, disc brakes all-round, power steering on most models and often electric windows and sunroof, nice relaxing cruisers. Thirsty though, my 250SE got around 22mpg.

Edited by chazola on Friday 10th August 10:24