(first posted 12/23/2015) Transcripts from an imaginary boardroom meeting at Daimler-Benz AG World Headquarters, Stuttgart, Germany, late 1990:
CEO: “Gentlemen, we have a crisis. The new Japanese luxury marques are killing our sales, especially in the ever-important American market. The biggest threat is Toyota’s Lexus, which builds cars that are probably 90% as good as our cars or better, and sells them for half the price we charge. Any ideas on how to make our cars less expensive?”
Vice President #1: “Boss, maybe we could figure out how Toyota is making these cars such a great value for money proposition, and replicate what they do?”
CEO: “That would be a good idea, but that would mean that we would need to set up design or engineering operations in Japan, and that would cost a lot of money.”
Vice President #2: “We could create a lower-end brand for the USA, as we only sell highly equipped models there.”
CEO: “Also a good idea, but we would need to retool for new models if we are ambitious, or at least have different sheet metal stateside either way. We do not want to have a lower-end car look like a Mercedes stateside, do we? That would dilute the brand over there.”
Vice President #3: ” How about we cost-cut to the nth degree, and stop over-engineering our cars? You know over-engineered cars like the W201, W124, and W140 have been huge drains on the money left to spend in other departments, solely because of the over-engineering. Also, if we cost-cut, we would not need to spend any money setting up operations anywhere else, and we would be able to save money at production, and we could sell at lower prices.”
CEO: “Perfect! We can save money, and keep prices lower for the Lexus, Infiniti, and Acura buyers. Best of all, none of the prevalent lease-and-trade-after-five-years crowd will note a single difference in the old and new cars!
Vice President #3: “I meant for that to be sarcasm. Anyways, I will probably get a large bonus for this idea. I said too much.”
Now this conversation probably did not happen at the 14th Floor of Mercedes Benz’s Headquarters in Stuttgart, but it might as well have happened. This is the bastard child of the results, fictional or not. Bastard status was dealt with the swift blow of cost-cutting, as no one will ever know “the father” who gave the W210 this debilitating issue. Anyways, I invite you to enter the world of the Mercedes W210; a new low, for a new, throwaway decade.
The main competition for the 1991 Model Year: Lexus Edition
As most car people know, the Mercedes W210 was born during the time Lexus was growing rapidly, and kicking Mercedes’ backside in sales as a result. This happened because Lexus, and the other Japanese luxury marques sold a car that was 95% as good as a comparable Mercedes, for 75% of the price. Lexus was probably the biggest threat to Mercedes, often bring called the “Japanese Mercedes” for its subdued car designs, high build quality, and rather liberal use of high quality components
Look at das glorious underengineering und less than adequate quality! Savor the cheapness und badness of the components that make up this “fine” German automobile. Enjoy das not at all attentive engineering, that we probably farmed out to a random engineering firm in a third-world country.
Mercedes knew that they had an impending crisis when they saw this one, and acted accordingly. As any good car company would, they cost-cut the entire lineup starting around 1993. This gave cars they built from then on issues such as biodegradable wiring harnesses, among other equally fatal issues. In fact, a poignant quote comes to mind, “Mercedes Benz used to produce the finest automobiles in the world, now they just make cars.” Their cars still had phenomenal build quality as they had in the past, but certain components were cheapened. The cost-cutting would not fully hit until the introduction of the W202 C Class in 1993. The W202 would be the first taste of the “new” Mercedes. It was the death knell for over-engineered Mercedes, just as the W140 was the death knell for the reliable and dependable Mercedes.
When new, the W210 was an “attractive”, “well-engineered”, “safe”, and “high-quality” car. Indeed, that is what a Mercedes should do undoubtedly; provide a well-built, well-engineered, safe, and attractive car that should easily outlive the owner. Also, some have been lucky, and found W210s that they find quite nice. These owners will keep and love their W210s for a long time, and undoubtedly keep the supply of “survivor” W210s at a semi-constant level. Alas, the W210 was not meant to provide this to the average American, who is notoriously lax on car maintenance schedules. Even Mercedes owners in Europe found regular issues with the W210. As someone once said, “This car (the W210) changed Mercedes from being a maker of cars that are dependable, well-built, and attractive, to being ‘manufacturers of bling-mobiles’.”
