What's the point in naming old MB's in the USA? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Gabesz · #1 07-10-2007, 05:32 AM

OK, I know it has nothing to do with tech help and support, but this always puzzled me, and thus far no one could explain this to me properly. If any of you guys could, I'd be grateful!

So here's the deal:

I am talking about 'pre-class' cars, when letters were behind the numbers, and E stood for 'einspritz' = injector, C for coupé, L for 'lang' = long, etc.

For now, let's stick with W124 & W201s.
So, what's the point in calling a

250D a 300D 2.5, or a 190D 2.5 in the US?
why is a 260E called 300E 2.6 in the States?

Is the 300 & 190 stand for the chassis, and the other number represents the engine? I am not sure, because, if it was like that a 400E would be called a 300E 4.0, but it isn't, so I don't see the logic there.

Another interesting thing that puzzles me further is that I haven't seen it on W126s, or R107s which came from the same era...

There's no 500SEL 4.2, or 3.8 or is there?
Also, I don't remember any 450SL 2.8, or 280SL 4.5 or whatever...

Could you please someone clarify this?

In Europe, it's nice and clear, numbers stand for the engine, and that's it. Anyone can differentiate a W124 from a W126 or W201...

I don't remember W123s, but I think they were called 200s in the States...? I can't remember. Was there a 200E 2.8

or a 200 2.5?

cheers

pleiades · #2 07-10-2007, 07:38 AM

as far as I know, W123s were all named by displacement (280CE, etc)

I believe the 300D badge was continued for the W124 because of the popularity of the 300D badge on the W123... do Americans really want the replacement for the 300D to be the 250D? Likely the 300E was just a continuation of this. Someone (clearly not an older 123/124 MB owner) referred to my car as an "old 300."

BMW seems to have done this recently as well, with the 328 and 335 both having 3.0l engines, and the 550/750 having a 4.8.

vstech · #3 07-10-2007, 08:23 AM

sometime after 1990 MB changed their monikers to reflect the "class" of car, C became the compact class to compete with honda etc. E became the mid range class and S became the full on luxury class. the SL stayed the same, but they added in the cl and the SLK etc for the sport cars. at the same time, BMW popularity caused MB's to use the numerics to also reflect their status as well. thus the "300" with a 2.5 or 2.6 motor etc.

ftav · #4 07-10-2007, 08:47 AM

At some point in the mid '80s, DaimlerBenz started listening more to what marketing folk had to say about car 'names', and I've been told that began to affect naming as well. The earliest example of this that I can think of is the 1987 260E. Even though this was simply a W124 with a 2.6l engine, DB thought that its lackluster sales could have been a function of some potential buyers being put off by the fact that the car "wasn't" a '300' car, but, as the name itself truly does imply, its something less -- literally. The solution was to later rename the car the 300E 2.6. I'm not sure how it affected sales, but I've been told that was the intent.

Gabesz · #5 07-10-2007, 09:38 AM

Thank you guys for your answers!

So it was the name for the chassis, after all... but what's with the 400E & 500E? They should've been 300E 4.0 and 5.0. Probably they were left as is, because 400 & 500 obviously higher numbers and suggest superiority to the 300s, I guess.

But why on earth was it different for W126s? I mean they were sold at the same time and there never was a 500SEL 4.2 etc,
Not very consistent.

Anyway, classes clarified this and the naming is the same now all over the world I guess...

ltrain300D · #6 07-10-2007, 10:56 AM

The numbers represent the engine and the letter represents the class of the car - the chassis really isn't represented in the letter anywhere - its just the SE/SEL/SEC/SD are W126's, and then 1986-1995 E/CE/TE/D/TD are W124, and the 1985-1976 E/CE/TE/D/TD are all W123 cars.

For the W126, the 500SEL 4.2 is called the 420SEL, the same way that a "500SEL 5.6" is called the 560SEL. The 500SEL has a 5.0L motor. The 380SE/L, a 3.8L. The 300SE/L, a 3.0L.

For the W124, the only discrepancies with the numbering were the 300E with the 2.6 or 2.8, and I think some might have come with a 3.2, this was in the later years of production - I believe it was 1992-1995 that the 3.2L motor was in production but they still badged the cars 300 - I think they started with the E320 badge in like 1994 or so. Same with the E400/420E - from 1992 to 1995 the car had the 4.2L, and didnt get the E420 badge until the late years (94-95 I think). The E500 has always had the 5.0L M119, and for the W124 diesels there was the 300D in 1987 that has the 3.0L turbo six, and then from 1990-1993 it was called the 300D 2.5 with a 2.5L turbo five, and then in 1995 it was the E300D with a non-turbo six.

If you do a google search for W126 or W124 or W123, and read the wikipedia articles on them - there are charts that show which cars got which motors.

BioPOWER · #7 07-10-2007, 01:56 PM

The 300D and 300E had "cachet" value, so, as mentioned above, US drivers wouldn't want to step down from their 300D to a 250D...thus, the 300D 2.5.

The same applies in Europe today. The SL500 had prestige, so when Mercedes rolled out the 5.5L DOHC V8 a year ago, it stayed the SL500 in Europe while becoming the SL550 here--even though they were both 5.5L.