I have personally logged about 700,000 miles personally in 123's and about 150,000 in my 124. My brother in law, who is my MB tech at the dealer, and I have an ongoing argument regarding the 124 vs. 123. When arguing with him I take the side of the 123. After all how can you have an argument if both parties are in agreement.

In reality, I feel that it is a wash between these cars. As you say the 124 CLEARLY outhandles the 123. As a matter of fact, I don't consider the 123 to be a very good handling car.

There are many more parts that snap into place on the 124, but the sophistication of the car seems to make up for it.

To fairly compare these cars to each other, it is imperative that you take into account the era in which they were designed. The 123 was designed in the mid seventies, while the 124 was designed almost ten years later with the aid of much more computer technology, both for use by the designers as well as added to the car.

As far as I'm concerned, both of these cars represent the very finest of automobiles designed in their respective era's.

My $0.02,