Yep, you do have a special edition E320.

It's basically an E320 with all of the options, but your car has two options that are unique to the special edition model: the wheels and the burl wood.

Other than the Special Edition E320, the only way to get burl wood in a W124 chassis car was to buy an 400E / E420 or a 500E / E500.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

What options? He doesn't have ASR or heated seats, I guess the wheels/burlwood/CD-player and nicer threshold plates? I need those wheels.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

I don't know all the options the Special Edition package came with, but I know they include: sill plates, burl wood, 6 hole wheels, built in phone, cd players, and a few paint colors.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

I posted this information a number of years ago but thought it might be time to update it. On a lot of for sale listings, I have noticed that many 1995 W124 models were described as “Special Editions” and in some cases the registration even referred to that. Some of these cars are not actually Special Editions. The following will help identify if a car is really a Special Edition:

The Special Edition models were introduced around April of 1995, so not all 1995 W124 models were Special Editions. The Special Edition package included special metallic paint, special 6 hole alloy wheels, integrated analog cell phone, trunk mounted six-disk CD player, high performance 10 speaker sound system, drivers seat memory, electrically adjustable steering column (no tilt), stainless steel door sills and burl walnut interior trim. On the E320 and E300 diesel the extra cost was $1,295 for the options that were worth about $4,300. The E420 package cost only $495 since it already had burl walnut trim, driver seat memory and the high performance 10 speaker sound system. Paint colors available were Moonstone Grey, Azure Blue, Sapphire Black (exclusive to the Special Edition) and a new color called Brilliant Emerald Green. I think these were the only colors used on the Special Editions. My 1995 E420 Special Edition also has #265 parchment leather. I don't know if this is unique to the Special Edition since I don't have a 1995 Mercedes leather sample catalog.

The official Mercedes Benz of North America position was that the release of the 1995 E Class Special Edition was to celebrate the 10th year of production of the W124 series. I think it was more likely that back in 1995, Mercedes had a tough time moving the W124 E Class since the new W210 E Class was going to be released in the 1996 model year. Lexus had also been taking sales away from Mercedes Benz. I’m sure the real reason for creating the Special Edition model for the 300D, E320 and E420 was to spur sales.