This time I'm not going to argue.

I just want to hear everyone's reasons about what makes the W124 a good car in your opinions? I mean by today's standards, a W124 would not be considered "Good" to most of the public.

What makes you guys so passionate about the W124?

For me, i would have to say i like it the most because it is a very well balanced car.
Nothing about the car particularly stands out as "amazing", nor does anything about it stand out as "crap".

Handling is good..but it could be better.
Performance is good, but it could also be a good bit better.
Comfort is good, and once again it could be better.

But the thing is IMO, you can't gain something without the sacrafice of something.
If you increase speed and acceleration then you lose some comfort and fuel economy.
If you go for comfort and luxury you lose some performance and handling.

So, the point i am making is (again IMO), the car is "good" because it is very well balanced. Nothing is amazing, nothing is crap.

 

I watched both my kids get new Hyundais. Those cars were great, but my 124s were 8-15 years older when the Hyundais were new. Mine are still as they were. Both Hyundais are either for sale or soon to be gone. 124s last, and it is more "green" to use one car for many years than to buy a new green car every 4 years.

Plus, have you seen the videos of the monster truck/cannonball/abuse ? I really appreciate the wagon's response to the monster truck's assault.

Bottom line, the average sedan in good shape is about as much car as you will find for a few thou. And as you can see, some long timers around here have grown tired of nursing the old cars and have stepped into newer rides. Coupes, V8s, wagons and Cabs have a whole nutha good vibe above the average sedan.

 

By today's standards, new MB's are not as tight as W124's....so I guess there's THAT....

 

You can wrench a W124.

New ones just go "phut!" Replace parts.


Zach - read please: https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...edes-ever.html

 

My 124 is a Coupe which was bought brand new by my dad and has 62,000 miles on it.
It's never been in an accident, the interior is spotless, and exterior is still shiny.
More so, it's a 16 year old car and still looks good. Not to mention 208 and 209 CLK's are for girls, so nothing (until now) really replaced the C124.

That being said though, if it was a sedan which is much more common and in my opinion lacks coolness, I don't see anything too special about it. To be perfectly honest even back in it's day I thought the E34 was a nicer car. We had a W124 as well as a E34 BMW both new, and granted my opinion is based upon me being about 10 years old but still the BMW was so much nicer.

 

Deja vu!!!

 

Oh yeah i already read over a lot of that thread a while ago. Its just that, some of the people on this forum are clearly pretty wealthy.

I was just wondering what made most of you stick with a W124. No doubt some people on the W124 forums can afford much newer, nicer, and faster cars.
But, for some reason, they are still in love with and very passionate about the W124.

I just wanted to hear everyones different reasons for owning and driving W124s.

 

They were ALL made by hand...

 

Seriously? I never knew that.

I'd say the car is good because it is safe, makes me feel safe, and never surprises me in a bad way. The car is always very stable and predictable even when I'm pushing it hard.

Also, my car is in a pretty sad state cosmetically compared to most people on here, yet I still get compliments on how it looks.

And if we want to get into reliability, my engine is worn to the point where I'm just hemorrhaging oil and fouling my plugs but the engine idles smooth and easy and still drives albeit with much less power than it should have. The car can take a beating..

 

Because I know in 20 years time, my car will be 43 years old and nothing in todays production world will look how mine does now today. Make sense?

I can't afford a better car, no...but I am more than happy with what I have. It has been a great learning curve and I wouldn't trade this car for anything.

In 10 years time, I'll give her a new lick of paint, drop a new engine in and keep on driving!!

 

Actually, yours was made by Murray, a demented elf with a substance abuse problem! JK

That's the first I've heard of that.
I believe only the 500E500 was made by hand, pushed around on pallets from station to station, taking 18 days to build - that's why they cost so much.

Out of curiosty, can anyone verify that? Thousands of W124 variations were made each month.

 

Its pretty common MB knowledge ...Sindelfingen (and other similar production facilities)at that time had rolling pallets on the floor with a chassis on each one, and it moved along a route to every assembly station at a certain time; workers put the car together. Sometimes it was a one person station, other stations had like 6 or 7 techs.

Painting was robotic though then....I am not entirely correct

I was at the factory (several actually) in the early 1990s, btw. It was a very long production run for the W124...like 10 years; MANY cars in many variations were built at super efficient pace and with quality standards. They may be junk now here in the states to many people...but in other countries these era cars even beat up are gold.

The change to robots was gradual (to me) In 1998 when I was there again body parts like windshields, etc were being done by machines and the finish stuff like motors, seats and trim were still largely done by hand. Anyway."They don't build em' like that anymore" cliche

 

Yes, on the E500Es...their pallets were indeed pushed around, but at the Porsche factory across town by the out of work Porsche 959 techs. The E500Es were too wide for Sindelfingen production lines. Only the chassis and bodies were painted and final assembly at MB.

You bet that was part of the price tag. 8 trips back and forth over 2 weeks to make 1 car.

 

Beg to partially differ..

The 124 was far from totally "handbuilt"...most of major chassis/body production was performed robotically.
Detailed or finish work was a manual operation.
Only this way ( combo man/robot ) could extreme quality control and tolerance to specification be met.