Top photo by Brendan Saur. Bottom photo by Paul Niedermeyer.
Eventually, the Mercedes W210 descended into the lowest level of automotive hell: beaterdom. There, it would experience a trial by fire. This trial by fire would result in the W210’s numbers massively thinning out over the years, even though many were built.
Photo by Brendan Saur
The Mercedes W210 was a huge paradigm shift for Mercedes, as it introduced cars that did not age well visually or mechanically, unreliable, and badly built, to a crowd of people who bought cars that were supposedly well-built, reliable, and attractive. They completely abandoned the premise of substance, and left it for style over substance. This was the introduction of a “new” Mercedes; it left a sour or bitter taste in the mouths of many buyers, encouraging them to run, nay sprint, to their nearest Lexus, Acura, or Infiniti dealer.
See the resemblance yet?
I fact, I think I have figured out what the W210 would have been in a parallel universe, the “blobfish” Ford Taurus! First, both cars were released with radical new styling, compared to their predecessors. Both cars ditched attractive, aerodynamic styling for these not-so-hot messes. Second, both cars had the same basic powertrain design as their predecessors. Third, both cars displayed horrible build quality compared to their predecessors. Lastly, both cars were an attempt to change the marque’s position in the market, with Ford supposedly going upmarket with this generation Taurus, and Mercedes going slightly downmarket with the W210.
Mercedes, you thought that you could fool people with a car as bad as the W210, couldn’t you. Most of your buyers in the ever-important American market leased your cars for a few years anyways, right? Issues with ownership would only come to the occasional long term owner, and the second and third owners of your “Fine German Automobiles”. As the action show star Mr. T said once, “I pity the foo!” I “pity the foo” who thought that Mercedes could cost-cut to high heaven, and not create bad results. Had they forgot about GM’s misadventures in cost cutting? GM was still an “addict” to that “drug”-cost-cutting-at the time, y’know.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: Mercedes W124 (1985-1996 E-Class) – The Best Car Of The Past Thirty Years
Curbside Classic: Mercedes W202 C-Class – What Are You Good For?
My New CC: 1996 Mercedes S600 V12 Coupe – Massive Depreciation Is My Friend
Curbside Classic: Mercedes 190E (W201) – Das Beste Oder…Baby!
Curbside Classic: 1996-99 Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable – All Things Must Pass
The Trouble With The Mercedes W210 E Class – automobiles deluxe.tv
Curbside Capsule: Mercedes W124 E Class – Das Beste Oder Nicht
CC Capsule: 1989 Merceded 300 TE – Still A Classy Alternative
When I do see a W210 on the streets it will look very much like the photos of the cars in the feature; rusty, dented in one or two areas. The W210 obviously does not age well and certainly if by some fluke I come across one that has been pampered (very rare) it still does not look as nice as other Mercedes models.
No wonder these models get no respect.
Don’t forget the cloudy, near-opaque headlights, so often seen. Whether this is due to cheap materials not even befitting a Korean subcompact of the era, or to owner neglect born of disappointment with this “fine (but overrated)” German automobile matters not. They make the car look like junk.
Oxidized cloudy polycarbonate (or whatever) headlights are an issue in all cars, esp. those in sunny regions. There are aftermarket chemicals which allegedly clean them up; the old unfashionable, commodity glass sealed-beams never had this problem. I suppose it was the filament which degraded instead.
Crazy headlight styling often results in inadequate beam patterns, as noted in some car reviews.
Glass-covered composites also don’t have that problem. Wish they would just go back to glass, unless that’s no longer allowed by regulations.
It happens faster and worse to some than others. I do not live in a sunny region, Chicago is grey 300 days out of the year, yet every W210 I see looks the same as those I see pictured from the west coast + even more rust.
