1982 240D

159,000 miles as of	10/28/98
173,000 miles	5/7/99
178,000 miles	8/14/99

Orginal Cost:  $22,600

Colors:
    Exterior:  China Blue
    Interior:  Blue MB Tex

Engine:
    2.4 liter four cylinder four-stroke diesel
    67bhp @ 4000rpm
    97 lb/ft @ 2400rpm

Transmission:
    4 speed manual

Fuel Info:
    City:  30 mpg
    Highway:  34mpg
    Capacity: 17.2 gal, including a reserve of 2.4 gal
    UPDATE:  Well, the book says 30-34, but I've been getting an average of 27mpg with mostly highway driving.  I saw 30mpg once, and its never been worse than about 24mpg for city driving.
 

Repair Information:
    So far (May '99), the car has been very reliable.  I did spend $1800 in April to have some work done to the front of the car.  At first I thought I just needed ball joints up front, but it turned out the uppper and lower control arms on both sides were shot also.  In the process, I had to get new front shocks because the originals had to be cut off to do the other repairs.  I also had 4 new Nation 6000 tires mounted to replace the four snows on the car.  I don't really mind spending the $1800 for things like that, after having 170,000 miles on the original suspension components.
    I've been traveling the NJ Turpike and Parkway with this car eveyday to and from school.  The car has no trouble keeping up with the left-lane rush-hour traffic every morning.  It cruises at 75mph very nicely and has no trouble running beyond top speed (about 90mph) if you care to do so.
    I've made it though the winter without a problem.  The car started on the coldest mornings without having to be pluged in.  I was very impressed to drive the car up steep, snow covered hills my friends front drive Honda couldn't even touch.  This car is a tank in the snow!
    Now the weather is getting warmer and I'm wondering how the cooling system will respond to 95 degree heat.  I've used the AC a few times already, and the engine temp doesn't move, so I don't think I'll have a problem.  I think the AC system will need to be rechanged before it gets really hot, it just doesn't seem to be as cold as I'd like.

5/14/99:

I ran over to my mechanic this morning and he threw in another 1.6lbs of freon into the AC system, so the air is ice cold now! While I was there, two people made comments about how nice the car was and one of them wanted to buy it! Nothing puts a smile on your face better than people saying nice things about you car! :-) I also did alot of work on the car this week, check out the new pages!

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