Slightly off the main topic here, but whatever...
Wesley, it's ironic that you mentioned a 300TE - I used to chase in one! My first car/chase vehicle was a 1990 Mercedes 300TE 4MATIC AWD wagon. It was a fantastic car, built like a tank, as you mentioned, (I drove it through a nasty golf ball size, ten minute duration hail core one time and did not get a SINGLE dent) and it got pretty decent gas mileage on the highway, around 24 mpg. Oh, and the 4MATIC kicked a$$ - I got into some pretty hairy situations a couple times on sloppy dirt roads, but it just plowed right through as if the road was bone dry.
But sadly it had not been properly taken care of, and as with any car, but especially true of the European makes, if the maintenance schedule hasn't been followed, be prepared for MAJOR repair bills. I found that out the hard way with my 300TE, and because of that I wound up getting rid of it. It was a classy and comfortable ride, and it was an awesome road trip vehicle, but I just couldn't afford to keep it on the road.
If you do decide to pick one up, don't touch one without at least partial, if not complete maintenance records.
And while I'm on the subject of Europeans makes, a little known fact - Saab is actually a division of General Motors, has been for about 15 years now, and you CAN get a Saab worked on at GM Goodwrench facilities.
Something else to mention -
Cory mentioned earlier in the thread that he has two newer 'daily driver' vehicles, but he doesn't want to beat them up chasing. He's looking for a vehicle SPECIFICALLY FOR CHASING.
Just thought I should clarify that for everyone.
Anyway, back on topic.
Cory,
You wouldn't necessarily have to take your Subaru to the dealership to get work done on it. In fact, if you can possibly help it, I would avoid going to the stealership all together - they will rip you off MAJORLY on parts and labor.
There is a major (and somewhat dated) misconception among chasers that there are no places to get an import vehicle worked on out in the Great Plains, so your only choice is to buy American.
This is not true.
While in decades past the odds of finding a shop that would work on imports on the Great Plains was not particularly good, it is a very different story today.
There is almost always at least one import repair shop in the larger towns (<5000 in population) out in Tornado Alley who will do work on Japanese and occasionally European import vehicles.
And with the amount of Japanese cars on the road today across the country, even some of the repair shops in the smaller towns now carry at least some basic parts for the major Japanese makes like Toyota's, Honda's, Subaru's etc. And if they don't have the parts in stock, they can get them a lot more quickly than you would expect.
For example, in southwestern Nebraska, there is a repair shop that actually specializes in Japanese cars in North Platte.
It wouldn't be a bad idea to call the repair shops in and around the Imperial/Grant/Ogallala area to see if any of them would do work on imports - I think you might be pleasantly surprised at what you find out.
