I was just “gifted” a 1982 Mercedes 300SD Turbo Diesel by my exhusband. The body is in excellent shape; the interior needs some work as it is kind of moldy and the seats are strangely SOFT like the springs gave out; the fuel system has turned into a sludgeway for green algae; the battery, and who-knows-what-else is toast (it sat in a cold garage for 4 years without any prep). A local mechanic thinks it’ll take about 2K to just get it to turnover. Any suggestions as to what to do with it?
“Gift” it to a recycler.
This car is going to take far more than $2K to get back into being a safe running vehicle, and the interior mold has an excellent chance of making you physically sick. And even if you get past all that, it’ll never be as safe or reliable as a new car of ANY kind.
Know that this vehicle is not a classic Merc. It has very little market value. Far less than you’d need to spend to get it running.
Someone offered me $500 for the body. Should I take it?
I don’t know if gifted is the word? All fluids are going to have to be drained and replaced. Interior sounds bad. I would say $2k is a good ballpark to get it running. Restoration would be much more. I think you are going to lose money on this one.
Take the $500 and don’t look back. The vehicle is not worth repairing in my opinion.
I agree. Take the $500 and thank your lucky stars you got that.
One more vote for the $500. No way to make this a ‘good’ car to drive for less than thousands.
Maybe call an import car junk yard and ask them what they’d pay you to come and take it.
I agree with the previous posters. This car only makes sense to a mechanic who can fix it up in his spare time with wholesale parts. Your ex is not doing you any favors by “giving” it to you. The term “white elephant” originated in India and it depicted an animal that would eat you out of house and home without doing any useful work. This car is a white elephant.
@ConnieT, take the money and run!
If the car was running, maybe I’d advise something else, but it isn’t running, is it?
This car is heavy and not particularly fuel efficient.
The car’s not even that safe. It doesn’t have ABS or airbags, and the handling is lousy.
If you did get it running, it would leak like a sieve, ruining your driveway.
Not to mention that #2 diesel fuel is expensive and not available at every filling station.
As for the soft seats, you’re right. The springs are sagging, and a proper repair is expensive.
I know, because I used to work on Benzes.
A group 49 battery is pretty expensive in an of itself, because it’s huge.
These cars were just too common to be “collectible”
I like Mercedes more than most, but I have to agree with those that say to take the $500 and run. It’s nice that you have an ex husband to blame.
I don’t know anything about a “turbo diesel” but we had some friends that had a diesel about the vintage of your Mercedes and it would have been a perfect car for Triedaq. It made a big stink, a lot of noise and didn’t move very fast. That diesel matched Triedaq’s personality perfectly.
I can’t give up Triedaq after all these years, but if someone dumped a 1982 Mercedes on me and I was offered $500 for it, I would take the money and run. A year ago, our neighbor offered us $500 for the 1978 Oldsmobile we had owned for 33 years. Triedaq had it running really well, but with all its other problems (rusted floor, no working air conditioning) I reminded Triedaq of all the fishing tackle he could buy for $500 and the Oldsmobile got a new home. Take the $500 and buy yourself a real gift.
Mrs. Triedaq
I am really digging your comments, everybody! I had dreams of fixing this car up to use in my twilight years but I guess not! Yep, gonna take the $500 and run away FAST! 
With tongue in cheek, I guess the point could be made that the ex still holds a grudge… 
@ConnieT, these were nice enough cars when they looked good and were running well.
But it sounds like it would cost too much to get it back into good condition.