I actually used regular(original) Colgate toothpaste, bucket of water and white cloth(such as a wash cloth) to restore the head lights in my Volvo 240 and 2006 Ford Taurus.
What does your dentist have to say about this?
recommended by 4 out of 5 dentists surveyed – wait, that’s the other brand
not at all, plastic will oxidize over time on any car
and its easy to make them look new or to keep them looking new
It’s almost a non issue but its true glass is a much much better option!
these cars are now 14 o- 19 years old
maybe you can tell me which cars this old look better
I know of exactly none
The W210 excepting the coke bottle wheels which are hideous, look classic and much better looking than the C class, or S class both of which are problematic and quirky, Even the W140 is much uglier exterior, except the coupe, but what an amazing interior, one of the best ever.
I think they have aged rather well. Just look at this fine example. Oh wait, that’s a KIA Amanti…never mind..I was fooled LOL
Not Mercedes’ fault that it spawned imitators, unless you’re implying that a more restrained car would not have been as easy to knock off.
At least it’s more tasteful than the US Granada.
I’m not implying anything other then I think its funny that KIA tried imitating Mercedes..nothing more, nothing less.
Well, actually…I remember a funny episode that happened when these Kias were new and the “round eye” MB styling approach had become entrenched. My wife and I were on a trip to SoCal and were in Beverly Hills. Over lunch she was commenting on how “over-the-top” things were in the super-wealthy hamlet. “Why, even the florists were driving new Mercedes-Benz!” I questioned her on this, and she insisted she’d just seen one with a florist logo painted on the front door. Lucky florist, I figured. When we were leaving the restaurant, she grabbed me and screamed, “look, look! There’s the Florist Mercedes! I told you!” When I explained that is was actually a Kia, she just laughed and said she thought it was sort of odd.
hey
New Edsel?
“Oh wait, that’s a KIA Amanti…never mind..I was fooled”
You see “Mercedes”? I see Studebaker.
Wiki has a list of W210 problem parts, including its Lucas? EFI distributor pump.
Not the 1st time Japanese diligence has shown up Western arrogance.
I don’t share your opinion on the styling; while not as timeless as other Mercedes models, I thought it was an attractive car and it did show the direction the brand would go for the next decade or so. It hasn’t aged as well as their older models but I do not find them unattractive, even today. Though there is *something* about them that I’ve never quite been able to put my finger on that looks less premium than either their predecessors or successors, and it’s not the overall shape. Something is missing in the details.
The rest of the analysis? Pretty much dead on. This was a quality low for the brand, and they have descended into beater status much faster than any Benz before or since. Kind of a shame, as I may be in the market for a used wagon in the next year or two, but despite the large cargo area and value for money proposition, I wouldn’t touch a used W210.
I also think these have a nice, clean design. What makes them look like a cheap beater to me now are those headlight lenses. Every one that I see on the road has horribly yellowed plastic lenses. That always spells cheap no matter what the brand.
I have touched two of them and could not be happier! Both low mileage, less then 35k, and nearly perfect with just a few issues that were quick and easy to sort once properly diagnosed. Fantastic road cars with presence. Very reliable.
Great performance and I love the oval headlights.
Nigel Tate comparing it to a Ford Taurus is stupid on steroids.
Anyone with eyes can see that Lexus was copying Mercedes and definitley improved in several important ways, and failed miserably in many others including expensive repairs like $1600 timing belts changes, power steering rack failure, cat convertors, etc etc…
Defensive much?
I found these cars hideous pigs compared to their elegant, squared off predecessors.
Comparing it to the oval-everything Taurus is absolute GENIUS. Why? Both makers went from handsome, well regarded cars to hideous, cheapened redesigns with the same powertrains.
Lexus signalled the end of “good” Mercedes-Benz automobiles. Shite, they’re even FWD now too.
I think your comparison with the Taurus is apt, but the third generation certainly didn’t have more quality issues compared to the previous ones. The second gen had the dreadful 3.8, which was dropped for the Duratec V6 in 1996.
