The Mercedes W124 certainly does not need any special introduction on the pages of Curbside. Many of them have been featured over the years and the collective opinion seems unanimous. Our founder even went so far as to anoint it the best car of the past 35 years not so long ago. Several curbsiders have owned and driven them, and Paul’s Auto-Biography piece on his 300E and the enjoyment he got out of his eight or so years with it has always been one of my favorite pieces on this site, one that I must have read at least half a dozen times. All of this is a long-winded way of saying that a W124 was pretty high up on my “must own one day” list, and I’d been keeping an eye on and occasionally checking out examples that came up for sale for the best part of a decade, but the timing never really worked out.
The closest I came before was December 2021 when I was looking for a hobby car, and a base model 200 was on my radar. Unfortunately, that particular example needed more work than I could put in at the time, so things didn’t work out. As it happened though, around November, after things in the country had started to head back to some semblance of normal and I had parted with the Surf, the need for something to replace it as the second daily arose. Now since I already had the Subaru, I really did intend to buy something reliable and sensible, at first anyway. I was looking at a Toyota Prius C, which seemed to be an excellent and sensible choice as a family car, and it even had multiple airbags and electronic stability control. I had gone as far as to make an offer on a good example and was waiting for the owner to make a decision when that pesky little voice in the back of my head went “You know what, instead of spending all that money on a boring appliance, you could save some of it and pick up something like a nice W124! Go on then, you know you want to…”
Had I bought this, this episode would read “I bought a Prius C, it works.”
What I probably SHOULD have done was whack myself on the back of the head, ignore this voice, and bought the Prius C but instead, I paid attention and started looking around for W124s. After all, weren’t they reliable and solid cars? All I needed to do was find a well-kept one and it would make an excellent and usable classic car, of course it would, right? Our market, unfortunately, did not see many of the bigger petrol engine options, chiefly because tax was prohibitive, but we did have quite a few of the five and six-cylinder diesel models. Those however were in high demand and asking prices on good examples were somewhat higher than what I was able to spend at that point.
So I narrowed my focus to the petrol models and decided that I wanted to avoid the base model carb version if at all possible. This was because the car would need to be an automatic so my wife could drive it, and the 200-carb models were lethargic enough with the manual gearbox that I had no wish to see how slow an auto would be. It appeared that the optimum choice would be a facelifted late model with the electronically fuel-injected M111 four-cylinder engine that was available for the last two years of production. I looked at a couple of cars that weren’t in the best shape, and then stumbled on this car when browsing the classifieds late one evening. A 1995 model, it was apparently among the last German-built W124s (production continued in India for a few more years) and was an E200 automatic, so nothing particularly complicated, or so it seemed, anyway.
First look, covered in dust.
The car was located some distance away and co-ordinating a time that it was available for viewing turned out to be quite a hassle, as the owner lived in another province and had left the car with his mechanic to show to prospective buyers. After several calls, we finally figured out a date that worked and I went to see the car with a friend. Finished in grey over more grey, covered in a layer of dust, and with one tail light cracked, it didn’t look particularly impressive at first glance. The seats which were originally grey leather had been redone in similar hued pleather, but it was a pretty tidy job and the rest of the interior was actually in very good shape for the age of the car.
Interior was intact, which was the main thing.
A fairly long test drive didn’t throw up any red flags, except for the fact that performance was best described as leisurely; the car certainly took its own sweet time gathering speed, but it could be made to hustle if you really welded the throttle pedal to the floor with purpose. I did catch myself wishing it was a 300E or E320 though, if I’m honest. Since the initial test drive seemed ok, I had the car booked into a workshop for an end-to-end checking over to ensure it was not hiding any unpleasant surprises. Nothing except a few minor issues were highlighted, so I made an offer that was a fair bit lower than the asking price and was surprised to find that the owner accepted it without much hesitation.
