I’ve noticed two friends with W202 cars that have had very few problems. I was kind of surprised at first. One guy actually has two W202s. One is pre Daimler Chrysler and it is better than the post Daimler Chrysler.

I don’t think any of these cars can approach w123 reliability because they are designed in a fundamentally different way. A 123 can have multiple things fail on it but still get you home at night. They have this design philosophy where things fail in working mode like your vacuum goes out and you can’t shut off the car…so you get home. Or your heater pods fail and all you get is defrost heat. You see this in unmaintained 123s. You can neglect a 123 a long time before it leaves you stuck by design.

The W202 cars seem like any other modern car in that they have multiple single point of failure parts that will potentially leave you stuck. Like a bad crank or cam position sensor. If those single points go bad the engine stops running. For that reason among others I don’t think a 202 will ever approach 123 reliability…if reliability is defined as getting you home at night.

That being said I think the pre Daimler Chrysler W202 is a pretty solid car. It has some diseases but nothing that’s a show stopper.

I am replying to this because I’ve just made a deposit on a 1997 C280 to add to my garage. I look forward to tearing into it and seeing how good it is. I’ve been spoiled by my 123 and 126 diesels all these years so maybe I’m in for a big disappointment. Stay tuned.

ETA - I think the w123 being all mechanical contributes to the perceived reliability. Both electronic and mechanical systems fail. But when a mechanical 123 fails the problem can often be hears, seen or felt while operating the car. This leads to corrective action before the problem comes to a head. Then the operator feels the car is reliable even thought it indeed did fail. A more electronically governed vehicle like a 202 is not going to warn you. You’ll be stuck with a service engine light. The tells are not always screaming in your face like funny sounds or vibrations like we sense on an old mechanically governed system. Electrons have a way of silently stopping.

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79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles
97 C280 147k miles