Vacationing in Italy since Monday, Looking for old Mercedes as I move through the regions. I have yet to see a W123 or even a W124 but I have seen plenty of W201's.

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2012 B Class

1981 300D - Now with greazzer

I don't know where you are, but I saw lots of nice ones (and the mini smart mercedes) in the cities.

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10-15 years ago the W123, W124, W126 and W201 could be found all over Western Europe. They were everywhere. Especially the W123 was known as THE car that (mostly Turkish and Moroccan) immigrants were driving. In The Netherlands it gave the W123 the nickname "Turkenbak" (basically a derogatory term to describe a cheap, older car)
Most of these were the 240 or 300 D's N/A, with hand-crank windows, no AC, all manual.


But, with the ever tightening rules on emissions, the increase in road tax for diesels and the fact that for example in The Netherlands these older cars are no longer road-tax free like they used to, they have all been swiftly abandoned and exported to Northern Africa and other far'ish away places.

If you were to vacation in let's say Morocco, you'd see a W123 on every street corner...

The W123's and 124's started disappearing a decade ago, but the W201's is also getting a little harder to find, at least in The Netherlands/Belgium/Germany etc.

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"The MB W123 is so bulletproof, you can drive them forever. Which is a good thing as it takes that long to get anywhere."
Betsie: 1984 W123 300D (hobby, 280k miles)
Myrla: 2001 Mazda Protege 2.0 ES 5spd (daily driver, 130k miles)
The Turd: 2007 Toyota Camry (wife's car, 118k miles)

Well, time marches on everywhere.
I recently read, possibly on this forum, that the W123 taxis in Morocco have become so decrepit, the government there has legislated them off the road.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

The low-spec 124 diesel wagons seem to be showing up here in the states as "creampuff" 5-speed cars, ...

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

This explains Strech's and Delibes's differing views of the w123,
they are outlawed in north west Europe, and still sitting in Spain/Portugal-if they have not already been hauled across the straits.