So, a couple of days before Christmas, I became the owner of my very own W124, something I had wanted for over a decade! I couldn’t even sleep the night before I collected it and was at the seller’s house first thing in the morning, such was my excitement. The owner himself had a work emergency so he couldn’t be there, and I collected the car and the title from his wife instead. Driving away from the house at the wheel of my own 124 was definitely a great moment, let me tell you! Unfortunately (you knew this was coming, right?) my thrill was short-lived because barely 2 KM from the seller’s house I noticed the temperature gauge heading into the red. Uh oh, not a good start!
Looks good even when somewhat broken.
Pulling over and investigating revealed that the fans seemed to be working, but clearly failing to do their job. Switching off the A/C and keeping moving brought the needle closer to normal, so I put the windows down and limped the car over to the workshop for diagnosis. Figuring it out didn’t take long, it appeared that the thermostatic clutch that engaged the main fan had failed, causing it to not operate as required. This was a pretty straightforward fix, and within a couple of hours, the new part was in and the job was done. I wanted to have the car properly gone over by the workshop before putting it into full service, but since the shop would be closed for a few days over Christmas, I figured it would be ok to run it over the holiday and identify any niggles that needed putting right.
Things went ok for a couple of days, the family went to church on Christmas day in it (in the middle of a hurricane level rainstorm no less) and it got us there and back with no problems, although it did seem to be running a little hotter than ideal. I was slowly starting to become confident in the car and used it for most of the Christmas travel. My wife also liked how comfortable and smooth it was, so that was good news. This sense of well-being was sadly demolished on boxing day when we took the car for lunch at my parents’ house though. A few of my friends were also there and since this was their first time seeing the W124 we took it for a drive around the area after lunch. The low coolant light suddenly decided to make an appearance, prompting an immediate return to base. Checking under the hood revealed a leak from somewhere lower down, and quite a bit of coolant leaving the system as we watched. So of course there was no more driving, and the W124 was abandoned in my parents’ driveway for two days until the shop opened and I could get it carried there.
Getting the coolant flush done.
Once it got there, we decided to give the cooling system a full check-up and pressure test, as well as a flush. This revealed that the car was actually missing the engine thermostat, a fairly common “fix” employed by lazy mechanics in Sri Lanka. So a new thermostat and housing were put on, along with a new coolant tank, cap, and a couple of hoses. Then the coolant system was flushed a couple of times before new coolant was added. The rusty liquid that came out made it clear that it had been a long while since a flush was last done. Along with that, the brake master cylinder was replaced and the calipers serviced. I got the car out and then found that the AC, which was not too great to begin with had lost all cooling capacity. Since AC is an essential item in our climate, it went straight into a shop reputed for AC work on old Mercedes models. They did a pretty solid, if expensive job but they informed me that the idle control on the car was not working properly, and though they had done their best, they couldn’t sort it. The moment the compressor engaged, the idle would drop low enough to stall the engine. This was really very irritating, and it couldn’t really be lived with, so back again to the mechanical workshop it went.
This became so common they started joking about giving me a permanently reserved bay and lift!
Thus began a multiple week-long odyssey to figure out what was happening with idle. It turned out that this car too was a victim of the infamous “biodegradable” wiring that Mercedes used in the early 90s, and the wiring inside the throttle body had all basically disintegrated, as had some of the engine control wiring. That took more than a week to figure out, and then a couple more weeks to have the wiring rebuilt properly. It didn’t really help that this particular version of the M111 engine used a unique engine control system, which was VERY hard to find parts for. If you’re starting to spot a bit of a pattern about this car’s time in the workshop, you’d be right, by the way. No sooner had one thing been fixed than something else popped up that required attention.