Until the fourth generation, it seemed like you either got a Taurus with stellar reliability, or you didn’t.
I massively and thoroughly disagree in every way. But if you guys want to talk shit about them, it’s fine with me.
Keeps the prices low.
It does seem to be true that, if you get a “good” one, they’re solid. A friend had a 2000(?) E430, and she did a lot of driving in her work as a real estate agent. The car had very few problems and, last I knew of, she still owned it. The problem with that is *every* Mercedes should be a “good” one.
That car also had a very unusual interior color scheme–the seats were two-tone black and deep green. It sounds garish, but it actually looked very striking.
So basically, MB turned itself into the German Chrysler- Bipolar Quality Lotteries!
I guarantee Chrysler would still be successful and independent today if it weren’t for Eaton. MB was scared of them after the take over. That’s why Chrysler’s quality dropped even further. The Caliber, Avenger, Sebring, Patriot/Compass, and even the Grand Cherokee under Daimler’s thumb were wretched cars. One only needs to compare the interior of a Chrysler developed Pacifica versus a Daimler-dictated Town & Country.
These looked a bit gawky, after the W124. Just my opinion, of course. I know dozens of people who drove or still drive these. Apart from the “rust on peculiar places” the owners never had mechanical problems. I must add that these were all diesels, Mercedes E-Class means diesel in my neck of the woods.
Fast forward 20 years. How is the North American market share of the current E-Class vs the Lexus GS ? We’re talking E-segment / executive class. Europe 2014: 25.2% for the E-Class (and the number one), 0.5% for the Lexus GS. The whole chart is below.
I suppose they’re not that far apart in North America, to say the least…
I don’t know the actual numbers, but my on-the-street observation in California is that the current E-class is far more popular than the Lexus GS, which has always been a weak seller here. Most Lexus are the RX crossover, perhaps followed by ES Camry clones and the rear wheel drive IS. In general though, as MB and BMW prices creep up, it feels like E Class (and 5-series) are fading compared to the ongoing popularity of C Class and 3-series, or even smaller GLA and 2-series).
I love the shot of the board of directors. How would you like to make a pitch to that bunch.
I wonder how much of the early price advantage was from Lexus selling below cost. I can see why it would have scared MB into doing things more efficiently. There was no way the 70s and 80s annual price increases could have continued forever. At the same time, the taste of the average buyer was dropping, so the features list takes center stage.
If you look at the w124 list prices in the eighties and adjust them for todays money and features content, you see how stratospheric it would be. Then imagine the volumes sold at those prices. Fewer cars in USA, and I bet fewer taxies in Europe. I don’t think MB had a choice in what they did.
I checked the CPI. A w124 300E in 1993 with dest was $50300. This translates into $82615 today. A 2016 E350 with dest is $54025. One would then have to add for the feature content of today.
Which is a tricky issue since–especially with late-model German cars–nearly all features are ‘optional at extra charge’.
Was there anything available as an option in 1993 that isn’t a standard feature today? Probably not many things. Today’s car would be safer, more efficient, and probably more reliable. But that’s all conjecture…
My dream garage still salivates over a ’94-95 E convertible.
More powerful engine, two more gears and more safety features today. The current model has reverted to MB tex, leather was standard in 1993. No idea if today’s vinyl is real MB tex.
Quite cheap to buy in NZ, however that includes ex Japan cars which may or may not have had any maintenance untill arriving here, I’d consider a diesel but am quite happy with the cars PSA builds which are likely better than these at least they never rust and are easily repaired on a DIY basis.
“Mercedes-Benz” should be hyphenated. Just say “Mercedes”–it’s easier. And BTW the W140 was vastly more troublesome than the W126, which (along with the W123) is legendary for its longevity.
It was cars like this and the “Cheap Class” that led me to observe the Mercedes had gone from austere cars engineered to last forever to gadget laden eyesores with the reliability of a 96 Kia.
I’ve never had direct experience with the W210, and can’t say anything about quality or driving experience.
