How many W123 300D's are still on the highways. Perhaps the best way is to contact the DOMV of every state and assume they would give you the data. I know of no other way to retrieve this data excpet for Mercedes sales records with a percentage factor for cars no longer on the road (say 30 to 33%?)

Well I guess you are stuck with my absurd calculation.
I know directly of 20 such vehicles in my South Jersey area. Since I am only on the road an average of 1 out of 24 hours, I adjust this to 24X20 = 480 300D's I would directly recognize if I were on the road 24 hours a day.

Of course, I probably only would see 30% of all the vehicles in my area because I do not travel or canvass every nook and cranny of Southern New Jersey. So there are at least 48X3= 1500 300Ds in South Jersey alone.

Mid Jersey would have 1500 and nOrth Jersey would have 1500 so there are 4500 300D's in New Jersey. Multiply this by 50 states and you would get 225,000 300Ds still on the road.

Answer? A quarter million! Anybody got a better idea?

I don't really have a better answer, but I suspect your estimate is high (maybe even by a factor of 10). Does anyone know the total number of W123s sold in the US? If we know that number and assume some percentage of them (maybe half) are still on the road, we could make a rough guess.

I have noticed a sharp decline in W123 sightings in my neck of the woods, Houston, Texas. The ones that I occasionally see are pretty tired looking, faded paint, sagging suspensions and that ugly and messy sight in and around the gas tank access door.
Perhaps it is time to accept the inevitable.

Vahe
240D 77/350K

The mbusa site had information like this on it. Today I could not find it, I have a print out of the 1999 E300DT and they made 3,472. Info has to be out there somewhere and was on the that site.

I live in a village of about 100 people. And last year there were 4 MB Diesels in the neighborhood. Couple were 123's.

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raMBow

1999 E300DT Obsydian Black Metallic, Heated Full Leather Parchment options, E2, K2, 136,000+, best 36.5 mpg - GP's 12-04 & 11-12 Zero Stuck
2010 Honda Odyssey - The BrideMobile - best 26.5
(2) 2005 Honday Accord- (1 -Corporate 1 - Personal) - 110,000 4-cyl 30mpg
2000 VW Golf GLS TDI, Upsolute Chip (sold to Brother, now 300+k on it) 48.5 mpg like clock work
1987 Honda CRX HF - Sold 87,000 always over 50 mpg Max 67 mpg

I'm at work right now so my bandwidth is limited. I did a search on yahoo under mercedes production figures. The total for all 300D's ('75-'85) is
332,000. Paul.

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'84 300CD 290,000

I found out that there were only 1,923 Turbo coupes built in 1984. I wonder how many were red & still on the road today. Can't be much. I'd love to find out. Paul.

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'84 300CD 290,000

Do you know if those numbers are for the US, or worldwide?

I suspect the MBUSA knows. Based upon the fact years ago when I bought my first MB (W123) used, I started getting mail from MB/Dealer. The car was bought from an individual so MB has to be monitoring those numbers. MB is real good about answering questions, thinking maybe they would tell us.

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BENZ THERE DONE THAThttp://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...c/progress.gif
15 VW Passat TDI
00 E420
98 E300 DT
97 E420 Donor Car - NEED PARTS? PM ME!
97 S500
97 E300D
86 Holden Jackaroo Turbo D
86 300SDL
(o\|/o)

There's an active thread going on about this very subject, though not limited just to the 300D W123s.
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1246609&posts=26&fid=10

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Based on my passion for my 300D, my wife thinks I'm crazy and we talked about this at dinner and she would say I believe 1 out of every 3 cars in the USA is a W123 300D, so that makes 100 million?

Seriously if 325000 was the original number my estimate of 225 000 still running isnt bad.

I've found the exact number of 300D Turbodiesels made. From mid to late 1981 until mid to late 1985, there were approximately 75,261 built, and they all went to North America. Now, as for normally aspirated 300Ds built between 1975 and 1981, the years they were exported to the US for sale, there were 268,869 normally aspirated 300Ds built, but there is no information on how many of those were exported to North America because unlike the turbocharged 300Ds that replaced the normally aspirated models in the North American market in 1982, these 300Ds were manufactured for a variety of markets during those years.

I hope this helps someone.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

They are pretty common here in california. Wether it be northern or southern you can fine one or two at everyblock. My dad has one now. And ive seen many of them on craigslist ever since the veggie craze.

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Current:
05 E320 CDI
07 GL320 CDI
08 Sprinter
05 Dodge Cummins
01 Dodge Cummins

Previous
2004 E55 AMG
2002 C32 AMG (#2)
1995 E300
1978 300D
1987 300D
2002 C32 AMG(blown motor :[
1981 300SD
1983 300SD
1987 300SDL
2002 Jetta TDI
1996 S420
1995 S500
1993 190E 2.6
1992 190E 2.3
1985 190E 2.3 5-Speed

I still see quite a few, although most of them are pretty beat. Unfortunitly I think in the next few years the numbers will start to decline a lot more.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I thought about this thread on my way to work this morning and in the first three mile of my drive saw a female driven french blue W123 240D and then a tan W123 300D.

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Anders

1995 E300
2015 VW TDI Sportwagen 15K
1977 240D (197K)
2002 Subaru Legacy L Wagon (115k) (Wife's)
Gone but not forgotten:
2005 Buick LeSabre
1998 C230
1984 300D
1983 240D
1981 300SD
1974 240D
1974 Fiat 124 Spider
1968 Triumph TR250

Amazing that everyone sees so many. I will go days, sometimes weeks without a sighting. Around Christmas I saw a few, and it was true eye candy. Guess it takes the holidays to bring 'em out.

The 123's that are seen look as if they've led hard lives.