Daily driver reliability, cost/ease of maintainance, room for family of 5, buy in price.
Daily driver reliability, cost/ease of maintainance, room for family of 5, buy in price.
The ovloVs are going to be cheaper and if looked after, as reliable as the Mercedes. Both will empty your wallet if they haven't been looked after.
With the W124, buy the newest you can, there have been massive improvements over the lifetime of the car. Oh, and make sure the seats aren't broken, although that is less of a problem with the last ones. The very last ones got the engines that went into the next generation of the E class and are well worth seeking out.
I've owned three W124s so far, a 300TE 4-Matic, a 250D and an E280 wagon and the E280 was by far my favourite.
I found both the Volvos and the Mercedes reasonably easy to work on, but the Volvo has the edge when it comes to accessibility as there is more room under the hood.
I would go with the Volvo. I like Mercedes but my Volvos always feel more comfortable. Tons of space in the engine bay to work and extremely simple.
The 900 for me was comfy, fast and easy to work on, but local parts availability was iffy. Often, I paid 10x the cost of the $2 part just to get it here the next day.
None of the M-B Ive driven have "felt" right to me. My 850 feels very close to what I like in a car. This may be like comparing apples and pistachios, but I would go w/ the 700/900 wagons if given a choice.
Panther. Unkillable, and if something does break while you're in east bumberkeley Billysue's autoparts and nail saloon will have parts for it, and you can find parts for it in Jimbob's junk yard and brothel.
In reply to Leafy: That a huge advantage by the way. At this moment in time, the less hassle the better.
Plus a nice Panther is easy to find and CHEAP. There are regularly nice models for sub 3k that are only 7 years old. That is something that neither of the others can offer. I say that with a Volvo 960 in my project fleet. Parts are pricey and the interior is starting to come apart and it is a 96.
A Panther. Volvo bricks are really getting outdated, but I still keep a 740 turbo wagon running in my fleet.
What's a panther?
amg_rx7 wrote: What's a panther?
Crown Vic/Grand Marquis/etc.
Don't forget the S90 if you're looking at 960s.
SlickDizzy wrote:amg_rx7 wrote: What's a panther?Crown Vic/Grand Marquis/etc.
In that case W124
and by "etc", he means Town Car.
I feel like the Panther wins all three catagories in this comparison, handily.
If you added some criteria there's certainly things the Mercedes or Volvo do better, but they're not in the OP.
I think the only thing the panther lacks is the ride refinement of the merc, and thats easily fixed with a set of bilstein shocks.
And then you have less than 4k in a car with 82k miles that was made 8 years ago VS 4k in a car with 182k miles made 20 years ago that is going to eat you alive unless if was religiously maintained (which at this point is going to be basically none of them).
For family use I would probably go Panther. For my use I would go Volvo 240 wagon but it's not going to compare reliability and serviceability wise with a significantly newer car.
In reply to dculberson:
Yeah, I bought a 960 Volvo wagon "for the kids" which I have none yet. That is how I sold the wife on it. Now it is getting a turbo 6 cylinder white block and and an Aisin manual trans. Not for the kids, not reliable.
I vote panther. Volvo is easy to work on, but everything is falling apart in the interior. And parts can be a real PITA to get.
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