I came across this W140 a little while back and thought to myself; wow – a late model MB and its already been trashed. Then I took a hold of my senses and realised this car is probably more than twenty years old. It was launched in 1991, around the time I started owning cars, and back then my desired rides were only twenty years old themselves.
So now the cars I love to own are getting on to 50 years old, and the challenges facing ownership of such wonders have compounded. CC is a pretty unique environment; both contributors and commenters are brought together by an absolute devotion to classic cars (et al.), but the rose-coloured glasses are easily removed in discussion. There’s really no place for a rigid adherence to fetishism here – which I think goes to the foresight and broadmindedness of our host as we sit on his porch for a chat. We may not always agree with each other, but damn the conversation here is good. As for getting old, what’s past is prologue.
Shame to see this car as it is today. I wonder if it will ever be returned to its former glory.
I have always been afraid that I cannot afford a running, driving Mercedes. I *know* I can’t afford this one. 🙂
They are easy to afford while they are “running, driving”. It’s when that status changes that it can become less affordable 🙂
I wonder if the interior is trashed as well. My Dad had a 97 W140. It was quite impressive when new. But then interior bits began to fall apart, then electrical accessories stopped working followed by oil and coolant leaks, then the transmission went.
About 10-15 years ago I bought a Civic CX hatchback, it was refrigerator white with a blue vinyl interior… even the seats were covered in vinyl. For a few weeks I strongly considered painting it in a graffiti style, like a NYC subway train.
This looks like a case of a car that broke down and after months, or even years of not moving, the neighborhood artists claimed it as a free canvas.
the rose-coloured glasses are easily removed in discussion.
If we kept them on, we’d probably be a lot more popular with the typical old car enthusiast crowd. 🙂
I’ve occasionally gone to site like deans garage, and been a bit shocked at how they have their blinders on. Everything created in Detroit’s studios was 100% original; no damn furrin influence here! Once or twice I pointed out obvious cribs of a European car, and the fact that both Earl and Mitchell went to Europe every year to see the latest, and brought back the best examples to plunk down in the Design Center. But don’t remind these guys of that….
Most likely they have the tendency to forget the Pontiac with many buttons on the steering wheel and everywhere else in the interior, not knowing Citroen cars at the same time.
That steering wheel looks like it came from the designers of the original Commodore PET.
Because the buttons, flashing digital light and computer chips meant high tech, and it was fashionable.
In modern cars excessive touch screen controls replaced excessive buttons on the steering wheel as the latest ergonomically questionable gimmick.
LOL! I thought the same! It seriously does look like 1977 Commodore PET keys were used! Oddly, Since this is a French car with American computer influenced buttons, It comes of as looking 1980s Japanese, like the inside of a lost high-end Subaru prototype! ?
Looks like some of us appreciate old cars and old computers around here. 🙂
Thanks to everyone who adds to the discussion, and to those that moderate the comments and keep them clean and civil!
Why!!!!!!!
Where is this sorry car?
In USA this car would not be resurrected. It seems to be an S320; that model was current from ’94 through ’99. The wheels suggest to me it is ’94 to ’96. It was a tank, a very heavy car (about 4,200 pounds) with the smallest engine available in a 140 – the 3.2 litre M104 dohc inline six. Among Mercedes fans it is not a popular car at all. The engine is a good one that did have electrical issues.
Maybe the car would bring $1,000. To these eyes it is only a salvage car. There are parts that are worth saving. Assuming they are there, I would want the original Becker radio, the tool kit, the books, the instrument cluster, outside mirrors, inside mirror and visors, possibly sunroof tracks plus cable and possibly (depending on manufacture date) engine wiring harnesses and some electrical parts under the hood. Then send it to the crusher.
Australia.
When you recall the cars in junkyard appearing on the front cover of a magazine when it was brand new and have a hard time to believe it, it’s the sign of aging.
Welcome to why I eventually got out of the antique car hobby. When cars that I remember riding in new as a child started showing up as ‘antiques’, and within a few years those same cars pushed the ‘real antiques’ off the show field by sheer weight of numbers, I wasn’t enjoying it anymore.
This model Mercedes was extremely complex, with systems that were not built to last in the fashion folk were accustomed to. We had a business partner “gift” a high mileage one to the company when he was done with it, and when it failed its’ annual test the repairs needed were way beyond the value of the car. People who can afford to run a big Merc can afford to buy a new one.
That’s one advantage of American (and Japanese?) “badge engineering”.. Who knows what I saved over the years with “Chevy parts” in my Cadillacs and Buicks! ??
I worked for a guy who had one. Some glitch occurred between the key fob and central command, and he couldn’t even get into the car. It had to be towed away for fixing.
I locked my self out of my ’89 Brougham once, A wire hanger popped open that sucker like it was 1959! Ok, Not high security, but an actual theif could have just broke the window anyways, and I didn’t have to pay a months rent to get in my car.
I’ve heard a story of one that had to dragged around the Southbank casino car park to a point where clearances allowed it to then be dragged up onto a tilt tray.
I’ve witnessed another Benz being unloaded at the workshop, again with driving wheels locked.
I’m not convinced they are designed to be treated like that…
I’m not particularly keen on Mercs or BMW’s or Euro stuff in general, but even I find this sad.
Here in NZ this would be a demo derby car though…. scrap value only
“We may not always agree with each other, but damn the conversation here is good.”
+100!
Thanks to Paul and the wonderful contributors and commenters here!
(But to me, “Merc” will always mean Mercury. 😉 )
Yep, “Merc” IS Mercury!? Every time I see “Merc” in print, That’s what I read. – Mercury. I’ve never heard (aloud) that word used for an M-B. The only short version I heard (aloud) for an M-B is “Benz”.
