Used Car of the Day: 1981 Mercedes-Benz 280ce Euro

by Tim Healey

Published: March 28th, 2023

used car of the day 1981 mercedes benz 280ce euro

Today's UCOTD is a rare bird -- a 1981 Mercedes-Benz 280ce Euro that was imported from Japan.

It has the original M116 engine with about 92,500 miles on it and new tires.

It's all Euro-spec and the only issues seem to be some minor paint peel and a bit of surface rust.

The seller asks $15,000.

There's not a lot of text in the ad, so take a gander at the photos instead.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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5 of 10 comments

95_SC on Mar 28, 2023

15k for some old rusty 80s junk that is slower to 60 than the Exxon Valdez? Pass. Plus no TikTok on the old Mercedes

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- See 1 previous
- 28-Cars-Later on Mar 28, 2023
  
  Cars from Japan are usually in time capsule condition, you should look into them if only to gain knowledge.
  
  Like
- Kevin on Oct 10, 2023
  
  This has a twin-cam six with ~180hp and zero emissions controls. By modern standards, it is feather light. It's not slow, at all. Lovely howl when you get on it too - friend of mine had a gray-market 280E sedan back in the day. That thing would rip up to 135mph and sit there all day long. It wanted nothing more than to cross continents at triple-digit speeds.
  
  Like
Tassos on Mar 28, 2023

Strictly a collectible, nota daily driver. Way too old. Even the Awesome S class from 1991-99 is getting to old to be a daily driver these days.

Like Reply
- Sundance on Mar 29, 2023
  
  Too old for a daily? No, that's absolutely wrong. Of course you can drive a C123 on a daily base. That's not so rare here in Germany. And regarding the S Class you mentioned: My CLK W208 is from 1998 and a daily. No problems with that.
  
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Recent Comments

Dale Quelle surprise.
3SpeedAutomatic Nice looking, but IIRC, there was an issue with these engines where a knock would develop. That may account for the very low milage. 🚗🚗🚗
Redapple2 Used to watch F 1 a great deal. Now? F1 Random thoughts:1 Silly rules bug me. Must use 2 types of tire. Cant refuel. Drag reduction can only be used in certain areas of the track and only if you are so close to the car in front.2 Passing is rare. Pole sitter wins a high % of the time.3 A new team can only start in F1 if they get the blessing of the overlords. Evil gm Vampire was barred. How about this. Anybody with a car that meets the construction rules can try. If your speed qualifies and you pay the entry fee. You re in. So is anybody else. 4 I tune in for Martin Brundle's grid walk. In my life, it s must see tv. But he is often bumped or cancelled. Grid walk takes place 1 out of 3 or 4 races.5 So, because of this utter bull sheet and other points, I ve migrated to IMSA and MotoGP. I might catch a summary on the youtube.
Redapple2 I retract my comments and apologize.
Flashindapan I always thought these look nice. I was working at a Land Rover dealership at the time the LR3 came out and we were all impressed how much better it was then the Discovery in just about every measurable way.