1 vote for the W126....never owned a W124.

 

Sadly, I agree. I just sold a pristine 95 E320, while I loved the car, it was far from perfect, and if it is the best Benz built, I worry for Benz. ANY car that has a self destructing wiring harness can't qualify as best anything to me. Oil leaks, etc, ac problems, the entire dash had to be taken apart, I'm thankful I had someone that owed me money that was a knowledgable mechanic to fix it. CEL was always on for something. This car was dealer serviced since new to 60K miles, had right at 100K miles on it when I sold it. Crazy first post I know, but just calling it like I see it. Without the wiring harness and AC evaporator troubles, I would probably think differently.

Great to look at, great to drive on the interstate, but "best ever"? No way.

So far the SLK has been a much better ride, I've owned it about 2 years with ZERO troubles.

 

The W124 has nothing in common with the Taurus except that they both get you from here to there on 4 wheels and are about the same size. That's about it. I'm only talking about cost to own, which in comparing 2 similarly sized vehicles, breaks down to reliability/cost to repair and maintain.

I have a newer BMW that is the primary car that my wife and I drive. It is flawless. It hasn't seen the dealer since delivery 10,000 miles ago. It's almost due for its first oil change, which is free. This is why I prefer new BMWs to new MBs.

My personal car is for commuting to work only. It doesn't have to be impressive, just reliable and cheap. I had thought that since I drive only 24 miles per day that the W124 would be an inexpensive car for my daily commute. Not true. I thought that the fact that the W124 is a car I love would be enough motivation to spend an occasional $200-$300 for a simple repair. It would have, but the repairs are more like and occasional $1,000-$1500. When ONLY looking at cost of ownership, a Taurus or similar boring car wins. I guess I am willing to settle for boring instead of bankruptcy. I am very disappointed in the W124, but YES, I'm convinced it is the "Best" MB ever- but not for what I need.

 

sometimes its luck of the draw. ive been lucky. im happy.

as for that benz in the ebay auction; accident damage, low oil pressure!!!! interior door trim falling off. theres a few things wrong with it at a minimum. might explain the similarity in bidding vs the taurus which looks nice and clean.

 

Own a W124 from new ( May 08 will be my coupes twentieth anniversary ), maintain it and dealer or dealer equivalent service it, and you will see how trouble free the earlier M103-12V vehicles are.

The later M104-24V added electronics and other stuff which became some what problematic, but no more then a new Merc.

Talk about down time waiting for electronic modules to come from Germany, then buy yourself a G55

 

If I had the money to afford a newer benz, I dont know as if the troubles would bother me. However, since I cant afford to keep up even the w124, Im glad that its been more than nice to my father and I. Only the issue with rough idle which was fixed by new distributor cap, spark plugs, and ignition wires. No harness issues yet (I dont think). All in all, for a car thats 17 years old, its done beautifully.

 

I've just bought a 1989 W124 200E and it's the nicest car I've ever owned/driven. The possible exception being the XC90 (but that costs €80,000 versus the €400 I bought my 200E for.) Some minor mechanical issues but nothing I can't fix myself or just live with(noisy diff anyone?)

 

Having owned both an E55 and 500Es, there is no comparison. The E55s will be recycled into Camry bumpers while the 500E will still be rocking along.

And when I owned the E55 it was at the dealer three times a month for glitches and buzzes and reprogramming. It was bought back by MBUSA due to quality issues after 52,000 miles, none on ANY track. I was advised that mine was not the first.

211 is better than the 210 but still not bank vault tight.

 

I liked how the 211 look/felt when I was driven in one, but I cant speak for its reliability because it was my dads demo car from the dealership.

 

1. w123
2. w124

 

I was once the owner of a fully loaded 92 Taurus SHO and as I recall the sticker price was around $18,000. It had about 150k miles on it when I sold it.

I now own a 92 300e with about 176k miles on it. The sticker price was just over $53,000.

The SHO outperformed the W124 by far and was way cheaper to operate, but I still like the W124 better.

 

in all honesty, i agree with your rankings... i love my car and would never give it up, but the w123 is probably the best overall imo

 

Since the Taurus came up in a previous post I have been wondering what a Taurus would be like if someone took care of one the way most or at least many MB owners take care of their cars. Just think if someone purchased some US car and religiously changed the oil, flushed the brake lines, flushed the radiator and cooling system, changed the transmission oil, waxed the paint, lubricated the leather seats etc.... When you realize that most American car owners may not even change their oil, you can start to appreciate that maybe the cars are not really all that bad. Just try that with a Honda too!

