300GD Engine

Welcome to our/your forum.

I run a G similar to the one you're looking at 300 GD SWB (463.327). Mine has slightly less then 160,000 Kms and does not consume a drop of oil. I had it checked for compression and it was strong as new. In fact, if I had to rank the 463 series Gs engines for quality and durability, this would probably be the first in the list.

The OM603 engine (fitted to this car) was also fitted in exactly the same specification to the W124 saloon which is the model favoured by the majority of taxi owners/drivers in Germany a whole bunch of them in many other European countries. They routinely reach mileages in excess of the half million kilometres with just the sheduled services with no problems. In fact this engine has been converted by a number of users to turbo without major trouble, provided that is used with common sense.

I have never known any of this engines in standard form to die prematurely so provided that the car has been serviced properly -and do not take that for granted at face value- with 120,000 miles (or 190,000 Kms) the car in in its prime.

The car is very heavy and its performance is moderate. It also depends very much on whether its a fully loaded LWB Auto with chunky wheels or a basic SWB manual with narrow tyres. But I am sure that living in Portugal you would appreciate the diesel for being rather cheaper to run than the contemporary 230 or 300GEs.

I have to say that I am very pleased with my car and like I say if I wanted a car to blast on the motorway, I'd buy myself a nice 500GE, which go for about the same money as the contemporary GWagen.

Cheers

There's a fellow countryman of yourself who is quite active in the US Benzworld GWagen forum who apparently has his 300GE for sale. Being a true enthusiast I would assume that his car is worth looking at -plus you don't have to worry about import taxes!.

Click on pic to see:

Let us know how that goes.

Cheers

Vasco,

I don't quite understand. Rui's price is $ 19 k which is roughly equivalent to € 15,000. I think that this is a good price for a 93 300 GE, particularly considering that the car seems fully loaded (Air Conditioning, Sunroof, Running boards and Bull bar are all desirable options) and assuming a condition as good as one would expect from the car of a fellow enthusiast. I don't believe that you can find a W463 300 GD for a penny less than that in Portugal if the car is in comparable nick. You don't even get anything decent in germany for less than € 14,000.

Maybe the diesel G that you've been offered is a late W460 and not a W463. Then it would make sense because the going rate for a good late W460 300 GD might be in the region of those € 7,500.

Going back to how early- 463 diesel and petrol prices compare, you are quite right, diesels are normally pricier than the contemporary petrol but the differences are not as acute as for W460s.

Let us know how it goes.