Mercedes-Benz C250 Turbodiesel Manual Estate Wanted

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chizzel89

Active Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2010
Messages
79
Location
Pembrokeshire
Car
Mercedes-Benz C250 Turbodiesel Sport est. 155,000 mls. Peugeot 405 1.9 GLX TD Estate- 280,000 miles
Ideally the car needs to be dark (Azurite) blue or black, and not have any nasty bulging rust in the rear wheel arch seams. Certainly no rot and ideally no rust underneath the car. I wouldn't mind a bit of rust, as I'm a bodywork guy (owned a Ford Capri for 5 years and did all the repairs myself) and realise that otherwise solid cars with a bit of rust here and there go for a LOT less than rust free examples which are in the same condition in every other respect.
Less than 150k miles ideally.
Full service history and previous MOT's (or partial MB history and proof of oil changes etc) is more or less a must. Car needs to have been serviced at the right intervals and mileage verifyable basically!
Needs to be mechanically faultless with all electrics working as they should. Needs to be a good starter without duff glowplugs (often indicates they are v. old and potentially quite seized..)
Don't care about scuffs, tears to the interior.
No big dings in the bodywork though.
Tow bar would be ideal.

I have £1640... from what I've seen go on ebay (ideal cars for me going for about £1400 or so) this should be enough.

So in short, a car that is very good in all respects (A1 mechanical condition etc) apart from rust blisters here and there.

Thanks everyone

Charlie
 
+1. I've never known anyone with a manual MB estate. Then again, with exception to the wonders of the Internet, I've never seen one either.

I'd imagine that if you wanted a manual you're better off sticking to the smaller capacity engines.


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I have only ever seen one manual C250 estate, it belongs to a friend who brought it from McLaren racing who used it in some sort of support role it has an amazing 240,000 miles on it and still drives like new.
 
Hi Charlie,

Just a quick question - have you driven a manual MB?

IME, most MB manuals aren't brilliant. They tend to be quite baulky and notchy, not as nice as perhaps a manual BMW (but then MB make nice smooth autos)

I guess the torquey 250 Diesel would be better than some, but it might be worth a drive before you rule out the autobox? Would open up a greater choice of cars too :cool:

Just a thought :thumb:

Will
 
I agree with this sentiment. My w202 is fitted with a manual. Putting it nicely, It's not very smooth. And can be very jerky at times for no good reason. (MB mechanics checked over my gearbox and clutch, and they couldn't explain why it was so jerky.)

Call me crazy but I am a die hard fan of manual mercs. Even if it is jerky and laughable in the way the transmition set up works. I love it for the one blissfully beautiful moment when it feels and works like it was made specifically for that moment.

I hope that if you do go for the manual you have the patients needed to learn how to manipulate it so that it works smoothly. Something I'm still learning myself.

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Heya.. thanks for the tips everyone.
Nope I've never even driven a Mercedes let alone a manual one!!

What I'm scared of with an auto is that the box will go wrong. I know they are pretty reliable, but their life is finite and when one goes wrong you're in for a big bill! Also, I think I could get far better MPG out of a manual than an auto- they coast a lot better.
A manual box will last forever if it gets the odd oil change and it's crunched all the time... I'd imagine the clutches in these Mercs are good for atleast 200,000 miles.

Hopefully I'll get the hang of the change fairly quickly- I drive a Peugeot 405 1.9 TD with 280,000 miles on its gearbox, gear linkage and engine mounts (has 2 inches free play at the gear lever!) and with careful timing and careful use of the clutch I can red line it through 1st, 2nd and 3rd without and jerks or bangs and without slipping the clutch... hopefully it'll stand me in good stead!
 
Heya.. thanks for the tips everyone.
Nope I've never even driven a Mercedes let alone a manual one!!

What I'm scared of with an auto is that the box will go wrong. I know they are pretty reliable, but their life is finite and when one goes wrong you're in for a big bill! Also, I think I could get far better MPG out of a manual than an auto- they coast a lot better.
A manual box will last forever if it gets the odd oil change and it's crunched all the time... I'd imagine the clutches in these Mercs are good for atleast 200,000 miles.

Hopefully I'll get the hang of the change fairly quickly- I drive a Peugeot 405 1.9 TD with 280,000 miles on its gearbox, gear linkage and engine mounts (has 2 inches free play at the gear lever!) and with careful timing and careful use of the clutch I can red line it through 1st, 2nd and 3rd without and jerks or bangs and without slipping the clutch... hopefully it'll stand me in good stead!
Hi chizzel and welcome.
Like you I had a 405 GTX TD estate which I loved. But after hankering for a diesel Mercedes and much foraging on these forums I settled on a C250TD estate (I also have a 230K). On advice gleaned from others, both cars are auto's with the kompressor being a tiptronic. For what it is worth I would never go back to a manual again. Also, I cannot agree that manual boxes will last forever, as well as factoring in the cost of clutch replacements when necessary. If ever a replacement autobox was needed there are more than enough of them about at sensible prices.
 