Actually, I do see cars like that on occasion. They look amazing. It is usually some older dude that purchased the car new and has just taken good care of it forever.

The worst thing for me is that even with 11 years of incredible care, my car still seems to be running into some problems. I didn't pay really big money to fix them YET, but it seems that my time will come. Maybe everything will hang in there just a bit longer than it seems and maybe things will be OK after I spend just some of the big dollars, but then you really do have to wonder if getting into some newer car might actually be a bit better way to spend the money.

 

Good point- many American cars are probably abused because they are not owned by fanatics. Many people just keep it running so they can get the kids to school. I swear no one even replaces a hubcap when it falls off.

 

that may be true gentlemen, but a nice clean well maintained ford is just a nice POS when its 20 years old.
can you say the same for a 124?

 

I have to admit that I sometimes think of my W124 as a nice clean well maintained POS, when I think about my wiring harness, head gasket, front timing cover, AC compressor, cracked leather seating surfaces that all need to be fixed and crumbling steering wheel, door pockets that just delaminate, full exhaust replacement and 3/4 shift flair that were already addressed. Except for the AC compressor, I don't think these things should be regular maintenance items for a car that has been pampered. Of course there were also things like the water pump, oxygen sensor, neutral safety switch, all belts and hoses, and the AC expansion valve with receiver drier that needed attention along the way too, but those I do consider normal.

I do still like driving my old gorgeous beast, but I don't know about the best car ever stuff. It is a cool old unique vehicle with a definite personality. The older it gets the cooler it seems. Then again, many folks have pride of ownership in an older car that is not a W124 and they may not have the same long list of repairs.

I am just wondering how long I can drive my beast before I actually have to break down and pay to fix the things that are broken. The thing may actually hang in there for a good while without even fixing the stuff. That is the big question for me now.

 

My dad used one as a taxi a long time ago and it was impeccable, went and looked as new till the end. Nothing ever, but ever, went wrong.

My dad's friend then bought one, and everything on it fell apart, within a year.

 

I took as good of care of my Taurus SHO as I have my 300e. In reality they're both 17 yo POS, but damned nice ones!

My SHO was done in by a mechanic that decided it didn't need anti-freeze because we live in nice warm SC. When I went to TN in December it was in the low teens. You can guess what happened. The garage bought it.

While I owned it I never had trouble with it. It was a lot cheaper to operate than my 300e, the amenities just as nice and the performance better.

That said, there is still something very subtle about the 300e that makes it the favorite.

 

OK, I just have to add my $.02 to this.

I just bought my first MB W124, a Black over Silver '90 300E in phenomenal shape, inside and out, and 120k on it. I paid a fair price for it, not too much, not a great deal, just a fair price. I have the head off it right now getting a valve job done to address an intermittent rough idle problem that became a permanent issue 2 weeks after I bought it. The power windows stopped working (all at the same time) the day after I put the car in the garage to take the head off......and I STILL think it is a great car and would buy it again. I removed and will replace the revamped head myself. The valve job will only cost me around $400 total. Big deal - the car will be set for the next 150k or more after that. Try that with a big 3 made piece of crap and see if you can make 250k. Even if the engine does (and I doubt it) the rest of the car won't. The window issue is a $40 relay that has "passed on" after (probably) 16 years of faithful service. Why should that upset me?...yet it does some....

Compare this car with a Taurus ? No disrespect intended, but give me a break.........two cars in a COMPLETELY different league....kinda like swamp water and Perrier. OK, I've never OWNED a Taurus, but I have rode IN one, and DROVE one, and I sure as hell wouldn't consider it even remotely in the same league as the 300E.

I guess maybe my perspective is a little different. I've had a LOT of different cars in my life, including Fords, Chevys, Mopars, Jaguars, Volvos, and a Porsche. Brand new cars, and "new to me" cars. Over time, I have found European cars generally to be built better, engineered simpler, and be more reliable if properly maintained. These are expensive cars when new, who's target audience is NOT the Ford Taurus crowd. Correspondingly, the parts and repair prices reflect that. This shouldn't be a big surprise to anyone. If you buy one of these used, and don't expect to pay big bucks to the stealers for repairs if you can't/won't do them yourself, then your terribly naive. Jaguars are the same way, so are Volvos, so are Porsches, Ferraris, and a dozen other high end makes. If you want to keep the CoO down, you learn to wrench them yourself, or you don't buy them. That simple.