I hadn’t been keeping up with new cars when the 210 came out. I really admired the W124 as an integration of aerodynamics with engineering and traditional Mercedes looks. The new car looked like it was supposed to be “retro” to the W114-115, with the headlights disproportionate to the car as a whole. I was pretty disgusted that those peepers, perhaps a compromise for US cars in the 60s-70s, were replicated on purpose on a new car that was supposed to be well designed.
The “beater” tag now applies to just about every Mercedes at some point in its life, at least those made after the W110: I’ve seen every single model, including the glorious 6.9, in some state of semi-operational despair. Anecdotally, though, more people around Los Angeles are keeping the W124, 126, 123, and to some extent 201 and 202 going, than the 210. According to craigslist, these are all worth somewhere between $1500 and $5000 if they can be registered but aren’t super nice. I couldn’t say whether the 210 suffers from more parts needed, more expensive parts needed, or what, compared to other Mercedes beaters.
Hyperbole aside, I understand that there was a fundamental change at Mercedes at this time. Previously the product development went through its process with the engineers in charge, doing whatever they needed/wanted to do, and then once the car was finished they worked out what it cost to build (including development costs, profit, etc) and that was the price.
Post-Lexus, they now started with a price that they needed to sell the cars for, which imposed some sort of constraints on the development budget. The first W196 190E is infamous for having investigated something like a hundred different rear suspension layouts and building prototypes of dozens of them; that is the sort of thing that would have been cut out.
The biodegradable wiring harness thing was an industry-wide issue in Germany at least, a misguided green initiative if ever there was one!
A friend of my father has a W210, it seems fine but I don’t know what sort of maintenance issues he has had with it.
Leaving aside all the problems and history, I never liked this E-Class from a styling perspective. I know the bug eyed thing is one of Mercedes most recognizable looks, but it just looked so wrong to me (though I always hated those style of headlights on any car). Even as a young buck and a hardcore Mercedes fanatic, I never liked these cars from a styling perspective all that much. I know that most people on here feel cold about the W140’s styling, but I thought those worked much better and looked nicer than these, they may have been over bloated and a bit chunky, but at least it felt more like a continuation from the previous gen rather than a radical redesign that didn’t work. Compared to the W124 these proceeded, it looks even worse. Plus, these were just sort of a harbinger of what was to come with the latter generations, as I find very few Mercedes products that came after these to be good-looking (minus the SUVs and SLS, which I think actually look nice, maybe because their removed from having long lines of predecessors that it’s much easier to view them in a bubble, rather than the passenger cars where I’m constantly comparing the current products with what came before.)
The first time I saw one, I thought they were using old VW Beetle headlights – similar size and rake, just without the chrome surround. I remember thinking at the time that it was not a good look for a prestige car.
Time has shown they weren’t Beetle headlights at all – the glass wouldn’t have clouded with age.
I work in an auto shop one day a week and I see a lot of these cars and drive them to customers. They are actually very nice. The six cylinder has a ton of power. Seats are comfortable. Steers nicely. A really nice cruiser in my opinion. I would rather have the 5-series contemporary of this benz but I’m not sure I would consider this car a deadly sin.
I don’t like the climate controls or any of the knobs on the console. And a lot of them have problems with the lcd section of the gauge cluster. But other than that, they seem solid.
Also, we must see five to six a week at this shop. Some with low miles and others with as high as 260k. A lot of these people are the original owner’s of the cars. They’re really good cars, except for the dash controls. Cannot stand them. My bosses grandmother has the v6 sedan and a wagon. She loves them.
At least in Europe, you could even get a horror combination: w210 and first gen commonrail diesel. Now the rust and shoddy electrics was complimented by very expensive defects of the commonrail system, bringing cars off the road before they were 10 years old. Quite the feat, ain’t it?
I think the rust was the worst. MB did change all doors, repainted the whole car and yet the rust was comming back again after a couple of years. After the warranty was out you where om your own.