I am sadly not the sort of owner who can simply ignore issues and just drive on, so everything that appeared, needed to get sorted ASAP. I’m not going to go into the list of issues, but let’s just say that by March of this year, I came to the rather painful realization that we had owned the car for three months and it had spent about two and a half of them being fixed in one way or the other. My wife was clearly not amused by this point and I was beginning to agree with her. As much as I liked the thing, the workshop time and attendant expense was clearly not sustainable long term. So one day I jokingly suggested to the owner of the shop that he should just take the car off my hands. He laughed it off at the time but a couple of days later asked if I was actually serious. I thought about it for a bit and offered him a deal that made sense to me, and it ended up making sense to him as well. So we shook hands on it and as April rolled around I waved goodbye to my W124 with a heavy heart as well as some relief.
I had it detailed just before deciding to let it go, so it really looked good by this time.
The new owner pressed the car into daily service, and believe it or not, it is actually thriving in use with far fewer issues than it seemed to throw up when I had it. This was not the first time I sorted a car out for the next owner, and it probably won’t be the last either, but hey, I’m glad the car is being well cared for by someone who knows what he is doing. So what did I learn from this adventure? First, even the immortal W124 is not immune to the ravages of time and poor maintenance, second, owning an old Mercedes means you end up getting really friendly with the folks in your chosen workshop, and finally, it is almost inevitable that you are going to take a financial beating at the end of the escapade. Surprisingly, when all was said and done, I actually just about broke even on it, which certainly shocked me.
I absolutely love everything about this driving environment.
I still haven’t quite given up my hankering for a W124 though and I keep looking at examples that come up for sale. They really are lovely cars to drive and I just love how they feel from behind the wheel, as well as how they move down the road. Maybe next time I’ll try a diesel and see how that goes, but good examples of those are becoming more expensive by the day, and I’m pretty darn sure I’ll be looking for the very best example I can find if I go down this road again, so I don’t know whether my bank account will actually be able to support this.
Oh well, they say if you don’t win, you learn, right? And I still say it’s better to have had a W124 and lost it than never to have had a W124 at all. My wife, on the other hand, has a somewhat different opinion…
Further reading:
Curbside Classic: Mercedes-Benz W124 (1985-1996 E Class) The Best Car Of The Last Thirty Five Years
Wonder if the fact that Mercedes designed the hood to stand straight up was a sign of future repair action? GM H and A bodies had the same feature that was handy when you had to work on the engines, or pull the engines out.
Tempting Mercedes often appear in the local classifieds, and are considered for a short period of time until the little voice in the back of my head says “Nein!”
The “service position”, as it is officially termed, was certainly a familiar enough sight during my ownership!
Mercedes cars of this period are a great choice as a classic to use regularly, but they do need a fair bit of maintenance, quite regularly. As long as you understand that, it’s ok. Parts availability for instance, is extremely good even now.
Haha, as opposed to the VW/Audi service position, which is to disassemble the front clip of the car. That’s especially true for the products with the “Audi”-style longitude layout that has the engine sitting entirely ahead of the front axle.
Another bonus: on some Audis, every time they have to remove the bumper cover, it’s $500 to recalibrate the adaptive cruise radars. Learned *that* the hard way.
Agreed on the parts availability, SajivW. Or as a (Dutch) classic car specialist told me the other day: ‘I know at least 5 addresses nearby where they have so many W124 parts you can actually build a complete car’.
Too bad about your experience with it. I do like that ‘black on tan’ dashboard/center console. I can’t remember seeing that before.
The parts availability frankly blew me away. Even with our market being technically closed to all imports, everything was fairly easily gotten. But I can only imagine what it’s like to live so close to THAT big a supply of parts.
It’s this parts availability that has made me not write off owning another W124 again, just need to buy lower and keep more of a financial buffer for fixing.
Go for a well-maintained pre-facelift model, exactly what Justy says below.
That’s before the W124 officially became the E-Class, mid-1993. In its homeland known as ‘MoPf 2’ (Modellpflege 2), when the letter E was put before the number on the trunk lid.