This W124 is hands down the sweetest "non-sports" car I have ever owned. I like thw W124 as much as my Porsche, but for a completely different kind of driving experience. And I don't mind investing some money, or spending some time, keeping her in the kind of shape that will make sure I get to enjoy that over and over for many miles to come.

 

^ Engineered simpler?! Are you freakin' kidding me?! There's a fan motor just to draw air through the cabin temp sensor so it can control the temperature. There's a dedicated vacuum pump to lock the doors. Not only the tank but the washer fluid HOSE is heated and thermostatically controlled. There is a dedicated pump to circulate water through the heater core. Even the mechanical throttle linkage is a cluster f**k. There never was an American car than can touch the complexity of the engineering on a W124.

This is a car we are talking about. Its job is to get you from one place to another. How much is that worth? A very subjective matter, no doubt. For me, it's worth about $200/month. If a W124 costs more than that to purchase and maintain, no dice. If I were single and had no financial obligations besides myself then I would share the above point of view. I'm not saying it is an incorrect viewpoint, just not mine. My love affair with this car has ended for now.

 

^^^^^^^^^^
all good points.
but
a) the fan that draws the air through the cabin temp sensor is for the climate control. that way, the air is representative of the actual temps in the car, not the air near the sensor. its an engineering solution. ive sat in cars where the air near the sensor was cool, but the rest of the car wasnt. not pleasant.
b) central locking will work even if your electrical system is fried. or dunked underwater. its an engineering solution again. you can bah humbug that statement all you want to, but when i was a mercedes mechanic in africa i saw my share of flooded cars. hydraulicked conrods and everything. doors opened like a charm
c) the washer bottle is conveniently heated for those people who live in snow areas. if the car is plugged in overnight, the aux pump circulates and (weakly) heats the coolant. less snow shovelling off the windscreen in the morning.
scenario a, your driver starts his car thats been plugged in, and while its warming up, is busy scraping snow off the windshield.
scenario b, your driver starts his car thats been plugged in, and simply hits the windshield washer, which sends warm water all over the screen, melting the snow. he stays warm in his car and is glad he paid a little more for such features.
we did not get that in the cars we had in africa BTW.
d) same pump gives you near instant heat as soon as you start driving the car in thats same cold weather. in winter, my car starts putting out warm air about 2 minutes after i start it. i leave my temp set at 75, it starts and no air blows, and within 2 minutes ive got warm air coming at me.
ill give you the accelerator linkage.

the car could be a whole lot simpler. like say a cadillac from 1985 when the 124 debuted. but then again, how many 1985 cadillacs do you still see on the road vs 124s?
its complex, but its reasonably complex. unlike the W220 S class and ML which bore the brunt of ruining mercedes reputation with thier complex shenanigans. and i love the W220 BTW.

 

The system is complex, yes, but the engineering behind it isn't. There is a difference.

I have never viewed my cars as just a machine to get me from point A to point B. But if that is how you view yours, and I do understand what your saying, then your right - this type of car isn't the right one for you. Let's keep things in perspective, MB or not, this IS about a 20 year old car. Considering that even basic maintenance will cost you about $800 per year if you do it yourself (double easy if you don't), a $2400 a year bogie doesn't leave a lot of room for repairs if your paying someone, especially a stealer, to do them.

What ever you do, don't EVER even consider buying yourself a Porsche, Ferarri, or Jag. Maybe a nice used Honda.

 

get on craigslist, and buy a 1991 honda civic. a decent one will set you back MAYBE $1200, and you will get 400 miles on $20 of gas. maintenance is almost zero. this way you will have a car that will be doing it's 'job' more efficiently and cheaper than any other car, and you will be happy. you won't be driving a benz any more, but hey... 'one place to another', right...
also, i've actually done this in the past, so i'm not being sarcastic. 39MPG, nothing wrong with that...

 

LOL then how do you know it is the best?

I've driven most models in the mb lineup starting with a 70's SLC

 

the W124 is a engineering marvel... but to each his own....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrs7s...elated&search=