must be rough for you east coast guys, my brother and his family are visiting out here from Newburgh, NY, and he always is impressed by the condition of my "older" rolling stock.

Out west, there is still a healthy supply of stock, non-rusted and originally equipped vehicles in great condition. Our greatest enemy on the west coast is the sun, rather than rust corrosion.

The sun bakes and cracks our interiors and fades our paint. but we still have safe, functional cars that are not rolling rust buckets.

Spend a couple of weeks out west and your fears of the older 123s going away will vanish.

Heck, I just bought my first Benz back in March and I am looking forward to running the car in my sig for at least the next 5 years as my basic commuter.



I have been driving Jap gassers for the past 20 years, figured I would try something different this time..

not to worry, my friend, everything will be just fine





big jake

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85 300D, 210K (and adding 1K per week)
86 Ford F250 4X4, 6.9 International Diesel,Banks Turbo, 5 inch exhaust, rebuilt engine (70K miles) rebuilt C6 trans (about 12K miles), on board air system and locomotive horns

1957 English Ford Anglia Panel ( my retirement project)

"A lot of people buy these cars and just drive them I see few very nice older cars of any make on the road, but beat MB's just don't seem to die. As cars age people put less money into them."

That is generally true but there are always exceptions to the rule. I just put about 4.5K in my old 240D taking care of the rust, to many this is pretty darn stupid, but I did it and it now looks like new. The rust was extensive and was becoming structural, floor pans, doors, windsheld surrounds and some around the battery area. What prompted me to do this was the fact that I had installed a new motor 3 years ago and I just coud not see sending this old mama to the junkyard.
This particular 1977 240D is about as basic as it can get, manual tranny, no power wndows, a real taxicab model, and after 24 years of ownership this old thing will probably outlast me real easy.
I live in Houston, and the 123's that were all over this place are gradually disappearing, most of the remaining 123/126's that I see in our town look pretty darn worn out and tired, so it is just a matter of time before these old horses all but disappear.

Vahe
240D/77 350K

"when i was
a kid i could put the quarter in the soda machine and instantly
a coke droped... today i put the money in and wait 45 seconds
for the machine to think about giving me the soda"

Where do you find pop machines that work? When I put my money in a pop machine and actually get a can of pop I feel I have won the lottery. They work correctly less than half the time in my experience. That's why I don't use them anymore if I can help it.

You are right though, 40 years ago they were mechanical and trouble free. You could see instantly if they contained any bottles of pop and if they did, you could be sure they would dispense one if you put in 10 cents.

Unfortunately, many Benz owners are bean counters not really committed to preserving their older cars. When the tranny or engine goes, to the scrapyard goes their "beloved" MB. The reason: cost-benefit analysis; it doesn't "pencil-out" to put more money into a car than it's worth.

This is a bottom-feeding approach that generally leads to a string of one crappy car being replaced by another crappy car.

Best, IMHO, to commit to fixing and maintaining one memorable classic car. Simply put: If something breaks, fix it. Preservation is the only salvation from the junkyard.

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'91 300D 2.5 Turbo 330K
'00 VW TDI Golf, 190K
'67 BMW R50/2
'73 Norton Commando Interstate

Insurance companies total them for a bent fender and pay far less than the replacement cost, to the junkyard.

Power companies can buy the pollution rights for your car and use the rights to burn cheap, dirty coal and shower the population with mercury and radiation, to the junkyard.

Amateur wrench-twisters fix one thing and break two more while doing it. The toll reaches the breaking point, to the junkyard.

Too many of those veg-cars are conversation pieces for bar-fly mentalities and vanity trophies for environmental supremacists. Talk is cheap, to the junkyard.

I wish the junkyards were nearer to me.

I found a "junk" yard not too far from where I live where many W123's have made their final journey. Many of those that were there may have looked nicer when they arrived there than my car is now. The owner of the yard told me many of them had run but were junked for various reasons, most what sounded like for so called "cost effective" reasons.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

My oldest son and I spent a few hours at the local pull a parts yesterday picking up some parts for the '81 300D (he rear ended a Nissan this past week - destroyed the grille, condenser, cooling fan headlight doors and radiator). Anyway, there were as many 123's and 126's as I have ever seen there and we were able to literally take our pick amoung the different cars for the parts. The majority of the 126's were gassers and I am considering returning to pick up some Euro bumpers from a 126 that looked good. I found it surprising that none of them looked like they had been in a wreck. There was a gorgeous black 300D there that the body was as straight as any I have ever seen and looking under the hood you could tell it had been taken very good care of.
Here are a couple of shots of the "older" car row that is behind the section where the European cars are located. If you look real close in the second pic you can see a gasser fintail. I once saw a 220S there with a beautiful wooden dash just waiting for someone to come get it.

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Jim

At my nearest "Auto Dismantler" as they call themsemves now, there is no "pick n pull" option. They remove the part and charge 1/2 new price. For a zebrano console trim for a W123, they were asking Au$150, even though it was delaminating. Headlights Au$250 each.
You have it way easier in USA, than us here in Australia.