To quote the 1988 "300 Class" sales brochure:

Page 7

" The ruggedness of a Mercedes-Benz is inseperable from the rigidty of its monocoque body/chassis.
After precise electronic robots have welded numerous steel components into a single, solid unit, highly trained craftsman apply their finely honed skill to its finishing.
First, welds that can be made more effectively by hand are completed.
Then, because the process lends integrity to the finished body/chassis while contributing to corrosion protection, craftsman braze all vital body seams"

Page 11

"Most of the thousands of precise welds in a Mercedes Benz body, for example, are made by inhumanly precise six-axis robot welders. Selected welds are then checked with hammer and chisel by trained specialist"

Page 12

"Tireless robots perform much of the taxing repetitive labor required in an industrial operation"

Factory work ethic at that time embraced the motto of Gottlieb Daimler : "Das beste oder Nichts " ( "The best or nothing" )
The 300 Class 124 was probably the most over engineered vehicle that Mercedes has ever built !!!

I find it humorous that a lot of the "young people" on 124 forums buy a "cheap" clapped out example of a 124, mess with it in trying to make it much better without a clue of how the vehicle should be...and wonder why it doesn't run

Let them buy a 1986-1991 Honda and see what they have

 

Thanks for the in-depth background info. That was interesting.

 

A well-maintained W124 is a solid, handsome and reliable automobile.

 

I completely agree with this

Or they expect that they can 'get away' with throwing in some injector cleaner and drive it for a while without putting a dime into it. Sorry to break it to you....

 

How about annoying the neighborhood with Seafoam ( naptha )

A well maintained pre 1995 Merc will run a very long time...
Probably evey diesel W123 is still running as a cab in some far off third world country.

What a lot of the younger buyers of 124's don't realize is how expensive they were when new..
I paid $52.5K or about $81K in todays dollars for my 1988 300CE....
The 1986 6.0L-32V Hammer was around $140K or $230K in todays dollars.

A well maintained 124 for $5K + is a real bargain...

 

Oh boy I love seafoam...

These are still solid cars, but even bought with very, very nice records, you can EASILY drop a few THOUSAND at a local indy doing bare basic suspension, brake work and ignition tune up...I've spent a total of $3.5k on my 260E including purchase, but I added up all the work and got a rough estimate if I took it to a shop at around 8-9k total. I'm not even done yet either...but at this point I am almost 'caught up' with the prior lack of maintenance.

As it has been said numerous times...no such thing as cheap w124...unless you do it ALL yourself, in which case, no such thing as a cheapish w124

These being my first cars have been a joy to work on, even though at some points I just wanted to give up, but in hindsight it wasn't that bad and I saved a huge amount of cash.
Now I've learned the basics of the 103 engine, once I am done with school and get a career going I'd love to dive into performance like stroking and FI

Sending off an oil sample to Blackstone labs for analysis once I get their kit. Looks like a cool service and should be able to see what the molecules are telling me about my internal conditions!

 

Ey. I resemble that remark :[

 

I've owned a 300e, and currently own both an e34 and a 500e, so I offer my opinion:

Keep in mind my e34 and 300e were both purchased from the same person, with very close mileage, so they should have had similar maintenance history.

I can understand why the e34 may APPEAR nicer to a 10 year old. The interior looks more modern, and the exterior a bit more flashy. However, it's that same flashiness that I believe has left the e34 looking dated with time. The interior on mine is similar in color to that of my 500e, but nowhere near as good condition. That with the e34 being 3 years newer! The finish on nearly every seat, and the armrests especially, has peeled and flaked like crazy. The wood is in better condition as far as cracking, but it is only 1-ply of 1/16" thick and is peeling back in the center console. The shift gate disintegrated at some point.

To be fair, both my w124's have issues of the map pockets peeling, and even broken tabs on the lower portion of the door panels. Also, cracking wood is common. That's it though. The leather is nearly pristine, the dash hasn't cracked, my a/c vents are intact and operational.

Mechanically, I never had problems with my 6 cyl. w124 in the 3 years I owned it. Never overheated, never stalled, never even leaked. My e34 OTOH is a completely different story. I still have not had the car for a year, and I have replaced the following: Replaced the radiator, plastic-impeller (wtf were they thinking) water pump, head gasket, entire head (old one was cracked), VANOS unit, various frayed cables, heater core valves, and to top it all of, the car is not running now. The day I buttoned it back up after the head gasket job, the starter decided to take a crap. I attempted to rebuild it, but there were shattered plastic internals which are not individually replaceable.

Honestly, just look next time you're on the road. Tally the number of any given mid-late 80's model car and compare the number to how many w124's you see. Hell, even count cars from the 90's to make it a fair fight. Whichever car you pick was likely produced in much higher quantities than the w124, but still will have less cars on the road today.

 

For me, it was what I grew up with & fell in love with. I've owned over 6 of them by now & will own a lot more in the near future. The styling is amazing. The car feels solid. They are fun to tune up. IMO it's a perfect all around car to own. And you can get everyones opinion on the forum, but still wont understand what we truely mean untill you own one.

Kind regards,
A.S.

 

Can wait to see the Cab under cover in you garage, Albert!

 

I have owned a 1993 190E, a 1979 240D, and currently a 1993 300e. For me these cars represent a very high standard of quality. My current MB is in great shape with 84k miles it has never left me stranded and runs and drives better than most of the brand new cars I have owned to date. I am very picky and don't like 4 door vehicles to begin with, but these cars are so quiet, smooth and reliable that I actually enjoy owning them. I could go buy a newer MB, but why when I can buy a car relatively inexpensivesly and enjoy daily driving it, and still be able to work on it myself. FYI- I sold a 2004 chevy cavalier that I hated driving to but the 300e I have now and I haven't looked back. In conclusion I don't care if this car does everything exceptionally, because in my opinion it is one of the best cars ever made and thats exceptional enough for me. Also I would like to thank everyone on this forum for being so helpful when I need advice on mechanical issues, you guys are a great help!!!

 

lol. I cant wait either. It'll be done soon. It's ganna be a simple daily driver for now

Kind regards,
A.S.