Mercedes 220d information please

Specifically 1968 220d cars. Are they as fat and heavy as they look? Any redeeming/cool things about these? I'm not usually a four-door kind of guy, but these look....interesting.

thanks. Stan

I had a 1970 220D so pretty similar. Lovely classic interior. Hard wearing interior materials. They handle surprisingly well. Amazing sight lines and visibility. Mine was a 4spd manual but they are slow ... really slow. They rust quite badly however. I loved mine but in the end the whole diesel-ness wasn't a match for me daily driving in a colder climate. I'd love one with a gas motor however.

Oh and I auto-x mine

Are these the 2 on craigslist? I drove a friends with the 5 cylinder non-turbo and it was slow but not as bad as I was expecting. If I buy another mercedes it is going to be from a state that doesn't rust as much.

EvanB wrote: Are these the 2 on craigslist? I drove a friends with the 5 cylinder non-turbo and it was slow but not as bad as I was expecting. If I buy another mercedes it is going to be from a state that doesn't rust as much.

Yes.

Probably won't get them, but thought they were kinda cool looking. (Seems like I've been into 60's stuff lately...)

...also why I've been looking south/south east for cars lately too...

I had a 72 and a 70 parts car, 4 speed manual. Slow is not the right word. Pulling out in traffic, you stop, look, say "Oh, there's a car coming and it's only 2 miles away. I better wait." Fenders rust out, even in Texas. I finally gave up on it when I was working 500 hours a month, and on my ONE DAY OFF, I had to fix whatever fell off the car that month. On the plus side, it was quite comfortable and got 26 MPG and the AC would blow you out of there. Of course, the York AC compressor took about 20% of the engine's total output to run. I think they are around 40 HP. Or was it 36? And the factory shop manual(s) is fantastic.

But, if you race an old 190d, you can actually out run it with a 220d. Not by much, but the 220d is faster.

I raced a Volkswagen Westfalia van in my old 220D - I lost ...

They were rated for 59hp from what I remember. A really steep first gear doesn't help 0-60 acceleration. Once rolling speed is ok.

I've always lusted after these models of Mercedes, but the rust has kept me away. They rust in the south. I've looked a these and the 142/164 Volvos as the perfect car from an ergonomics, durability and visibility viewpoint, but I've not owned either, so what the hell do I know?

I got rear-ended 3 times in one week taking off from stop lights. No one believes any vehicle can be that slow and have to shift at that speed. After that, I made it a point to take off even slower so the idiots behind would be forced to pay attention. Yeah, I think WFO in 1st gear was like 10 MPH. Top speed was 76, I think. Or 74. You could eventually get there if there was no hill to go up. The Galveston area was OK in that regard, as long as you built up some speed prior to the bridge over the channel. Oh, and I got tired of cops stopping me because the windows were tinted and they thought I was DWB. Once, I had my pit bull in the back seat. The cop came up to my window and the dog crawled into my lap and stuck her head out the window. The cop about lost it when she eyed him and decided I was OK and let me go. I had been stopped because "Sir, were you a-ware that your left tail light is not as bright as your right tail light?" "Oh, no, officer, I was not aware of that. It is probably a ground issue. I will investigate that as soon as I get home."