I noticed how sludge free the timing chain is. I bet that engine would run just fine with a little coaxing.

from lawn mowers to 50 hp diesel mercedes, ya just never know what Steve has up his sleve!!! Great video Steve, thanks for all your hard work and research!!

My dad bought a used '58 220S. First time I saw a 4 on the tree. I loved the smell in that car.... mahogany and leather .... Awesome!

This is the best way to start my day. In the junk yard, looking at cars.

We slogged our way to the Artic Circle in a 240D. Slow is right. It wasn't unusual to climb passes at 20 mph. But it was rock solid and dependable. Very comfortable ride.

Who hasn't had one of these? Mine was a 1973 220D stick shift 4 door in dark blue. I would drive it from LA to Las Vegas. When I would put that right pedal down, the traffic behind me would clear out, to avoid the cloud of black smoke. It was a great highway car.

I'm a GM guy. But I have to admit that Mercedes and BMW had some good looking cars in the 70's and 80's.

I had an 83 300D turbo. What a car! The engineering was something else, it was actually fun to work on.

Mercedes was known for their diesels and their trucks (as MB branded) were everywhere during this time, even in the US. It's not uncommon for them to go hundreds of thousands of miles without much trouble. Later on the "MB Tex" fabric wore like iron for decades. Paint code on this one is likely code DB040 Black exterior paint, and like "code 19" Black for GM, that paint code was used way into the modern era. Those 6.9 MB could haul and they were like bank vaults, they were solid. This 1971 220D was a 115.110 chassis code and they had an OM615 (engine code 615.912) diesel engine that was a 2.2L four cylinder and they made about 345,376 of them between 1968 and 1973. They were assembled in either Stuttgart, Bremen or Sindelfingen, West Germany as back then the German Wall had not come down. The German Wall came down on Thursday November 9, 1989. There is a photo of a US serviceman using a Craftsman screwdriver (more than likely made by Western Forge in Colorado Springs, Colorado) to chip away a piece of the wall.

I'm absolutely astonished at how much you know/remember about each car you review ... and haven't seen a cue card yet! Love every episode.

I've had several of these over the years, 240D, 300D and 300TD. Yes, the naturally aspirated 4 cylinder was slow as heck, but the turbo 5 cylinder ran pretty darn good. And regardless of drivetrain, these cars were a pleasure to drive, very smooth and solid.

Hello Steve, greeting from Ireland. I bought a very cheap 300d ex taxi with 450k miles on it when I was a student, ran it for a year and sold on. Changed a noisy wheel bearing, plus usual oil/filter. No other repairs. 5 speed manual, 85mph flat out, would sit at 80 all day, like sitting on a sofa!!

Had a co-worker give me one a few years back. Its performance made my slant six powered 63 Savoy look like a speed demon from heII.

The 1968 W115 was the start of Mercedes coming of age with legendary diesel powered cars that looked fresh and modern, rode, handled, and braked amazing, and if you could keep the rust bug away ran forever. Very sluggish cars that clattered and smoked and needed a clearing of a 1/2 mile to enter the freeway so as not to get rear ended. But they were never meant to be rockets. Most were stick shift early on and thats really the only way to go in them for maximum power and reliability. The people that bought the diesels were a different breed than the people that bought that gas models. Diesel people put up with the short comings of the slowness and the noise because they wanted the reliable granite like build and reliability of the diesel and the MPG and lack of conventional tune ups. Ive owned these since 1979 starting with a 65 190D Heckflosse and still have my 1960 180D Ponton I bought in 1983. I owned a 69 220D back in the early 80's and it was a great car. The quality of the W115 diesels was taken to even higher standards with the W123 models which have the reputation as the best diesel sedans of all time. Shame to see this car like this because the level of build quality that went into it was bank vault like. But all steel rusts with salt if not taken care of properly. If you can find a rust free Mercedes diesel made before 1986 you really got something. Also, back in the day when this car was new, battery technology still sucked and the glow plugs took 30 seconds to warm in the dead of winter and dropped a healthy battery to its knees so if you didnt get it started in a couple tries you needed a jump. You needed a block heater on these or build a fire under them to start in the coldest temps.

