quote:
...is there such a thing as an average condition UK RHD car which I could run daily and won't be breaking down every 100 miles? On the Top Gear report they said a 'bad one' costs £10,000 - but how bad do you think that would be? A waste of time?
...perhaps the Gods of cool did not intend for me to join the ranks of you SL superdudes.
John,
To determin if any particular 40 year old car is likely to break down every 100 miles takes a skilled & experience person to decide. Even then, nobody can forsee the future and this skilled & experience person is only making an educated guess. Of all the 40 year old cars out there, the Mercedes vehicles of this era are very reliable once they are sorted out right. The question is, will the sorting out cost $2,000 or $12,000? This is what these skilled & experienced people should be able to tell you. If you really want a Pagoda then read all of the Technical Articles on this site (linked from the home page). Then use the forum's search engien and learn more about your particular points of interest. After all this reading and learning, which will brobably take the better part of two weekends, then start shoping for your Pagoda. Test drive at least 10 of them in June & July and use the knowledge shared on this site to examine them yourself. Once you've read all this info and experience all those cars, then you should know a good one when you drive it. Once you find a good one, then take it to 2 or 3 shops that can do quality mechanical inspections of these particular cars. It's worth spending a couple hundred dollars for 2 or 3 inspections if it saves you from buying a bad car that would cost you thousands to get right. You might want have a couple members of the Group look at the perspective cars too!
Best of luck in your SL shopping. Take your time and learn a lot. There will always be Pagodas for sale and the more time you take the more you will lean about them. Knowledge is power.
Rodd
Powell, Ohio, USA
1966 230SL, Euro, Auto, Leather, both tops
1994 E420
