The Euro Becker-Europa I hope to put in my Euro 300TD is the 4-band version. Today I ordered the main cassette drive-belt for it from Ed Ebel at Becker-USA. Less than $9, including shipping. Because of the extra space required for the 4-band electronics, the Euro Becker tape transport is more compact, without the auto reverse feature, and takes a shorter belt than used in the AM-FM versions sold in the US. I found this out when I tried to transplant the autoreverse deck from one of my parts AM-FM Europas into this one, after I saw that the belts wouldn't interchange.

As to choosing most beautiful modern car radio, some years back one of the Japanese manufacturers (maybe Kenwood or JVC) had a unit where the entire faceplate would flip round when switched off, displaying a clean plain black rectangle.
Don't remember how the faceplate and controls looked when it was on, though.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

I remember that one in the Crutchfield catalog. I'm pretty sure it is Vegas theme too.

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The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

Had a brief chat with Ed at Becker USA today. He said Becker still manufacturers in Germany, though they do farm out some assemblies and some manufacturing is done in Hungary. He said they also handle Blaupunkt, but that name was sold off to an Asian firm many years ago.

Forgot to ask about adding an input adapter for an Ipod or CD-player, to the older Beckers. I'm wondering if an adapter is availible that plugs into the DIN socket on the back of some of my Beckers? Or if it has to be wired inside the unit?
Many years ago, Becker used to sell a stereo cassette-deck that would plug into that socket on their AM-FM units that didn't have the cassette built in.
Blaupunkt sold a similar unit for their German-made radios back in the '70s)
But Becker even made a mono-version of the cassette-deck that could connect to a mono Becker radio, if it had the DIN-socket.
Notice my Europa cassette radios also have a DIN-socket. Wonder what that's for?

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

You're right! I cringe every time I see a modern or aftermarket radio in an older car. They look completely out of place. Also speaking of ugly radios the less we say about those green electronic Chrysler units from the 90s the better.....


I love the 1432 in my S-Class so much that I hope to one day retrofit the 1480 I pulled from the 300SEL into my G-Class.

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

I'm as guilty as anyone of adulterating my classic car with an alien modern stereo ... but I actually think mine looks pretty slick in the W124, especially since I've set the backlighting to match my boost gauge backlighting (red). If I'd known at the time you could retrofit the stock Becker to play MP3s, I might have done that, but I'm addicted to the easy navigation of this one. The iPod (which I've managed to fill up all 16 gigs of!!!) goes in the glovebox. I try to keep most things stock, but I deviated for music. Only downside is, I miss having an actual CD player ... when I go to the record store and pick up a CD, I have to drive home, upload it, sync my iPod and then go back out and listen.


I do think it would be too modern for a 123 or 115. I'd love to have one like the one in the original post for my 123.

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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

it has to be something made by blaupunkt

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oh you've GOT to be kidding me?!

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I was a bit suprised that Becker still had some manufacturing in Germany.
As happened with most US brands, many big German names, like Grundig, have gone to Asia.

Back in the mid '70s, there was a small audio outlet calleed 'Needle in a Haystack',here at Springfield Mall that sold Blaupunkt car systems.
I remember they had just started selling Japanese-made Blaupunkts alongside the German ones. The German AM-FM-cassette radio was over $300, and the Japanese one was about $200.
Actually, the old Japanese Blaupunkt in my 240D is pretty nice and the round knobs are easy to operate while driving.
But now, most everything is from Singapore or China and looks like 'Vegas at Midnite'!

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Well, tonight I finally got round to pulling that Malaisian jukebox Blaupunkt Laguna, with it's tempermental CD-player, from my Euro TD.
As I feared, I discovered lots of hacked-up wiring in the radio cavity, with extra speaker-wires, and much of the original wiring sliced & dangling. Managed to rewire sufficient to run the two dash speakers, and add terminals to eliminate the twist&tape splices I found. Unfortunately, the cassette-deck in my first-choice four-band Becker Europa (Which just got a new belt!) was DOA.
So I installed my fallback Blaupunkt Cancun cassette-radio instead. (It's the radio I kept when I sold 240D #2 - 'Beirut Taxi')
It's tastefully black, with no chrome, and a simple station/tape-mode display window.
No rotary-knobs, but the buttons are larger, different-shaped, and laid-out so it's much easier to work by touch than the Laguna, and both radio and tape-deck are working just fine. Plus this one has an aux-input socket so I can play an external source, like an I-Pod or portable CD-player.
More complicated will be figuring out how much (or how little) of the car's remaining existing wiring I can use to connect some rear speakers.
Meanwhile, I guess I'll take another look at the Becker to see what's killed the cassette-deck.

