where's the W123's?
 

Rode up to my favorite pull a part today and was pretty disappointed at what was there. Couple 126 gassers a 78 300D a 76 240D and an early 80's euro coupe (looked like a hardtop). Anyway, picked up a spare oil cooler, a hose and a couple visors for a friend. Tried to find a drivers side fender for a '93 300ZX and a drivers headlight for a '92 Prelude for a couple other friends but they were not to be found. Anyway, I was tempted to grab an intake/exhaust manifold off of the '78 300D (for the '81) but the York compressor looked like a pia to get out of the way so I passed.

There were NO turbo 300D's in there and the only ones I am seeing in the paper are CD's. Anybody seeing the same pattern in their areas?

Meant to mention - LOTS of early 90's Hundais (SP?) there - wow.

"Anybody seeing the same pattern in their areas?"

YES! It's quite upsetting in a way -- when I bought my wagon, I had "dreams" of going to the junkyard, rummaging through the stacks, picking off what I needed for my baby. To date, I've only scored a couple of needed screws and bolts, and a few trim pieces. That's it.

On the other hand, it's nice to know that my choice of vehicle isn't the predominant car in the junkyard...

When my '85 300D was totaled a few weeks back, I started looking for a replacement. I was in Florida when the insurance company gave me the bad news, so I started looking while I was there. I searched all of the local papers, drove to all of the local used lots, searched the internet, drove over to Pensacola and looked on all of thier used lots, and came up dry. I looked through the Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Lafayette classifieds...nothing. Once I got back to Houston, I searched the papers, car lots, etc. and couldn't find a used 82-85 123 in decent shape. I came accross one CD, but it was beat up pretty bad. I ended up buying an '87 300D.

It seems as if the 123's are getting harder to come by. I even checked with my local indy repair guy and he didn't know of any for sale either. I offered to buy his, but he wouldn't part with it.

I am parting out my totaled car. What parts are you looking for?

Mike

Come to LA, hardly no week go's by with out seeing a 123 sedan for sale.

thanks for the invite Jorn
 

I thought lower Atlanta was LA:) ;) .

If you only knew how hard it is for me to just get away to go to the PullAParts:). I sure don't have time to get to the LA on Calif. Anyway Calif is probably going to be the last great place to find them. I suspect that there were alot more sold there than this part of the country. The only thing close listed in the Atl paper were a couple of 300CD's and they were $10k+:eek:. There are not even any SD's listed and you can forget able SDL's.

I wanted to put California behind it.... :)

There are some only MBZ wrecking places here, unfortunately they are not the "PullAParts" so the parts are still "costly" and it's great fun to find parts you don't really need 'till you found them.

Someone told me ones that MBZ would not be the large company it is today with out California and some help from NY.

Sadly there are cars being crushed due to high scrap iron prices. Better buy/find parts cars while you can. In a few years if not sooner, they'll be all but gone. :(

They crush them for the pollution rights also.

You W123 guys think you have it bad, I have yet to find a 300SDL getting parted out! Not to mention one in a junkyard.

Mine's in the garage now after 350 mile round trip today. :cool: :D

I will be selling one of mine soon. Matter of ecnomics and room since I want to get a pickup truck. It'll be either an 83 sedan or an 83 CD. Front yeard first, then E-Bay. Then again, I had a bad day today, maybe if things go better I'll keep 'em both. Never know :-)

Yep. Seen this pretty regular lately, less and less 123's and they get crushed sooner (because they're made of REAL steel, unlike most cars these days.)

We need to come up with a list of parts that just have to be found in junkyards (either not available anymore or too expensive at the parts houses) and a number of us start collecting and storing these parts when we can.

I've kind of begun to do this myself smaller parts, but need more room for trannies, diffs, etc.

I gave up on finding a decent W123 turbodiesel in my area. When I found the 230CE I now have I couldn't pass it up. I guess I could always convert it to a diesel when the time comes to pull the engine it has now.

What's not getting crushed is getting used as parts cars. I can understand parting a car that's been infected with rust, etc. But it seems a lot of cars are being bought for parts that could instead make someone a nice first 123. It saddens me to see usable 123s being parted out.

Look at what I bought today 81 300D for $550 and it runs great, stearing is tight, new battery, new tires, new altenator, I bought it with the idea to sell it to someone here. Now the wife is talking about sell the Jetta and her driving the 81 300D :confused:, I not sure what to do or think now. :confused: :eek: :D