1982 Mercedes-Benz W123 300D TurboDiesel review from North America

When I got the car it had blow by and oil leaks. Not much power. It needed tires. It would keep stalling. The tachometer didn't work. The odometer worked, but not the speedometer. It would shake on the highway. The transmission would slip when shifting. They were asking $2000 and I used the problems to get the price of the car down to $1200.

I changed the fuel filter and increased the engine idle speed (no more stalling).I put a high performance air intake on and made a new oil vapor separator (no more oil leaks and blow by acceptable). After adding some engine restore to the oil the blowby is almost gone, fuel economy has gone from 22 miles to the gallon to 27 miles to the gallon and the car can do over 100 mph with only 1/3 the gas pedal. I fixed the tachometer (loose wire at tach drive). I took apart the speedometer and cleaned it (now works). I adjusted the transmission modulator and changed the fluid (now only slips When cold, no need to worry, no metal was in the pan). New tires=no more shake on the highway. The body of the car is rust free! It has the power of a small 8cyl with the economy of large 4cyl. Easy to work on if you know how. Normal wear and tear parts are cheap.