I don't know what it is but always loved the look of old Benz's. Such a beautiful car back in the day.

I'm currently resurrecting a '98 W202 C250D wagon, five cylinder automatic, at least its got 172 geegees!! Lovely solid old thing..

Thanks Steve! Benz’s solid-ness really leaves me wishing for the same in other cars.

And this is the best way to start my day while sitting in the middle of Hurricane IAN here in central Florida !

Love the little ashtrays on the rear passenger doors. Back when smoking wasn’t a felony haha!

My boss had a 1979 Mercedes 6.9, and he was a perfectionist so I was lucky one to drop it off at the specialist German motors shop and pick it up when serviced. Never knew a car to spend so much time in the shop, but damn that was an incredible ride.

My dad was a MB mechanic for 40 plus years. Sometimes in the summer I'd go to work with him , usually a dealership shop. I'd run parts to the counter back and forth , mostly service packages for these small diesel models. He used to save the old injector seals for me , a cup shaped washer with an integral gasket ( I had a slingshot that worked perfect with those , lol ). Sometimes he would bring home some cool rides ... 450 6.9 was one of them. His bosses 280 6.3 put everything else to shame performance wise.

I always love that generation of Mercedes and couldn't figure out why I guess it's because my father had a 1963 Studebaker Lark it was actually a 61 coupe with a 63 front end it was a drag car with a 292 Chevy it would do 11.5@ 115 it was based out of Parsippany New Jersey and ran at Englishtown primarily through the mid 70s I'm moralized my father with a picture box that uses a Studebaker Lark Grill for a frame so you talking about the grill brought a tear to my eye

Fun fact about the 6.9: The conversion rate from dollar to Deutschmark deteriorated so bad that the msrp for the 6.9 jumped to $50,000 in 1979 for the same car that retailed for $38,000 in 1977.

Back when the name Mercedes meant something. Expensive but with care ran forever. The Estimator at my employer back in the early 70’s had a 35 mile one way commute and when the first gas crisis occurred he bought an early Mercedes diesel, had the motor rebuilt, and drove it for many years after. No idea of how many miles he eventually put one it but must have been tons.

A gasoline version of this exact same car was my first introduction to Mercedes Benz automobiles! Back in the mid-70’s, our neighborhood “car guy” purchased one of these as his daily driver - a beautiful white exterior car with a gorgeous red leather interior! Coming from a very blue collar background, I had never even HEARD of a Mercedes before, and I remember thinking at the time it was so exotic compared to the Chevy’s and Ford’s and Plymouth’s that occupied the driveways in my world! From the few times I got to go for a ride in it, the one thing that always stuck in my mind was the very distinctive smell of the leather interior. Years later, the dad of one of my college buddies bought a new Benz and when I went for a ride in it, the first thing that hit me was that the leather smelled EXACTLY the same as my neighbor’s old ride from back in the 70’s! Not a huge foreign car guy, but this is one “non-American” vehicle I would love to have as a weekend “fun car”……..👍

I got one of these as a loaner back in the late 80s but it was gasoline fueled. The thing had well over 300k miles on the odo but ran and drove just fine. A good solid car was the impression I got

I have driven one. Yes slow but stayed with traffic easily -at least on surface streets, I imagine merging on a freeway would take skill. It was rock solid

You had me worrying alittle Steve!! My morning is now complete!! ✌️ from Iowa

“Diesel of course stands for diesel” sometimes you crack me up 😆

The 200D was about 54 horses. The one you show here, the 220D, was about 60 horses. These were not so bad in daily use - reliable, dependable, cheap to drive & maintain, just SLOW.