Filling up common rail diesels (in cars, trucks, farm- and construction machinery) with fuel that didn’t meet the EN590 standard. That was the horror combination. Or filling it up with diesel that contains too much water, another one.
Good article, I’m glad to see the Deadly Sin series applied to various makes, as GM is hardly the only automaker with a sin nature.
Being only a casual observer of MB, I have never been able to keep their internal platform naming straight. I have the same problem with BMW. I’d find it helpful if in the title or early in the article authors would also list the common ID. Like, (1995-03 E class).
I never knew this model was such a sudden quality departure for MB. Interesting!
I remember when these came out; many were bought by cab companies here in Vienna and soon the troubles began, so much so that at a certain point in time some operators choosing to do a re-fit on their existing W124s rather than get new W210s. Nowadays you see them in the worst parts of Vienna, usually owned by members of certain minorities and in dilapidated state of repair but they are disappearing quickly now.
It’s surprising that Mercedes didn’t lose more of the taxi business in Germany and the surrounding countries than they did.
Just like the good old 200D-taxi this one also has a 4-cylinder 2.0 liter diesel.
When these came out I remember thinking it was about time Mercedes got modern styling. Back in the pre-internet days you didn’t hear about a cars drawbacks as much as today–I didn’t know these cars had such terrible cost cutting until years later
A very similar thing happened to Hewlett Packard in the 1990s. The company went from an engineering oriented “we’ll develop it and then you figure out who wants it and how much it costs” focus to a marketing one. The runaway success of the laser printer fueled it for a while and the numbers looked great. The tradeoff, like with MB was a transformation from an icon to just another company.
As said above, I’m not really a fan of the W210’s design. But something like this clean and well maintained 18 year old E 55 AMG with a 354 hp 5.5 liter V8…”I wouldn’t kick it out of my driveway” sums it up quite nicely.
Clean on the inside too.
My father picked up one of these a few months back for the princely sum of a case of wine. One of his neighbours had it and was going to donate it to charity ( I guess he did in a way). He is now at about $2000 in repairs and deferred maintence but seems to enjoy the 4motion AWD for Alberta winters and the extra jump seats and space the wagon provides.
I hope it was not to good a wine. Good 210s go for $1000 in the UK 124s $3000+
Worked for an MB dealer just outside the London area when launched. High tech etc.. 1 wire does all… but build quality… MB just played on former owners who
had to have latest technoligy.
I am surprised anyone would waste their time writing this overly long bunch of BS about a car MB produced 18 years ago. And just before Christmas. Nothing better to do?
Seeing festivities are almost over a few points: We have a 98 E320. Owned for past 15 years. 230k km.
– Original paint except for minor touch up repairs.
– Original engine runs perfectly on 2nd set of plugs.
– No mechanical work ever needed on drive train.
– Still a classy car that many friends and relatives still think is an expensive car.
– More lightly built than the tanks of old (which we also own), but nevertheless a beautiful well engineered car.
Would anyone swap such a car for a Japanese car of equal age? Not me for sure.
Exactly Graham, this farticle is an absolute waste of paper. It misses the good to great features of the W210 as well as the weak points of the car. Owned a ’03 BMW 540i which admittedly was a better car in most regards. Lexus LS 400 had more expensive design flaws / ie horrid super expensive Cat convertors right off exhaust manifold, cheap EGR pipes stuffed in low behind the engine and nearly impossible to replace without major disassembly, power steering pumps that leak onto alternator, terrible seats, cluster failure, climate control and radio pixels failures, body roll, etc
Author misses both the good and weak points of the car. The W210 is actually a very well rounded car and with care will last but cannot be owned like a Toyota. It has many many fine feature and very good drivability. It’s a very handsome car and still looks anything but dated. The interior has held up fabulously, has an enormous trunk and both the 6 or 8 cylinder engines do not disappoint. Yes the climate control responds poorly and they have electronic module failures, but by now they are very cheap to replace assuming one has some skill and the correct dx made possible by having Mercedes C4 software program or a good honest indy. Ebay OEM parts plentiful and cheap.
