Hello,
Does anyone know what SD and SDL mean regarding our diesels? My mom, who has owned MB diesels before, tried to tell me that SD meant Super Diesel, and TD means Turbo Diesel.
Thanks in advance,
Adam

at the present time i believe mercedes manufactures three sedan body styles. the 'c', 'e', and 's'. in increasing order of size, refinement, luxury and of course cost. the 's' has been the flagship for some time. now for the 'd'. that be diesel. the 'l' denotes a longer wheelbase. believe on the 126 model, i.e.
an 80s vintage 's', the 'l' indicates that the wheelbase has been stretched some four inches or so over the 's'.

but it is true that BMW uses "TD" for turbodiesel models and writes out "Touring" on the back end of its wagons -- and some almost wagon-like hatchbacks, like my Swiss cousin's lovely little old '72 2002 tii (Tilux [delux] with injection) Touring.

SD means "super diesel" (S-class diesel w/turbo) & SDL is the same with a "Long" wheelbase.

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Mercedes-Benz TD is - T(Touristic und Transport) = station wagon, and, of course, D = Diesel

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Diesel-guy

In Mercedes-Benz™ sales literature and FSMs, the station wagon body style is referred to as both a "T series" and a "T-sedan"

"T" series W123 chassis vehicles were manufactured with both diesel (240TD & 300TD) and gasoline (200TE, 230TE & 280TE) engines thus, "T" indicates the body style, not the turbocharger.

Nowhere in the sales or service literature that i have does it explain what the "T" really means. Initially, I thought that the "T" might mean "Travel or Touring." My German is pretty rusty so I can't really figure out what the "T" is supposed to stand for; cursory checks of AltaVista show that the German word for touring and travel is 'reisen.'

Sidebar:
The "E" in the model designation means "Einspritzen" or injection for the fuel injection system on the gassers.

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Additional sidebar: The "L" in SL and SLC stands for Leicht, or Light(weight) as in SuperLeicht and SuperLeichtCoupe

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The M in ML320 stands for 'muddin.'

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Had a:
1973 220 (gas)
1980 300SD
1992 400E

Ok, now for the other "L" as in SL.
I get the "S" series. I undersatnd "D" is for diesel, and the "L" means the wheelbase hase been stretched.
Yet an "SL" is and shorted, ( 2 passenger, 2 door) built on an "S" chasis.
This gets confusing!

I thought SL stood for sports light... am I wrong? But I don't think the SL is built on the S chassis.... It's its own chassis.

haha I always joke around that the SD is the super diesel too!

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Model designator

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DR
1992 300D 2.5T 351 000 km

What makes MB terminology confusing is that MB changed their model designations in the mid 90's. Often people will call a W126 cars (ex. 420 SEL) a "S" class, yet the name "S" class wasn't used when the 126 series was being made. Since your mother is talking about SD and SDL, that would be in the 126 series. Simply put any MB with a "S" in it's model name, is a large car. The "L" indicates that it is a stretched version of the forementioned large car. As someone mentioned before, an "L" was usually 4 inches longer than a "standard" "S" car. "D" is obviously for diesel.
Often someone selling their 300D Turbo Diesel will advertise it as a 300DTD or just 300TD. MB did make 300TDs that were not turbo diesels, but starting in 1981 they became 300TD Turbo Diesels. Oddlly in 1987 when MB made the W124 series 300TD, it had a turbo diesel engine, but the name of the car was simply 300TD Turbo.

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Actually, I believe the term "S-Class" was finally adopted after the 108/109. The S-Class series started with the W116, officially.

An interesting note about the M-Class. It's officially referred to as the "M" class although the model numbers are ML___.

Mercedes wanted to label them as M320 and so on, but changed it to ML because BMW would sue.

Guys, this is a long one.

Actually the "S" designation for the large sedan began at least in the mid fifties as my parents owned a 1959 220S (rounded fenders, no fins), which was nearing the middle of its production run in 1959. It was replaced in 1964 with another 220S (more boxy with minimalist fins on the rear fenders). At the time the "S" designation was for the German word "Sonder" which translates into "special" but with the connotations of "uncommon" as well as luxurious.

