Ten13:

I have a '78 300 CD (five cylinder non-turbo diesel with 425+K miles) that I have owned since 1986. Obviously, I love this car and have restored during the last 31 years of ownership.

The good:

1) It's a W123 - one of the best built MB's out there. The twin-cam 6 cylinder is definitley in the minority ('78 to '81) as most of the W123's were diesels like mine. The fuel injected model got better mileage than the carbureted W115 coupe of the previous model.

2) It's a coupe! It is the tank like the sedans with some refinement as a coupe. It is definitely worth more than the sedans, but nowhere near the W111 coupes of the '60's/early '70's that are pure works of rolling art!

3) Great handling car that begs for the Euro 5-speed standard transmission.

4) The '78 and '79 coupes were the only models with burled walnut wood (which I prefer). The '80 thru '85 models had zebrano and the subsequent W124 coupes from '86 to '89 had zebrano. After 1990, burled walnut was again placed in the coupes.

5) Parts are readily available for W123's (see below for more)

The bad:

1) It's a coupe - and while W123 parts are available, some of the coupe parts are NOT available even from The Mercedes-Benz Classic Center (go figure!). You will be able to get the replacement seats for the coupe, but the door paneling and rear seat paneling are not available. I had to have mine custom made which is more expensive (I had this performed at Bud's Benz near Atlanta, GA)

2) Like all cars with vacuum line, there will be some gremlins to work out. The one I would advise you to check first is the vacuum lines to the front seats. It is a safety feature that locks the front seat backs in place when the car is in gear with the doors closed. When the car is in park and a door is opened, the seats release vacuum to allow the seat back to be moved forward to allow backseat passengers easy entry/exit. These keep heavy items/people not wearing seat belts from pushing your seat back forward in the event of a crash.
a) If your automatic climate control takes a long time to engage and function, lock the drivers door which will allow quicker vacuum build-up for the servo.
b) I replaced the original plastic Chrysler servo with an aluminum body Servo from George Murphy. It had a lifetime warranty and has been replaced twice in the last 30 years. I am not sure if the warranty is still available. He advertises in The Star Magazine.

Glad to see you were able to obtain the '78 280 CE. You will definitely enjoy it! My favorite time in my coupe is a comfortably warm spring or fall day with the sunroof back and the pillarless windows down for an almost "SL" type, top down experience.

Enjoy!

Jim
'78 300 CD (black with tobacco brown seats; restored with Euro small chrome bumpers, flush Euro headlights with headlight wiper/washers and a manual transmission - the way it was designed to look)