Hmmm,

I have heard about the climate control issues but never experienced any major issues. As for resale it depends on the area your in. Here in Atlanta Ga you can pick up 123's pretty cheap. Even at 3-4K a car that can easily go a million miles and has an abundance of cheap replacement parts to go even farther if you have the patience is a cheap car.


There are two schools of thought when it comes to automobile ownership. There is the expensive route and the cheap route. The expensive route involves buying a car as cheaply as possible and then trading it in constantly to avoid doing any major service work to the vehicle in a false effort to save money. The Financing costs, Insurance costs and resale value costs easily outweigh any major repair costs. The Cheap way involves buying a high quality car and spending a good amount on one that is the one you want and keeping it as long as you can. Over 20 years or so even a $2,000 repair is cheaper than going through 5 or 6 cars to keep from writing a big check.


The reason I bought my 240 is its a cheap and high quality dependable car that I plan on keeping a long time. Same thing for my 123 and 126. In comparison to the "new car shuffle" it is a very cheap way to own a vehicle. My S70 was one of the most expensive cars I ever owned. At about $600 a pop for every service visit and constant problems covered under warranty and then the insurance costs and finance costs and about $20K of resale value loss. On both Benz's I spend less than $600 per year in service costs each and have yet to be stranded from either one (something I could not say about my S70). Hopefully the new 240 is nothing like the S70.

I do agree there are "some" expensive aspects of the MB product line there is stupid cheap and smart cheap. Smart cheap involves spending more money to get a high quality vehicle that will last and stupid cheap involves trying to spend the least money possible and getting screwed in the process and having to buy multiple vehicles and loosing money in the process. As well Even at the 3-4K figures you claim Volvo 240's are not far behind Mercedes in resale. When I was looking at my Wagon I was told to start at $3k and start deducting for quality issues.

Considering the reliability and longevity of both the Volvo 240 and the MB 123 cars and their relatively low entry prices I cant think of cheaper cars to own. On top of being cheap to operate they are both quite safe and comfortable vehicles.