It has been some time since I’ve looked at the world’s most favorite wagon, the W123 Mercedes-Benz 300TD. We’ve been at the point with them for a while where unless it is an absolute heap, they are all worth saving or at least maintaining to the point of usable service. Sadly, some of the S123s ended up being used as work horses or straight up beater cars that took them to the point of no return. Today’s car, a 1983 in New Jersey, is one of those cars. Cosmetically, this one is pretty far gone and thanks to an odometer that stopped working who knows how many moons ago, mechanically it is a bit of a question mark as well. Question is, if it is cheap enough, is it worth it?
German Cars For Sale Blog Posts
Of the various iterations of the GT3 RS to now exist the 997.1 is the one I most consistently return to in my mind. I think that is in part because it was the first model to make it to our shores, but for me it also is the model that brings everything together in just the right package. The Orange/Black ones remain the 911 I aspire to most. The 997.2 is the better car and some may find the looks better, but they’ll cost you a bit more and that nostalgia of being the first still brings me back to the 997.1. They look great, are great performers, and as we’ll see with this one can come in at pretty attractive prices.
I featured one a few months back that pretty much is my ideal. Here we have another one though this time in the much less common color combination of Arctic Silver with Orange accents. It currently resides in southern California and sits with about 20,400 miles on it. As an added bonus, for extra cost it’ll come with a set of very desirable and fantastic factory GT2 seats.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2008 Porsche 911 GT3 RS on eBay
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Update 1/20/19: Now listed on Bring a Trailer on a no reserve auction!
Update 11/22/18: Back to my dream Audi garage! After disappearing off of eBay in the midst of hot bidding, this sweet 20V-converted Quattro is back, now listed on Audizine for $62,500. Included is a link to new photos which show the car off well.
Audi’s landmark Quattro has finally moved beyond cult status and into the greater automotive consciousness as a desirable model. That creates many problems, though. The first of these problems is that there just aren’t many Quattros out there. Audi only imported 664 examples of the original, meaning you’re statistically a little better than twice as likely to see an E28 M5 cruising around than you are a Quattro.
But in actuality, you aren’t. The chance is probably more akin to three or four times as likely, if not more. That’s because of the second problem – though the Quattro existed as a cult car since new, the fact is that for a long time they were pretty cheap. Pretty cheap cars generally don’t make collector cars, or at the very least receive collector treatment. You can see that in the M5; cheap for a long time, plenty have high miles and are basket cases though from the start they were touted as collectable. But the Quattro? This was a car intended to live in harsh conditions. Oh, and they didn’t apply any undercoating, or even fender liners. Problem three creeps into every seam on the car.
And then there’s an unpleasant truth: in its original U.S. form, the Quattro wasn’t a stellar performer. Toting around 2,900-odd pounds of early 80s tech, the lag-prone engine developed only 160 horsepower. The result was a car that could be caught off-guard by most economy hatches: 0-60 in 7.9 seconds, the quarter mile in 16.1 at 85. Forget the typical Camry or Accord joke; this is the kind of performance you get today from a Hyundai Accent.
Of course, the Quattro wasn’t about straight-line speed, and cars from the 80s all fall short compared to modern technology. This car, then, is more a time-warp to another dimension. A personal expression of devotion to rock-flinging rally monsters and television stars that liked to do things a bit differently. And those that have survived have been loved by their owners. Often, they’ve been upgraded, too, with later parts that solve the performance gap to their original European form. The result? Wow:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1985 Audi Quattro on eBay
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There is very little that will attract my attention more than a black car looking its best. It may only look its best for the 15 minutes immediately after being detailed, but it’s a divine 15 minutes. I particularly like open-top black cars, which is why I own one. Sadly, it never looks its best since it always is parked outside. Meaning I end up looking longingly at the occasional exceptional examples I see. Some people will tell you black cars are boring and too common. They are wrong.
This one, a Black 2019 Porsche 911 Targa 4 GTS with Espresso/Cognac natural leather interior and 557 miles on it, looks so devilishly good. I don’t typically feature many nearly new 911s other than the various rare GT and special edition models, but I saw this one and couldn’t take my eyes off of it. It’s been built pretty well too with a bunch of worthwhile options and it has a manual transmission. During the summer I walked past a black Targa 4 GTS parked in the neighborhood and it was stunning. This one rekindles that memory.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2019 Porsche 911 Targa 4 GTS on eBay
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Last week I took a skeptical look at a 1979 Mercedes-Benz 300D with a claimed 24,000 miles. I say claimed because either that mileage is incorrect or someone had lots of hard love with it. Somehow I ended up on a tangent on the W123 vs W116, cars I both currently own, and how I much prefer the W116 chassis. I showed this in the 300D listing, but one of the coolest things that was included when I bought my 1980 300SD was a little snippet from a car magazine from sometime when these cars were new in 1978-1980. It reads, ”In the final analysis, that’s what makes the 300SD such a special car. It is prestigious as anything but a Rolls, but also frugal as an economy car and faster over the road than almost anything. It also feels so secure. All things considering, including the fuel economy, the 300SD is the best sedan in the world. Period.” High praise for sure, but you’d expect that level of car from something that cost over $30,000 (roughly $100,000 now) when new. It’s tough to say the W116 300SD didn’t stand the test of time either as nearly 39 years later, I’m still driving mine every day. Not a single thing rattles or shakes in the interior and I get a consistent 27 miles per gallon. Now if I could just find some nice Euro bumpers I’d be all set.
All that brings me to today’s car, a 1980 with just 8,197 miles on it. The story with this car is that the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in California got it’s hands on it after first servicing with 1,300 miles and then giving it a full reconditioning in 2009. I believe the Classic Center actually bought this car a few years and put it up for sale with 7,900 miles for a tidy sum of $50,000. Now, this car has the nearly 8,200 and the price has gone up even more. How much?