Used Car of the Day: 1983 Mercedes-Benz 300D

by Tim Healey

Published: September 11th, 2023

used car of the day 1983 mercedes benz 300d

Today's UCOTD ad copy is sparse, so we don't know much about this car, but we do know that diesel Mercedes from the '80s are cool.

Here's what we do know, or at least what the seller claims -- the car has 151,000 miles, is a rust-free California car, and that it runs and drives.

Beyond that, you'll have to contact the seller. Only if we don't first.

Click here to check it out -- or at least to check out the pics.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

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6 of 38 comments

2ACL on Sep 12, 2023

Cheap Benzes are never cheap. But unlike some of the past UCOTD Mercedes, this is an investment-grade model because it stands for things that still resonate with people. Yes, it has a wheezy engine, but even the big gas six isn't that quick by modern standards. And this iteration of the E wasn't trying to masquerade as a sports car anyway.

1 Reply
- See 3 previous
- 28-Cars-Later on Sep 13, 2023
  
  Not an expert on diesels but I wonder could one add a turbo to this and make it more livable?
  
  1
- 2ACL on Sep 13, 2023
  
  The OM617 (3.0 I5 diesel) was available with factory turbocharging, and I believe that engine is in this car because the naturally aspirated version was discontinued in North America after 1980/81. But with ~120 horsepower at the crank, it still doesn't have much top end. When new, these did 0-60 mph ~14 seconds.
  Did a cursory run through the internet to see if the engine can take more power. It can, but the gains are modest. ~150 horsepower is doable with tuning on stock components. ~200 is achievable if you upgrade the turbo and fuel system. Past that, you start running into drivetrain limitations. At ~300, your rods are on borrowed time.
  
  2
- 28-Cars-Later on Sep 15, 2023
  
  @ 2ACL
  
  Thank you for the detailed information. I'm not sure what the price tag is on 200bhp, but to me that would be the sweet spot failing that at least 150bhp would be serviceable. The final gas Volvo 240 I think was a bhp of 130bhp in factory turbo and was 114bhp N/A, and while slow once you get the AW70 into 3rd gear its a surprisingly competent driver - just don't think you can stoplight race it.
  
  1
- Glennbk on Sep 16, 2023
  
  This is the kind of car you have to love for its basic mission. Get you from point A to B, decent fuel economy and designed to be driven like a taxi. Fix the woodwork, the radio and any reasonable maintenance then enjoy the car to 1,000,000 miles.
  
  1
Pianoboy57 on Sep 12, 2023

I've always thought the MB diesel wagon was the best car ever. If i were going to choose a hobby car, this would be it

1 Reply
- Jeff on Sep 12, 2023
  
  Bill on Curious Cars did a review of a diesel Mercedes about this vintage a few years ago. The car had 341k miles and it was an original owner car and despite its miles and age it was still in very good shape.
  The Best Car Ever Built? Why We're Restoring This Classic Mercedes-Benz 300TD Wagon With 341K Miles
  
  1

Recent Comments

Wjtinfwb Nice car and looks well cared for. The accessories are mostly for vanity, their value is in the eye of the buyer. I see zero value in them but I like bone stock if buying used. The problem this seller has is his spec is not at all unique; not a manual, no Shaker hood, attractive, but conservative color. Today, AutoTrader has 130 used 2015-2018 Challenger Hemi's with automatics available. The average price is abut 27,200 and mileage is slightly lower than this example at about 40k miles. Almost all are at dealers where a decent negotiator should be able to knock $1500-2500 off the ask. This is a 25k car, the buyer may not believe it but stats would say otherwise.
Turbo Is Black Magic Honestly at this point Elon is more of a liability than an asset. How much does the board have to pay to just get rid of him?
FreedMike A key fact left out of this article: the number of public EV chargers grew by over 18,000 between 2021 and 2023. https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity-infrastructure-trendsSo clearly the expansion is happening without the use of the funds in question. Not necessarily a bad thing, if you're into not using taxpayer money. Still, I'd be interested in knowing why the public money isn't being used. Are the regs overly complex or restrictive, or something like that? But in any case, EV charging IS expanding at a pretty solid rate. And as far as "...we’ve seen plenty of Republican-backed legislation targeting EV-related spending over the last couple of years" is concerned...well, yeah, there's a reason why Republicans don't like EV charging. The petroleum industry is one of the GOP's prime donors, and every charger built or EV sold represents a direct ding to their bottom line. Republicans, of course, like to put this in terms of "EVs are a woke mind virus," or some such nonsense, but the fact is that the people paying their bills don't want competition.
28-Cars-Later When its discontinued.
NigelShiftright If this boondoggle had worked, we'd have half a million charging stations with no generating capacity to speak of.