The dealership seem to universally suck caring only about how much cash they can bilk out of you but Benz is no different from Lexus / BMW/ or god forbid Audi.
Strong points
More room than BMW E39, much larger trunk
Visibility great
Seats durable and comfortable
Fit and Finish very good
Driving position very very good
Performance excellent, massive improvement over W124 and better than W211
Solid at 40mph or 120mph, much better than W124
Braking very very good
Drives like a Mercedes should and much much better than W124 in that regard
Fuel economy, I would say very very good with either engine 23 mostly city driving V8 or 25 with V6
Extremely safe and very good soundproofing
Auto vacuum operated lock system
Very Good Bose stereo
Weak points:
Window regulators fail but can be fixed quickly for less than $10
Only one wiper blade tends to streak
Cheaply made rubber bits but easy and cheap to replace
Climate control modules break, overly complicated, slow to respond
Cheaper floor mats and terrible headliner material compared with Lexus
Un necessarily difficult to remove glove box to change cabin filter
Can’t agree on the ‘handsome car’ bit: slab-sided, incongruous round headlights, silly ovals embedded in the pre-facelift tail lights. This started a trend of either awkward, ugly, or unresolved E-Class models for many years. Of course, that’s entirely IMHO!
This is the ugliest modern Benz. Not even the current Chinese knock-off ones look as bad. My thought as a child when these came out was that they were ugly pigs. Yep.
My favourite countries for cars are Germany, Canada, and Australia. Germany has the Autobahn, Australia has some of the most unforgiving Outback roads on the planet, Canada’s climate, is colder than that of the USA.
Some of the best driving in Canada is in British Columbia with lots of twisty highways and back roads. The most enjoyable highway trip I’ve made thus far was south along 97 from Prince George to Hope. That was in my 79 Mustang Cobra Turbo. Absolutely delightful in late summer when schools back. Minimal traffic.
On the Alberta side of the Rockies drive from Banff up to Jasper with a pit stop in Lake Louise. Best done in your favourite sports car.
It was flawed and on the Australian Market was the only car in it’s segment to have a 4 cylinder in it.Mazda,BMW,Eunos,Honda and Audi had all gone inline 6 or V6 at the time of the W210 introduction in 1996 and get this AN E230 cost $100,000 on the road.I went out of interest to check out the Mazda 929 that had the lot and all you needed to add was a decent security system,sure the styling wasn’t the greatest and resale value stank given it was discontinued just over a year later in late 1997 but $85,000 the lot.Who wouldn’t have switched camps.I recall reading later a test comparing all of MB’s rivals and it was a then new e39 5 series that won it followed by Audi with their A6 although the design did date back to the 1992 100 and I was stunned to see the other Japanese as good as they were at the bottom and none of them make anything more upmarket than accord/mazda6 class products these days unless you want a four wheel drive.A funny thing has happened since those days and that is they all have cheap entry level hatches in the same showrooms as their luxury saloons.
Agree one thousand percent. Which is greater than one hundred percent. This type of math is applicable to the disastrous 210. Proof: simply take a few days and peruse your local junkyard — in Denver, we have 4 massive yards, and you can usually find a 210, though the 124 is getting rare — and compare build quality of these two. Thin plastics, thin doors, thin hood, cheapness in the trunk,ugly wheels, lousy electronics. Which one we be talkin bout Willis? I own both a 124 Sportline and a 140. They are not the perfect automobile, although they certainly look like it. The transmissions should last 100 k but never do. The soy-based underhood wiring recycles itself, unfortunately while you are still driving the car. But Lordy. The 124 says MONEY. The 140 says MORE MONEY. All lesser cars know their place, and lesser car owners know this also. As I maintain, take one apart. Ground up. End of discussion. Period. For me, next up, the best convertible ever — the 560 SL. Troublefree? Hardly, but let’s wager that this beauty gets valet parked in the front row over any other convertible. Same with the 124 and the 140.