At the time all other sedans were without a specific letter designation - they were common and thus not so special sedans with the biggest differences being engine types (the "D" meant Diesel and no "D" meant it was gasoline powered), displacements (220 meant 2.2 liters displacement) and whether or not they had fuel injection ("E" for Einspritzen, which is German for injection). All Diesels had fuel injection so there was no need to waste a bit of chrome plated metal to also note they were fuel injected. This frugal philosophy was carried out across the models, where exceptions are what is noted, not the full automobile description that might be possible, and occupy most or all of the space on the trunk lid.

The sport versions of the sedans (which is what they were in the 1950's and 1960's as the German economic recovery was not able to support an infinite number of chassis designs and parts) were designated "SL" which someone has already noted meant "Sportlich" and "Leicht" which mean "sporty" and "light" in English, referring to the emphasis on improved chassis dynamics achieved through lightening the original sedan chassis where practical. "SL" models were always fitted with the highest performance engine option available at the time, so they did not get the "E" designator for fuel injection either. The new "SLK" model is so designated because it is a sports model, lightened (supposedly) and with a shortened wheel base (the "K" stands for "Kurtz" or "short" in German). In general the present day sports models have unique chassis designs, with much less dependence on a sedan (while they may be derived from a sedan, there is much greater freedom to change the sedan chassis to achieve performance levels required by the market place for high dollar sporty cars today than there was in the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's).

Two door sedan based models were noted with the chassis they were based on and the letter "C" so you got "SEC" models for "S" class based coupes and "CE" or "C" or "CD" models for coupes based on the "not S" sedans with those engines. This method of designating coupes has become cumbersome as more chassis designs have been developed, so the larger coupes based on the "S" class sedans are now "CL" or "CLK" if they are based on the non-"S" chassis. I believe this is about to become even more complex as "E" class based coupes and "C" class based coupes enter the market.

As models and engine options proliferated in the late 1960's and then throughout the 1970's and 1980's, this model designation system became confusing. The first big problem arose with the introduction of the W201 chassis. In its base production configuration this chassis was outfitted with a 1.8+ liter engine using a carbureator, so it became a 190. This was somewhat confusing because there was another series of cars, the W123 and then the W124, that would have the same designation if outfitted with the same engines. For example, the 230E. So MB decided all W201 cars would be designated "190" with an "E" if they were fuel injected, and a displacement designation on the right side of the trunk lid if the engine was other than the base engine. So you got a "190E" with a "2.3" to distinguish this car from the W123 and W124 "230E" model.

As fuel injection became the rule and carbureators were phased out, the "E" became attached to the W124 gas sedans as they were nearly all designated "E" alone (no other letters). At one point they almost became "300E" or "300D" with the engine types listed on the right side of the trunk lid. Late in the W124 model run Mercedes apparently decided to use the letter or string of letters to designate the chassis, start the model designation with these letters, and leave the numbers (and letters for Diesels) for engine designators, following the model designating letters. This gives you an "E300D" for example, or, with the introduction of the W202 replacement for the 190E series cars, designated the "C" chassis for some reason, a C230 is a car with a fuel injected 2.3 liter engine, with "Kompressor" on the right side trunk lid area to designate the engine as having a supercharger.

The wagons were and still are known as "Touring" models, presumably because Germans viewed wagons as useful for packing all their family gear necessary for the annual summer trip around Southern Europe (presumably "touring") during the summer factory shutdowns. Germans used to take over entire camping areas on the Adriatic in the summer in parts of Italy and Yugoslavia, for about a six week period. So much so that back in the 1960's there were signs for directions, and advertisements for restaurants and stores in German as well as Italian. So the "T" designation is not for "Turbocharged" it is for stationwagon. When a model is turbocharged, the word "Turbocharcher" or "Turbo" appears on the trunklid, like "Kompressor" for supercharged cars (and the "K" designation likewise does not mean "Kompressor" on a modern MB).

Regardless of the confusion from the necessary switch to establish chassis designators because of the number of chassis designs available today, it is much preferred by Germans to a designation based on meaningless names. Similar designations are used by Audi, Porsche and BMW. I doubt we will see MB abandon their system, although it will likely continue to evolve (like the E55 designator for the AMG "E" class model). I hope this helps. Jim

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Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)