Yahoo Autos Junkyard Gem: 1985 Mercedes-Benz 300 SD, two tons of turbodiesel luxury
Car shoppers in the United States were able to buy the proto-S-Class W126 Mercedes-Benz beginning in 1980 and continuing through 1991, and I've documented quite a few of these luxurious machines in forced retirement. Other than a gray-market 280 SEL and a pair of beat-up 300 SDs with a half-million miles apiece, all of those discarded W126s have had gasoline-fueled V8 engines under their hoods. Today's Junkyard Gem is a different sort of boneyard W126: a (relatively) low-mile example with a turbodiesel under the hood and pretty decent body and interior.
Keep in mind that "low-mile" means something different for an oil-burning W126 than it does for, say, a Hyundai Excel of the same era. This car made it well past a quarter-million miles during its career, which is respectable at best for a 300 SD. I've documented a crashed '81 300 SD with 572,139 miles and a terrifyingly apocalyptic '85 300 SD with 535,971 miles prior to today's car (surprisingly, the highest-mile Mercedes-Benz I've ever found in a car graveyard was a gasoline-burning W201 proto-C-Class) and had been keeping my eyes open for an example of the diesel W126 that wasn't quite so used up.
The interior is dirty and a bit sun-damaged, almost certainly from long-term outdoor storage in the harsh High Plains climate, but it could have been cleaned up without too much trouble.
The body has some damage, but these dents look like the sort that happen after a car enters the junkyard ecosystem.
It's a good bet that some expensive mechanical problem sidelined this car years ago, and its owner couldn't or wouldn't pay to fix it.