My W210 currently has over 240,000 miles on it. I bought it with 30,000 miles on it.. I have owned many makes and models of cars including BMW’s and Porches. I can say without a doubt this has been the finest, most reliable automobile I have ever owned. Still has the original water pump, power steering pump, shocks, exhaust etc. This article is complete rubbish.
So you got lucky. The article is factually accurate.
I know I’m many years late to this post but I recall this generation W210 being strikingly daring and a clean break from Mercedes designs. The “egg” headlights was featured in many rap lines and a staple in rap videos throughout the mid to late 90’s.
Speaking with my pompous design professor hat on (sorry) the W-210 is very poorly detailed. In particular the way the front wing meets the a-pillar is nasty. VW solved the exact same geometrical problem on the 2002-2009 version. The Merc´s mirror sail panel is also a fright – look at the way the base of the DLO mashes into it. Nobody wanted Mercedes to be daring. They wanted good.
Over here (Germany) these W210s are just referred to as “Rust Benzes” and a major car magazine has recently printed an article describing en detail where to look for problem zones. Some W210s are now on display in the gravel yards of used car dealers, and some inexperienced guys still need some word of warning. Salty roads in winter kill these cars easily!
Joe
This isn´t a gotcha question: in what way was an LS400 only 95% as good as a Mercedes such as the W-126 (the 80s E-class). I have not owned either car, just looked at them very closely. The LS looks to be flawless in terms of perceived quality. There might never be made a better made than this car.
As wonderfully built as the Lexus was, the Mercedes was significantly more overbuilt. Where you could see getting 15 years out of a Lexus, you’d get 25 years out of the Mercedes. Something you couldn’t see when new.
Rereading this article and the comments, and I was struck by a memory of an American book from my childhood (early 1960’s, I’d be about 11 or 12 at the time): I cannot remember the title, but the book in question was one of the first books on antique/classic cars I ever read, and I re-read it often. 25 or so chapters, each chapter a history of a classic marque (Packard, Alfa Romeo, Rolls Royce, Bentley, etc.).
Of course, each chapter was heavily biased in favor of a marque’s pre-WWII cars, with some mention made of the fifteen or so years after the war. In the chapter on Mercedes-Benz, it was entirely about pre-war cars with the history of the company ending with the 300SL. And, as an afterthought to all the thoroughbreds, there was a mention of the post-war sedans. Specifically saying that, in the author’s estimation, they were the best built cars in the world, and had been ever since production had restarted in the late 40’s.
And there is the depth of this Deadly Sin: For something like 50 years, Mercedes-Benz made the ‘best’ sedan in the world. Overbuilt, a long term investment. Which they threw away completely in one generation.
Makes a Chevrolet Citation seem like small potatoes in comparison.
GM pulled the band-aid of cost cutting off slowly over two decades. Mercedes yanked it off in three years!
Funny thing is this model Merc can be had quite cheap here but there are a lot of them still going, ok some are slowered quite dramatically and feature huge blingy wheels but local modification restrictions usually mean the original running gear is still in them, BMWs tend to luxury lawn ornament of choice at much younger ages than old MBs
What I don’t understand is why MB went in the direction they did. They chose to sell what is essentially an upscale Audi at a Lexus price, which is a losing proposition in every way. They should have kept their robust engineering and raised their prices and waited Lexus and Acura out. They changed Mercedes from an aspirational vehicle, like Cadillac once was, to a car coasting on their reputation. They should have become even more upscale and exclusive. The money would have followed them eventually.
Now I see MBs on ‘buy-here, pay-here’ lots. I steered my gf away from one at one this past spring. If I see a Lexus or Acura at one, the miles or condition are what you’d expect.
Rolls sold 5,15 vehicles in 2019, an increase from 2018’s 4,107 and their rep is solid. You don’t see them cheapening out…yet.
Very good take on M-B’s exodus from their proud lineage. I’ve suspected the same, given the volumes of their products sitting on 2nd and 3rd tier used cars lots unsold, awaiting the next transit to auction.