I agree with you Warren, the W140 was not a perfect car.

But which car is???

Even the bullet-proof W124 had a myriad of nightmares the first two years of production. Americans may not be too familiar with hundreds of cab drivers blocking the main streets of Stuttgart complaining about the horrible original build quality of the W124.

Even my 1995 E320T (last year of production) had four major fixes from production problems (steering wheel gear, engine cylinder gasket, the infamous engine wiring harness, and the A/C evaporator).

While attending college in the U.S. I bought a brand new Lincoln Mark VII LSC. Four months after delivery I recieved an urgent notice from Ford saying that the fuel filler piping needed adjustment because there was "eminent danger of fuel explosion". I felt like I bought a leather upholstered V-8 Pinto!

For such an overengineered vehicle the W140 did not do too bad. Yes, the evaporators still failed until the last day of production, and yes they eat tires like crazy, but at almost 5,000 lbs. of gross weight, who wouldn't?

__________________
A. Rosich
CL 500, 1998
S 500 L, 1998
E 320 T, 1995 [Sadly sold ]