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DrDKW

Mark. I have a 300TD euro as well. My audio situation is pretty bad. Today I looked in the rear and noticed there were no speakers or anyway to mount them back there. Let me know if you find speakers and if you get some mounted.

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1984 300td euro turbo

I love my older pioneer. It has an XM receiver in the trunk and the AUX in is not some silly looking add on getting tangled around your shifter

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My TD has a pair of rear speakers mounted behind perforations in the ceiling-panel, just below the tailgate-hinges. It looks like a factory installation, Though I haven't dropped the panel to see what's actually in there. It appears to be a factory TD rear-speaker setup and the Mercedes fader control is still in the center console but has been disconnected.
The ceiling-speakers were wired to the previous radio, but did't sound very good. I suspect water damage from tailgate-leaks. So I have a pair of two-way Infinity car box-speakers I could mount in the cargo-area, or simply set them on the rear-floor, as I did with an old Fintail years ago.

However, the wiring in the radio-cavity is a real mess. There's two mystery harnessesn cut-apart and taped-up but everything else electrical in the car is working, so I'm hoping they're just leftover from a previous radio hack-job.

I did find one of the fader-wires but can't see if the others are still intact. There are fat aftermarket wires that were feeding the ceiling speakers somehow, but I won't know if they were run straight through, or spliced into the fader wiring until remove the shift-cover or drop the ceiling-panel.

But we're having a sudden heatwave here today, and at least the front speakers are working, so the rest of the mess can wait!

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Now that I totally agree with...both fugly and inoperable...

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Steve A
92 W140 OM603
97 VW Jetta TDI
90 Passat variant TDI 6 speed MT
94 Chevy K1500 6.5TD
05 E320 CDI
+ others

I remember that unit, there as a junked E28 that came in with one...car had the rare red interior too...but besides that I think the controls were good but the color was orange IIRC. steve

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Steve A
92 W140 OM603
97 VW Jetta TDI
90 Passat variant TDI 6 speed MT
94 Chevy K1500 6.5TD
05 E320 CDI
+ others

Back in the mid '70s, my Dad bought a '60 220SE Fintail sunroof sedan for $150. The car came with most of the chrome trim in the trunk and back-seat as the PO had planned to get the car repainted. Dad compounded and polished the original deep sky-blue paint, we reinstalled all the trim, and the car looked beautiful. It came with it's orignal, working two-piece Becker Mexico signal-seeking AM-FM tube radio - with the huge tuning/control unit in the dash, and a separate amp-power supply behind the glovebox. The early Fintails had no speaker hole in the dash, so this used an under-dash Becker speaker-box, trimmed in brown vinyl that matched the dash-padding, with beige cloth and a pair of horizontal chrome grill-bars.
One of my more vivid (and chilling) teenage memories was riding in the back seat, as my parents drove that old Finail back from visiting friends in Hagerstown Maryland during an intense night-time thunder-shower, and hearing Jim Morrison & The Doors belting out 'Riders on the Storm' on that radio. I had no problem staying awake for the rest of the trip, after that performance!
Around that time, someone offered Dad $400 just for that radio, but it stayed with the car until he sold the Fintail two years later for a decent profit.
Since then, I've seen those tube Mexicos, usually advertised as coming from a Gullwing SL, selling for hefty prices on eBay!

As for my TD, I do have a couple decent looking, but untested,'80s Pioneer cassette radios with the round volume & tuning knobs. But those require some type of mounting-plate to secure the knob- shafts into the dash. The Blaupunkt I wound up installing has a DIN-mount case that just fits snugly in the W123 radio-cavity.
Plus, it's a known quantity that was reliable and performed well in my 240D for a few years.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW