Which is more rust-prone: w108 or w116?

Calling all rust-belt owners....

[Larry Delor]

From what I remember reading, the W116 chassis can be more prone to rust than the W108 chassis. This is mainly because of the steel union in Germany (IG Metal) being on strike for a few years, and MB was forced to buy lower quality steel from outside the country. If you can find out what year they stopped striking, you should be able to assume that any car made after that time, was made once again with quality steel.

Of course, I could be remembering all wrong, and thereby be full of it.

Best thing to do, is to do a visual inpection. I have noticed that 108's seem to rust first at the bottom of the doors, the bottom of the trunk lid, and around the sunroof drains in the trunk. Also, I hear the headlight surrounds can be prone to rust. The last 116 I looked at, had rust generally on the underside...floor pans, jacking points, and any other place where there was a weld. No rust was observed on the top side of the car.

Good luck!

-Larry

[pj67coll]

In my opinion having owned both. They are both equally bad.

- Peter.