Nothing will get you 40mpg in a USA-spec 124.193 diesel wagon with OM603 engine, except perhaps a continuous 40mph tailwind. You can, however, get around 30mpg from that particular model. W124 gas wagons with the M104 engine can realistically get low/mid 20's.



For an impact with a Kia or Hundai, yep, probably not much difference. However for an impact with a much larger vehicle (American 1-ton pickup, bus, etc) I'd prefer the 240D. Or better yet a W124 with SRS (airbags), which the 240D lacks.


Useless anecdote, which I've related previously: A friend of mine used to work at a Mercedes-specialty salvage yard about 10 years ago (early 2000's). Right next door was a Japanese-specialty yard (I forget if it was Toyota, or Nissan, or whatever). One day he was visiting the Japanese yard and walking around their cars with one of the guys who worked there. He noticed that many of the Japanese cars had some weird brown stuff inside, and asked the guy what it was. "Oh, that's dried blood." He said that in the few years he worked at the MB yard, they saw extremely few cars (like, single digits, out of hundreds) that had the brown stuff inside. YMMV, etc, etc. Just remember that cars are replaceable, people are not. I personally have been in two major accidents in MB's, my sister in one bad accident (all three cars were totaled). I can't justify putting myself or my family into anything less just to save a few bucks.

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