Great way to start the day! My friends sister had one of these and a Volkswagen Beetle passed us going up a grade on the freeway. Me and my friend laughed so hard!😂

I gotta say,as a lifelong VW guy I recently got an 80 240d 4 speed. I had no idea about Mercs all that much,just this car was super clean and I took a gamble on it. Haven't had any hidden surprises yet, and I see maintenance parts are reasonable. Trim parts,sit down. Anyways ,this thing handles great! It's a semi soft ride ,but even in a hard corner with bumps it stays planted and doesn't sway all over,very predictable. And it stops great too! Power,yeah ,67hp isn't winning any races but I sure had a hoot on a twisty 40mph backroad when I was pushing it up to 75 or so. It's on par with my old diesel rabbits, maybe a touch more power or it slices the air better because it does pull better than they did at 50-60mph. I was rather surprised to see they cost around 17,000$ in 1980, mom bought a diesel rabbit in 81 and that was 7200.

I remember seeing these style Mercedes as a kid in the 70s and being excited. They were different from the regular Australian car style at the time.

Steve.. i love the play on words title of this video. great video as always!

about time I got the notification for today's video!

Hi All - UK specs are - With 0 to 62 in 28.10 seconds and vmax 84 mph! Hard pushed to find slower Steve I agree!

Steve forgot to mention that Mercedes Benz did put the 6.9 in their 300 class platform hence the legendary 300 6.9. That was a wicked car and was the Hemi car of the European circuit. Today those cars bring so much money it's not even funny.

IF I remember correctly, the 300TD you referred to was one that impressed Steve McQueen while he'd been in Europe. I read somewhere about Chad McQueen telling a story of being a kid playing outside when a delivery truck showed up & dropped off a new 300TD in front of the garage. He asked his dad, why did you get a four door?? Steve leaned down, & told him - "That things so f-n fast, it'll make your head spin!". Good video!

As a very young child, my Dad first had a 220D and later a 240D. At least ours had a 4 speed manual transmission. The automatics were SLOW. The 220D 0-60 times were, well we may never know! Something not covered in the vid was that the 220D had all drum brakes, the 240D had disk all 4 corners. They also had very cool vacuum power door locks. The cars were safe, reliable, nice to drive, and always got to our destination but never in a hurry.

I had a 1987 Mercedes 300D great vehicle lots off power. The only real downfall was parts were super expensive and rare. Sold it about 12 years ago. Great Videos Steve👍

In the late '70's I had a dark green '71 220 ...with a 4 cyl gas engine & a 4 speed on the column...it was a good car... right up to when I was rear-ended by a Yellow cab when we were leaving a Bulls game..

I had a 240D many years ago. A gentleman I built a engine for his 1965 GTO resto-mod, was a service manager at M-B. He showed me how turn the modulator on the transmission to increase the firmness of the shifting. No joke, you could practically make it hit as hard as a manual valve body, full race transmission in a drag car. It didn't have the power to spin or even chirp the tires, but it would slam gears automatically like you can't imagine. A week later I adjusted it normally, but it was hysterical taking people for a ride that week. P.S. love the Kentucky mobile brothel in the background.

I like it got all the good info about the vehicle and some hubcap action too thats the best of both worlds!

I had a 72 Mercedes 280 SE 4.5 that was awesome, it had balls and felt like you were driving a bank vault, not to mention it was the last hand built Mercedes.

I had a 1977 240D, W123. Fantastic vehicle, only thing it could pass pass was a GM RTS Transit Bus. Excellent fuel economy, very comfortable/quiet and an excellent vehicle I loved to drive on the "letter roads" in south central Missouri.

My father had one of these new with four speed, it was his second Mercedes. He had his own company and would travel state to state visiting the plants. He had over 500,000 on that one when he bought a newer model 240D. Both of them just went and went and went. Back then not very many stations sold diesel, had to go to the truck stops, I think the only small station place was in the next town because was a dump truck business nearby.

I rode that in Italy 🇮🇹 many years ago. I like the OE aluminum alloy wheels which looks snazzy. I friend I know has a 1975 Mercedes-Benz 280 E, the E stands for Einspritzen which is German for fuel injection which is made by Bosch. He also owns a 1978 Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL 6.9 litre sedan. That 6.9 would do battle with the Porsche 911 Turbo Carrera, and the 928. Those cars ruled the Deutsche Autobahn.