QUOTE
'Also, I think I could get far better MPG out of a manual than an auto- they coast a lot better.'

You'd get even better economy if you use bio-diesel (veg oil)
 
QUOTE
'Also, I think I could get far better MPG out of a manual than an auto- they coast a lot better.'

You'd get even better economy if you use bio-diesel (veg oil)

Indeed! That is my plan. I wasn't sure about mentioning it, as some people kind of regard it as heresy! The Peugeot has been running on SVO for 20,000 miles with no modifications... other than a slight alteration to the heated fuel filter, some injector pump timing advance etc. However it has a fairly puny lift pump and with the Bosch VE I.P being a rotary pump, they don't behave as well as the Bosch PES on cold oil.

M.B's are the dogs boll**** for single tank SVO conversions as you know!

I'm going down the Elsbett one tank conversion (more like fettling rather than a conversion..) route, but I'm not buying the kit off them as it's far too expensive at £700 IMO. I'll have to buy the injector nozzles off them for £126 for the five of them as those are specially modified to provide a good spray pattern with cold veg oil.

All the other parts- heat exchanger, electrically heated filter, longer and slightly hotter glow plugs, replacement glow plug control unit with 3 minute afterglow etc are all standard parts some of which I already have or they can be bought at a fraction of the cost at a diesel specialist.

Are there any people on here with a C250 running on veg oil single tank?
 
Also, there is the thing that the C250 TD is 150BHP, which will be the most powerful car I've ever owned/ driven (my first car was a 1600 Capri- just sold that which has given me my budget of £1640) and it'll be able to run on fuel that costs about £1 a gallon.
Can't wait to find one!!
 
Anyone heard of anything?

I noticed an ideal one in autotrader, but the guy is being really weird.
He was friendly the first time I phoned him. I then spoke to a very helpful bloke I know of in London who's into his C250's who said he may be able to take a look at it if he's passing, so I phoned the guy back (after many failed calls and ignored emails) to get his postcode. Unfriendliness wasn't the word!
He told me the car was sold and then hung up...

It's still on autotrader now, but now £500 more expensive (was £1790 to begin with..)! Strange...
Anyhow, the car was barely worth £1800 due there being no service history between 85,000 miles and 150,000 even if the seller did claim it had no rust bubbles.. but it does look really clean and he said it was driving perfectly. I reckon he thought I wanted the post code to come a steal the damned thing..

1999 MERCEDES-BENZ C CLASS C250 TD Classic 5dr Diesel Estate
 
Doesn't ring true of a nice car/seller IMHO - attitude problem, missing front/rear MB emblems etc. Car looks fairly low spec (plastic wheel trims, flat blue paint) - with 150k+ miles, towbar etc I'd keep looking - must be better cars out there with less hassle involved :eek:
 
Doesn't ring true of a nice car/seller IMHO - attitude problem, missing front/rear MB emblems etc. Car looks fairly low spec (plastic wheel trims, flat blue paint) - with 150k+ miles, towbar etc I'd keep looking - must be better cars out there with less hassle involved :eek:

Yeah, looks a bit like the front badge has been ripped out of the bonnet judging by the raised area where the emblem was.. never noticed that on other C250's. The guy simply doesn't want to even talk to me haha!
If it had metallic paint (and slightly higher spec), largely complete service history, wasn't hugely overpriced and the seller wasn't a t*** then it'd ideal!
Aye, the search continues...

Got the MOT coming up for the pug on the 14th and it'll need a bottom ball joint atleast. Hopefully it won't need much else doing and will keep on until I've found a C250.
On the plus side it is now running 95% SVO (70p a litre rapeseed)... though the annoying Bosch rotary pump still plays up now and again despite several mods to aid fuel delivery.
Looking forward to a C250 with the excellent Bosch PES inline injector pump with its beast of a lift pump. With good glow plugs, healthy O-rings under the push-fit pipes and the fuel tanks modified so they balance properly with VO I've been told it's hard to tell the difference in terms of starting and performance.

I'm just about to put together my waste oil filtering plant. Got about 150 litres of nice clean WVO settling in the shed ready to process and have got some state of the art filter elements which filter down to 0.5 microns.
The guys who did the initial testing found that the 0.5 micron filtered WVO was thinner and gave the cars more power, less diesel clatter and little in the way of chip shop exhaust smell as well as behaving well in sub zero temperatures. Gotta put my BES order together today... lots of tank connectors and compression fittings I think!

Cheers
 
Have you thought about an E300 estate. Lots of these about and the same diesel engine albeit with an extra 500cc, 1 more cylinder and another 27 bhp!
 

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