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Tony from West Oz.
Fatmobile 3 84 300D 295kkm Silver grey/Blue int. 2 tank WVO - Recipient of TurboDesel engine.
Josephine '82 300D 390kkm White/Palamino int.
Elizabeth '81 280E, sporting a '79 300D engine.
Lucille '87 W124 300D non-turbo 6 cylinder OM603, Pearl Grey with light grey interior


Various parts cars including 280E, 230C & 300D in various states of disassembly.

bad for low cost replacement parts.

finding a nice W123 is getting hard. Heck most W124's need $$ to bring them up to snuff

M

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Michael McGuire
83 300d
01 vw A4 TDI
66 Chevy Corsa
68 GMC V6 w/oD
86 300E

This just makes a PLUS to our "cost-benefit analysis!"

I Just purchased my first BM diesel about 2 months ago. After about going broke putting $35-$40 worth of gas in my old Caddy 2 to 3 time a week, I had been looking into getting a new or nearly new "econo-box" Something for under about $15K that got 30 or so mpg. My mechanic who usually works on only European cars would cringe anytime I would pull in in the old Eldo. He had had this '81 300SD at his shop for a couple of years that he ended up with when the guy that brought it in hadnt paid his bill. He rebuilt the tranny, went through the motor and had had it for sale for about the last yr and 1/2. The body is straight, interior and paint are not perfect, but a solid car. In my frustrating search I had to call him to ask him a question for a friend, and I thought to ask if he still had that "diesel" for sale, he said yes and I said I will be over to drive it. He had been asking $4000 for it. I drove it, came back and asked for his bottom dollar. To make an even longer story short.....I wrote him a check for $3000 and drove her home. A week after I got her I had to take a trip to a wedding out in AR (about 750 mi.) I got 33mpg! At that rate just the savings in fuel will pay for the car in short order. I think it is one of the best moves I have ever made, I would much rather be driving my 24 yr old Benz than the little Suzuki or Chevy that I had been thinking about for 4-5 times the money!

-Chris

'81 300SD 257700
'84 Eldorado 100500

These cars get expensive to fix, eventually to many things are broke to economicaly bring one back and the car is junked. The 420SEL that I stripped was like that the body was really good except for the tons of rust underneath. But everything under the hood, suspension, and interior was tired. Tons of $100 parts add up. Or the engine could blow how many cars are worth a $6k-$10k rebuild?

Why have a shop put $10k into a tired W123 when a very nice W124 or even a W210 can be had for that or a bit more? Unless you know these cars well and can do most of the work yourself it isn't practical to bring one back.

I bet if you dropped a tired W123 off at a dealer and wanted them to bring it back it would cost well over $20k if not over $30k.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I agree with you Dawg379, any car that big that gets 33mpg will pay for itself in short order. And a solid car is exactly what your car is! The 83 SD I have is clean (inside & out) sharp too even if it could stand a paint job, but looks good like it is. I want to take the engine out and put it in my W124 300E! That is if no one has serious interest in it....because 33mpg is very appealing to me! (and I love my W124! )

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'87 300E | 2.6 engine
Artic White - Navy blue interior, chrome rims, very clean and sharp!
91 300E
89 300E


The rest of my collection are just cars and trucks...no more "automobiles"...

i can agree that a few hundred dollar parts can add up. id like to point out insurance. these cars are very inexpensive to insure. take 3 100 dolar parts a month, install them yourself... for 5 years.

that'd buy you a chevalier or a neon. nothing nice.

imagine the w123/124/126 you would have at the end of that period of time.

imagine the economy car, it'd need replacing or atleast the same work as the mercedes by this time. assuming it has about 130k on it by then.

the costs and benefits kind of level out at some point, far be it from me to say when that is... its just apparent that with transportation you have two options

1) continually pay a payment(and high insurance premiums) and stick the key in and go

or

2) pay for repairs as necessary and knock on the (real) wood trim hoping that ole shlomo wants to start today.

I've had my 85 300D for about a year now. If I hadn't bought it it would likely be in a bone yard now. One of the rear trailing arms had rusted out and the rear tire was at a 15 degree angle. I replaced it and have done all the maintanance myself with much help from this site. I bought it to run home brew bio-diesel in. Mine is right on the edge of being a restorable car. If it was a 6.9 it would be restored in a heartbeat. I have put 20,000 miles on it in the year I have had it. There are many things I probably wont fix, various oil leaks, air conditioning, power antenna, there is a short somewhere that pops the fuse for the clock and interior lights, and i have one power window that doesn't work. I do have a parts car now though.
My 78 on the other hand, only has 97,000 miles on it and is close to being a show piece.

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1959 Gravely LI, 1963 Gravely L8, 1973 Gravely C12
1982 380SL
1978 450 SEL 6.9 euro restoration at 63% and climbing
1987 300 D
2005 CDI European Delivery
2006 CDI Handed down to daughter
2007 GL CDI. Wifes

In my case since I am 19 insurance is $200 a month no matter what I drive. A few hundred bucks a month can get you into a 5 year old XJ8 or late 90's W140/W210. I crunched the numbers, for me I have one because I like it not because it is cheaper.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200