Sorry to hear about your short and expensive time with the 124. I LOVE them too but prefer to own vicariously because I fail to see how ownership would be a lick different from your experience…
Thanks Sam, it was fun while it lasted, and definitely was a learning experience as well. I suspect I may go down this road again sometime.
I’ve had a 300E for almost 30 years now. Lots of miles and not a lick of trouble. I’d say it was one of Matchbox’s best efforts – opening doors, working suspension, little chrome grill with hood ornament. Definitely a keeper!
I clean forgot to mention that the Matchbox 300E (blue in my case) was a favourite toy from childhood! I think it had a big part to play in my love for the W124. Unfortunately the original got lost at some point, so I fount a new-in-box one on Ebay a couple years ago.
Ha! I had that one, too! Lifelong W124 fan..
In the past 5-8 years, there has been a rapid reduction of W124s on the roads here, to the point where there seem to be more W123s still about. Not too surprising, as the W123 is a better long-life car than the more complex 124. And that biodegradable wire insulation is probably a significant factor in the disappearance of many of them; in fact I seem to see more early ones than later ones.
I’m sorry your time with this car was less than satisfying, but you did get to experience why W124 owners rave about them. They do have a special quality to them. I often was tempted to get back in one, but I decided to just live with my memories instead of trying to relive the actual experience, which would almost certainly not have lived up to the memories.
Most Mercedes people seem to agree with you that the W123 is significantly more durable than the W124, because it’s simpler. But both of them are still pretty easy to keep on the road as long as you have time and money to invest.
I found out during my brief stewardship that even in our shortage plagued country, parts availability for the W124 was absolutely first rate and pricing was actually lower than parts for Japanese cars. Even if you needed a part that the suppliers didn’t have stock of, they could usually get it for you within a week, two at most.
It’s true that the whole experience didn’t go quite the way I was hoping, but I still do love the model. Perhaps at some point in the future there’ll be another W124 COAL that goes a bit differently.
Part of me says that three months is hardly a long enough time to get a semi-neglected old car back into fighting trim. Then again, there is a universe of parts to fail on an older car. It saddens me that the ever-increasing complexity of cars makes the prospect of a good, older daily driver less and less of a cost-effective proposition. And when that car is a Mercedes, complexity goes to a new level.
The words of my old car-mentor Howard keep ringing in my head – “Never buy an old luxury car!” That said, my long-ago experience with a 1963 Cadillac Fleetwood was a lot like yours – maddening because of the endless failures, but it has provided me a lifetime of great memories at having gotten to experience (however briefly) one of the best cars built in the world in its day.
You’re right JP, and I suspect if I had kept it for longer things would have smoothened out as the new owner is using it daily without too much hassle apart from one or two relatively minor niggles.
I now feel like I should have maybe kept at it a little longer, but the drain on the family budget was getting a bit too high for comfort.
I’ve hopefully learned my lesson about complicated European cars, I did have three old Jaguars at the same time! But at least you got to experience the magic first hand.
Your car looked like it was in very final shape inside, as well as out, which as you wrote was very important.
Sometimes when we have our hearts set on a certain particular vintage car, it’s best to look for a much newer model that has some of the same appeal. It will cost more, but it can function as a more reliable and useful vehicle, and it’s not going to be an “extra” car.
I’ve had a lot of vintage Cadillacs in the past, but I decided to find a newer model that channeled enough of the Cadillac vibe, but would still be a lower mileage, practical car. I decided that a 2015-2018 XTS or CTS would be a close enough equivalent when the bug really bites.
I wanted another Riviera, but I knew that I couldn’t afford a restored classic model from the ’60’s and I didn’t want to take on a totally trashed project… again. So I found a ’97 in good shape in and out, with only 81,000 miles. It runs really good, though of course, it needs a bit of sorting. Thanks for sharing your story.
Now tell us about the Prius!
