My husband just bought himself a “new” toy and is looking for a comprehensive English-language repair/maintenance manual for a Mercedes 300 SEL. I thought I’d take a chance and see if anyone here has one, or knows where to find one online (I took a look but it’s hard for me to figure out which store is reputable). Any help most appreciated.
what year? 1970 (great car) or the W126 from 1988-1991 (pretty solid car, one of the last strong Mercs)?
mercedesmanuals.com/Mercedes … p/w126.htm
P.S. 1969 300SEL available in Japan for 3.8 million yen! last one, left hand drive: perfect for Taiwan.
I LOVE my 1986 300SEL.
I’ve had it for 3 years and I’ve had what restoration/maintenance work that was needed done at the Capitol Motors shop in Nangang. Steve, the manager of the service department there, speaks English very well and they take very good care of me and my car. Being an older car, there are challenges to diagnosing some issues, but they’ve generally done a good job.
The labor cost relative to what I paid in the US for my 1987 280SL is dirt cheap, about US$35-40/hour compared to US$100/hour. I have the original owners manual and bought Auto Repair for Dummies, Idiots Guide to Restoring Collector Cars and Mercedes-Benz Technical Companion, but with labor costs so low here, and I’m not very mechanically inclined, it just makes more sense to me to get the work done professionally. I do the washing and waxing myself. 
The cost of the parts, though, is 60-100% higher than in the US due to import taxes. When possible, I get my parts in the US and bring them back on one of my regular trips.
Hope you and your husband enjoy your new/old toy.
Thanks for the replies, I will pass the links on.
It’s a 1988 W126. He bought it for 25,000 and then got himself a scrapped one for parts last week, and now he’s got a new project. Once it’s “finished”, he’ll sell the unneeded parts back as scrap. He’ll do most of the work himself.
We went out in it over the weekend and it goes OK, but does need some work. The interior is immaculate. Husband says I should drive it, but it’s a bit of a switch from my March!
CraigTPE,
If you decide you don’t need the Technical Companion, let me know and I can buy it from you. Could make a good Christmas present.
[quote=“asiababy”]Thanks for the replies, I will pass the links on.
It’s a 1988 W126. He bought it for 25,000 and then got himself a scrapped one for parts last week, and now he’s got a new project. Once it’s “finished”, he’ll sell the unneeded parts back as scrap. He’ll do most of the work himself.
We went out in it over the weekend and it goes OK, but does need some work. The interior is immaculate. Husband says I should drive it, but it’s a bit of a switch from my March!
CraigTPE,
If you decide you don’t need the Technical Companion, let me know and I can buy it from you. Could make a good Christmas present.[/quote]
Seems like a very good deal. Congratulations (provisionally)
Interesting that they’ll sell you a whole(?) scrap car, I’d have thought they might be nervous here about them possibly going back on the road illegally.
Can I ask how much it was, and what (if any) the formalities were? Cheap(?) way of getting spares (if you have somewhere to keep it), though I guess the relative advantages are less with cheaper models, where I’m more likely to be operating.
It looks like you can find what you are looking for here:
shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=merced … m270.l1313
I would also recommend this:
I have dealt with these guys for BMW parts and tools. They offer both original and aftermarket parts for Bimmers, so they may also offer the same for your vehicle.
Good luck!
Thanks for the links. My husband eventually found a free manual online, so I think he’s set now. I asked him about the scrap car, and he told me the following:
The yard doesn’t care about the possibility of you driving it away. If you got caught, it would have nothing to do with them. The scrap car ended up being more expensive than the driveable car, because he also paid to have it pulled to pieces so he can store it in our basement. It was TWD28,000 for the scrap car and TWD25,000 for the one he is fixing up. Anyone can go along and buy a car from a scrap yard. He figures, if he bought the pieces separately, it would be a couple of thousand a time, and a lot of work to find them, so this way he has a good selection of parts, and if something doesn’t work, the scrap guy will help him swap for a working one (as he has been buying things from him for a while now). Then, he’ll just return the pieces he doesn’t need or sell them online. This will make the Mercedes our most expensive car at home, but I guess everyone needs a hobby.
Thanks for your reply.
Hmm…maybe not worth it then, at least with fairly numerous/available models. If they charge as much for a scrap car as for a cheap road-legal then one may as well buy two cheap runners and bao fei one of them.
Assuming you can find two cheap runners of course. Might not be so easy with a Merc.
Well, he just got his third one (for 25,000, too), so I guess there are a few around. Honestly, when I left NZ I thought I’d left the “classic car collections” behind. I never guessed my kids would also “enjoy” days on the roadside waiting for a bus to pick them up when the “great deal” let their dad down. Now, I am pretty sure it will be a part of their future. Maybe minus the aggressive cows and snowstorms. We’ll see.
best wishes!