My family just retured from a 2 week vacation in central Europe. We visited Budapest, Krakow, Berlin and Paris. Much of that time we were "hoofing " it on the streets and also spent a lot of time on buses , S-bahn and trains.

In that whole period of time we ( and I say WE because my wife drives her 300D and our 4 year old can spot anything with a star on it) saw no more than 15 W123s and one W116. The few we saw were in very sorry shape as well- I would say only 2 or 3 would have been worth more than $1000 here in the US.

The Europeans seem to be buying new cars at a rapid pace. They are still going for smallish cars about the size of the new Bug or Mini. Of course, my observations are limited- maybe there are some older cars out in the smaller cities but I didn't see many in the big cities. I am also something of a Citroen fan and I saw only 2 2CVs - and none in France.

Rick

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)