I like your idea of finding a newer car that channels the spirit of the older ones. For Mercedes-Benz, I feel that the W212 E-Class (2010-2016) had enough of that vault-like quality to feel like a proper heritage representation of the brand in a modern car. For Cadillac, yes, the XTS is your best reasonably affordable bet, though I’d also throw the CT6 in there. The CT6 didn’t measure up as a proper world-class flagship (in the same camp as the G90, LS, 7 Series, A8, XJ and S-Class)…but it was a great car in its own right.
As for the Riv, I have a real fondness for the final-generation Riviera (1995-1999). It’s a gorgeous design, unfortunately hamstrung by GM’s indifferent build and materials quality at the time. But 81,000 miles is super low for one of those!
Interestingly, 1995s were one-year-wonder models, with the Series I 3800 and older electronics (keyless entry, radio, climate controls).
Is yours N/A or supercharged? I believe in 1998, the supercharged engine became standard, but you’d have had a choice prior to that.
The W212 is gaining a reputation as being something of a return to form, isn’t it? But they still are MUCH more complex with multiple potential failure points. The trouble with my situation is that cars don’t depreciate here, so a W212 is still serious money to buy, a 2010-12 one will be around the equivalent of 40K USD while a late one will command upto 85K. So not exactly in cheap, fun project car territory.
Oh, my! Yeah, I see why you wouldn’t go for those. $40K USD is a lot of money for a 12+ year-old E-Class, Here, you’d struggle to pay half that.
Wow, THREE old Jags? Thats a story I would like to hear! As to the W124, it was definitely in quite good shape and was the best example I had seen come up for sale for a very long time, which is what tempted me. I went in prepared for the attendant hassle, but didn’t figure out it would be quite so much of it.
You make a good point about seeking out something newer that has similar appeal, but I’m not sure there is any modern car that has the same combination of qualities as one of these.
I didn’t actually buy the Prius, by the way. The W124 was replaced by something fairly dull and Japanese that ended up being even more expensive to fix.
Oh, poor fella.
I’m dealing with that issue on something I just bought. It’s become evident that it’s going to cost a lot more than anticipated to get it properly roadworthy. And, like your car, it did overheat pretty soon after buying it. Unfortunately, it’s British, not so nearly as common or long-lived as the W124, and especially hard to find parts for.
Looking forward to reading your next adventure!
I’m genuinely curious and can’t wait for your next chapter! The W124 was replaced by something old and Japanese which was supposed to be boring and reliable but ended up needing even more things fixed. I guess I sure know how to pick em.
I quite like the Mercs of that time as well, but if I were to buy a car at this point in time, my wallet (and my wife) would be steering me towards something newer and likely American or Japanese. That said, I had the pleasure of living with and driving a Mercedes for 10 days in the summer of 2019. I had booked a full-sized car for our vacation, and was expecting a Toyota Camry or Chevy Malibu, which is what the website said. To my surprise, they were out of full-sized cars but gave me a free upgrade to a black Mercedes CLA250. Great to drive, and the interior fit me perfectly. I was a little sad to take it back, but I’m not sure that I’d want to be a regular customer at the local Mercedes dealer. Still, I quite enjoyed the experience while I had the car.
Mercs of this era feel like nothing else on the road, in my opinion. Solid as a vault, just connected enough to the road but still supremely refined, and absolutely unflappable.
New ones don’t quite feel that way, but they too are nice cars.
I’m going to chime in that I think the solid as vault road feel you speak of was still common among many ‘90s and ‘00s European cars. Our ‘98 Volvo S70 was a little tank, as is my ‘04 Saab 9-3. I rented a Cupra Tormentor last month and while quite capable in the Alps surrounding Innsbruck, it didn’t have that hefty feeling. On the other hand it got great gas mileage, so there’s that.
Your w124 looks incredibly well maintained both inside and out. Like it was parked in a time capsule most of its life. The Mercedes biodegradable wiring harness of this generation seem to be the most frustrating part of everyone’s ownership story. It simply never stood a chance against the intense humidity of your environment. Most would agree when it comes to car problems electrical gremlins are one of if not the most dreaded. Thanks for sharing on your brief ownership experience.
