i owned a 1976 450sel that i purchased new. traded in my 1973 220. i also owned a 1972 lotus europa t/c. the 450sel made me forget the lotus for street driving.

it was a great car. i drove it for 10 years and when i abandoned it for my 1986 560sel it had 240,000 miles. the w126 was an improvement. better climate control system, better seat positioning, better sunroof.

but i must admit, i enjoyed driving the 116 better. mine was baby blue with black leather. a great car and i wish that i had it back.

it was the memories of that car that caused me to acquire a very cherry, low mileage 1979 6.9 several years ago. another great car whose looks would be great had not the feds forced such monstrous bumpers on it.

actually, i like the looks of the 116 as well as i like the looks of the 126.

the best thing about this series of s class cars is that 116's were the best of their era and the 126's were developmental improvements. in my view, benz could have stopped right here. i feel that no one has topped this series.

but lexus arrived and the era of gadgetization in car design began. and benz was not immune from that disease. too bad.

i shall keep driving the old ones. i understand them. i got into a new one the other day and found nothing intuitive about operating it. almost as bad as the 7 series beamers.

fwiw.