Thank you Steve

220D, had a 2.2L diesel engine. 200D had a 2.0L diesel engine. 1975 was the first Year with a 300D n/a 3.0L engine.

I have viewed on KZfaq a 1975 Mercedes Benz 230 model like this one, in perfect condition. Sad that this nice car has ended up like this. It definitely has seen better days.

I own and love a 1977 240D. 0 - 60 in eventually but speed and performance wasn't the point of it. Comfort and dependability was. I receive compliments on it literally every time I take it anywhere along with "is it for sale?"

🏆Great job Steve 🏆🍀as always 😎✌️

I took my dragracing licence in one of those but 240D it made the quarter 28 seconds this was back in 1988 and i am still racing

those old mercedes were built like tanks.having the power of a vw beetle with all that weight makes your estimate of 0 to 60 mph.extremely optomistic.but once moving they would run damn near forever on a tank of fuel.

Was one of these used in the movie "The Driver" back in the 70s

These are a great chassis. My drift car ,a 450slc is the exact same subframes. With some tuning and custom parts it's a very capable car.

What a great history lesson 😊

I still work on the Mercs of this era and their owners love them. The 220 D's etc were" Built to last,not go fast". That car might be rusty but I'd bet money that it will run with some fresh diesel and a good battery. Hitler was a Mercedes Fan despite the fact that Mercedes Jellineks Grandfather was the Chief Rabbi of Vienna..

The 300d in europe 240d 3.0 was the first production car With a 5 cilinder engine, it was also the fastest production diesel car at the the time. The go for many miles, very strong cars.

I had a 72 220D with a 4spd manual. You wanna talk about slow? It was the slowest car I've ever owned. Top speed on flat ground was 72mph . It just couldn't go any faster. On a trip to Cape Cod, with my parents and luggage in the car, it wouldn't go any faster than about 67mph unless we hit a downgrade . On one section of highway that had a pretty long incline , the speed eventually dropped all the way down to about 55 lol !! One thing that you didn't point out was that little "Grate or Grille" piece on the dash just above the steering column, that is actually a sight window for a dash mounted glow plug (more like a cigarette lighter element) and the lever to the left of it (looks like its a manual choke lever) is actually the Engine Run, Starter and glow plug switch. Pull it out to the detent and that's the run position, pull it further back (spring loaded) till you feel a stopping point , and you can watch the dash glow plug light up, once its cherry red, pull the lever all the way and it starts cranking !! Very interesting setup !! It does have a key , but all that does is basically allow the vehicle to be started and have the electrical working. If I recall, you could shut the key off and it would keep running until you pushed the lever back in. Thanks for another great vid Steve !!

I had a 240d 3.0, Greet car

Lol! Too cool brother Steve. Thank you again.

I logged many miles at a kid ridding along with a neighbour family that had Benz diesels. Their first was a 180D, 3 speed manual I believe, followed in the mid 60’s by something a bit bigger. It too was a diesel, backed up by a 4 speed manual. When it was new, we took a road trip to Seattle, the owner, forgetting his new car had 4 gears did a substantial portion of the trip down the highway with that little diesel just singing. But like you say, it was slow. I remember how terrifying it was when he’d pull into the oncoming lane to pass a logging truck, usually with an oncoming car quite visible on the horizon.

The 200D 2.0 55hp and 220D 2.2 65hp were so slow but a 240D 2.4L 72hp was alright. When I caught a 300D 3.0 80/88hp we were not going home but on the hill to test it, ah kids. There was a time when more than half of taxis were Mercedes W115 and W123, so cool, now Dacia Logan is death

If I remember correctly, that 4-speed automatic transmission was loosely based on the old GM Hydramatic 4 speed, complete with fluid coupling instead of a torque converter. I think it was built under license from GM.

I missed you with coffee this morning and I still worded what car was in the box truck lol thanks for what you and camera man do

*That's one of the few cars that would still run after an EMP attack, a mechanical fuel injected diesel no electronics.*

Don’t forget to close that vent window. Don’t want the weather coming in on the beautiful car.