The emoji air freshener is rather appropriate and I’m curious, did your wife pick that out for you? 😄
It was certainly very well kept for its age, although it did need a good detailing to look its very best as it does in the latter pictures. I was hoping that since the car had survived this long as a regular runner, the harness would have already been replaced as they tended to fail fairly early on. But as we can see, I was wrong haha.
The air freshener was something the previous owner had on. It was removed once I took ownership, although it certainly does seem appropriate with hindsight!
Ah, this won’t do! Re-find your courage, Sir, and get a mint 300E, a pre-facelift one with lots and lots of service history. Can’t imagine it to be more than a new Prius C, even in Sri Lanka, surely?
I’ve only ever ridden in a W124, and they do indeed convey a unique feeling (including the unique feeling of seats apparently recovered from a rock garden, though I was skinnier then). The airtight, cool-to-almost cold interior exudes a sense of precision, and expense. Engineered like no other car had meaning then. It probably really does rank as the best car of the past 37 years: not the most significant or anything, but simply the best engineered.
You must at least try one one day, because I’m fairly sure you’ll be amazed at the difference in your progress down the road from the M111 engine, which is a powerplant I personally detest. Noisy, rough, seemingly low on torque, and with the soft-changing Mercedes auto, in constant need of absolute flogging, at which point all of the craggy faults of its running are forever apparent. And though they have a good name for reliability, there’s a high chance the one you had will likely need a head gasket by about 200Kms, and the parts aren’t cheap.
Go on – you know we want you to, from the armchair!
I would genuinely love to find one, but unfortunately big engined 124s basically don’t exist here due to our taxation and national obsession with fuel consumption. Nobody bothered with importing them back in the day and went for the small petrols or the diesels. I think there are maybe 2 300E sedans in total, and I’ve never seen those up for sale.
Another thought I had was to buy a car in the UK or Australia and ship all the parts over, and fit them to a base model here, a conversion to a 300E basically. However this will take a lot of time and money, both of which are in short supply at the moment!
Still, you never know.
They seem comparatively plentiful here, especially in light of their eye-watering, tariff-inflated prices when new, so I can find one and send it to you divided into small envelopes, if you like. Might take a while….
Actually, looking online, there’s currently 12 round the country on the most popular sales site, ranging from about 800K Sri Lankan rupees (USD $2400) to about 2.4mill rupees (USD $7700) for minters. And unlike UK ones, they’ll all have a/c and should have near-zero rust. Maybe some one knows how to how to get one sufficiently broken up to get it to you? Food for thought.
Oh dear, now you’ve got me thinking about it! I do have a few friends who like cars down under, should start having a chat with them to see if they might be up for a challenge!
SajivW – It is unfortunate that your ownership experience with the W124 was so shortlived. I was 11 years old when the 300e debuted in the United States, and a close family friend had a w123 240d, so I had “experience” with the golden era MBs. I coveted the pre-facelift w124s, but went through ownership of 2 w123s and a w126 before I found a well sorted and well maintained two-owner ’89 300e during the pandemic. It was well taken care of by its original owner for 26 years and the second owner sorted out the “survivor.” I have been fortunate to have a mechanic who worked on these cars in the mid-90s and 2000s still working, so he is able to handle much of what is needed. Some parts are no longer available through MB, but I have had luck running them down on eBay. And I still have a mint w123 diesel, but the 300e gets all the driving action. The w123 diesel will likely live forever, but I rarely favor it for driving. Night and day differences with the cars….
It is indeed unfortunate that the experience was short. I’m hoping to fix that one day. I genuinely envy the wide choice of good examples that people outside of our country have, things are quite limited here.
Your car sounds lovely, do share a picture!
Here you go…
Interior..