Mercedes built engines to cruise at 100 to 140 mph all day long. The 4.5L, 6.3L and the 6.9L.

I still love the 220D.

It is amazing that many of the older vehicles had super low horsepower and people were happy with that! Now we have gone the other extreme with 1000, 1500 hp and maybe more.

Those are cool my buddy has a later one and it's comfy

Back when I was a little kid our next door neighbor had a 220 Mercedes. This was in 1961 and I was fascinated by how (I thought at the time ) the radiator went up when he opened the hood. A big switch from my dad's 1956 Desoto Station wagon.

0 to 100 km/h (62mph) in 28.10 seconds, a maximum top speed of 84 mph (135 km/h)

The 600 was nicknamed the "Pullman", not the 6.9

my father drove the exact same Mercedes coulor too in 2000s I used to climb up the trunk on to the roof and slide down the windshield

Mercedes-Benz! Dominance on land, sea and Air.

I can verify that magnetic antennas still come off at about 130 mph

No sound.

What a dog those non-turbo diesel Benz models were! During my time as "lot boy" at Performance Motors in Falmouth from 88-90, only a handful of these models came through the dealership for service. I remember driving a 240D that at least had the help of a 4 spd stick, but my God, what a heavy dog without a turbo!

In the early 2000s, my mother traded the neighbors a John Deere walk-behind mower (with a Honda engine) for a rough 1977 240D with an automatic. Both machines were running and needed work. To this day, I'm not sure who made out better in the deal. Mom didn't actually need the 240D, so it was given to a good friend of mine. He declared to to be both one of his all-time favorite cars and simultaneously the biggest piece of shit he ever drove.

You didn't mention the scalp banger drop grill...anyone who had one-at some point in time-stopped smacking their noggin.🙃

Dad had a 300D and a bunch of others but that one's a flower planter.

ya know I actually remember one of my coworkers trying to decide on a Mercedes diesel or gas, and another saying what cut the horsepower in half for diesel

so tired of Steve exposing himself in that opening ad. I can't wait for October 2nd.

Does anyone else feel a stir when seeing those deep rims in the background?

My Scout Master had one of these. He would brag about only having to pay 19 cents / gallon for fuel. Didn't do very well climbing I-5 going out of LA.

Will the deer head be at the auction?

Back in '91, I bought one of those (although not a diesel), for my first wife. Because she wanted a Mercedes, and a neighbor of one of her friends had it for sale. Only gave $1000 for it. Which should have set off my warning bells. But I was trying to make her happy. I don't recall what year the car was though. Anyway, should have never bought it Less than a month after buying it, the car began having all sorts of problems. I fixed a few, but finally gave up, because it was hard to get the parts.

Please do a video on the WAAF bus in the background!

one of my customers specializes in those 6.9 cars ...they basically musclecars

Foreign cars never floated my boat.

I bet if you took that motor out changed the oil put clean fuel in it. It would fire right up no problem.

A diesel car with-out a photo bomb by the semi-beloved deer head mascot, Rudolf Dieselhead?? You must have been in quite a hurry Steve! Still enjoyed the video, though. Have a good trip to Oklahoma.

Is that the front corner of a first gen Charger I see? Have a look at that one for us please Steve!

I now want to learn about that old blue trailer house behind you. Notice it has running lights? I know people who used to move state to state with those. Just seen one from 62 with about 1/8 inch worth of tabs on the licence plate! Couldn't read last tag. Most got parked after birth but some got to travel! Cool shit.

Great, now I'm craving french fries and not the air fried type. I helped build a veggie fuel kit for a friend's 300 using what we could find at the scrapyard and it smells like french fries when it drives by. He actually found a 300 in New Hampshire that wasn't rusted out and now gets the fluid film treatment twice a year.

A guy who worked for my dad had one. Don't remember what year the car was.

Steve - check out Matchbox cars - came out with a number of Chrysler cars - in standard issue and collectors series

Just a heads up! Oct 1st is almost here and I won’t have to swipe forward one minute.