“Merc” is only Mercury in North America. Elsewhere in the wide and various English-speaking world, it’s Mercedes. They never got Mercurys, and if they did, they forgot about those long ago.
That one is sitting close to the Officeworks in Alexandra Pde, I think the land plot is near a petrol station. It was not vandalized when I saw it the first time many months ago, alongside other Benzes, interestingly they were also white.
Sad. However… I see stuff like that almost on a daily basis. Going down to Geelong it is common for cars to suffer some dismantling/vandalism if left abandoned for more than 1 week. And then… in town, 4 weeks parked on the footpath and it’s graffiti time. There’s an Astra nearby that was neatly painted, now it is being slowly crushed.
I saw a ’90s Ford Laser in a school (?) parking lot close to Brisbane’s CBD the other day, completely burnt out. Now that’s the type of sight I don’t see often!
That was a Focus from ~5 months ago… on the opposite footpath. They burned the interior at which point the council finally decided it was time to pick it up.
“This model Mercedes was extremely complex, with systems that were not built to last in the fashion folk were accustomed to.”
There’s virtue in high quality and simplicity. M_B’s of the distant past combined excellent design and materials without the need to add excessively complex gimmicks all ready to age and fail. Too bad this philosophy seems to have no market these days. “Simple” is synonymous with “cheap” regardless of quality.
And I believe that this was the generation of MB cars that also came with the bio-degradable wiring harnesses as well, which was especially problematic underhood.
Happens to all of us, Don – one day you realise that cars you thought were new aren’t new any more. It hit me like a brick to the head when I saw the local SES had a W126 down behind the hall, for them to practice using the jaws of life on. Seeing such a (once) fine car relegated to that duty really hurt!
I started down that road a few years ago when I would attend a car show and see something I had driven and think “how is that there? I only got my license in 1979!”
I know they are eligible and I have seen some modded ones, but the first “restored to new” K-car I see will be my last show!?
As someone else mentioned, I’m going to bet the biodegradable engine wiring harness doomed this one. IIRC it was used only on, or primarily affected, the six cylinder cars from the early 1990’s no matter what model (SL320, E320, S 320). This is a 1994 at the newest judging by the taillights which were changed for 1995-96, and changed again for 1997-1999. Also, the little chrome parking guides you see that raise out of the fenders above the taillights, were dropped after MY 1994. The wiring harness issue was resolved by MY1996 I think. To replace the harness even at an indy shop would exceed the value of the vehicle. If you want one of these years/models, proof the harness has been replaced is a must.
The biodegradable wiring harness was for the full line of W140s. At 6 years old, my ’96 S600 was diagnosed with this. In conjunction with an inop rear A/C system the total was going to be $12k to repair and “a month or more” in the shop. There was one undergoing the process that they showed me- they basically disassemble the car and put it back together. Lots of room for error IMO, even if the tech is meticulous.
I’m a bit sad to see this car defaced. I thought it was too much, too fat, etc. when new. But still, it was an engineering triumph.
I’m not a big fan of tagging. But there’s something rad about graffiti on this white 80s luxobarge. I would drive it as is!
I’m feeling you, but from a certain angle is a very prominent use of the ‘n’ word. Not sure I’d drive around with that, even here in Australia.
God even I feel old looking at this. I remember this being the must have Mercedes of my early childhood and I thought it was the greatest car ever. Now, to see it reduced to this, it really does put into perspective how fast shifting the car market is. When I was three or four, I never thought I would get one of these, it would only be something I would have when I was really grown up. Now as a 21 year old, I can find plenty of examples of these on Autotrader and Craigslist for less than ten grand. Depreciation is a very fickle and powerful force indeed.
W140’s have been filling the junk yards for almost ten years now .
It’s a shame that M-B lost it’s way .
-Nate
How the mighty have fallen. Today, you can find them for less than two grand!
I saw a pair of these for sale, very cheap, at the Virginia Beach Pick-N-Pull recently. They must’ve had some expensive high-tech malady. Both had straight bodies and nice black paint, without the graffiti. But no takers, so they wound up in the yard.
Happy Motoring, Mark
Don, there have been few images on CC that have been more jarring than these.
Like you, I’ve sorry of lost my compass as to what cars are “contemporary”. I also remember when these were new, and they still seem new-ish to me.
I so hate taggers… 🙁
Same here; while looking over some of my railfan slides from around 1971 at Cajon Summit, I didn’t notice any graffiti on freight trains (I must assume there was some though), but nowadays, hardly any rolling stock lacks it, locomotives included.
Aha ~ another Rail Fan =8-) .
Back in 1971 the primary grafitto was in chalk “BOZO TEXINO ” on SP rolling stock .
-Nate
How’d ya guess, Nate 🙂 ?
I spent many hours / nights at the Tehachipi Loop watching the SP freights in the 1970, chasing them up and down in a ’51 Poresch or my VW split window Beetle into Beena where they cut in/out the helpers, getting cab rides, you know the drill I am sure……
It’s all closed off now sad to say .
-Nate
Own one and you will understand! I had 2 W140s 96 S600 & 95 S500) and they “cured” me of my M-B lust. 10 years “clean”, lol. I absolutely believe that if they are babied they are nothing but problems (as mine were). Beat them into the ground and they go for hundreds of thousands of miles! They are plagued with issues, very expensive issues like $5k a pop to restore a “system” and it always was a “system” and not a part. I recently saw a car very similar to this one for sale at a gas station for $800- 94 S320 with 180k and I briefly thought about buying it and just dog the HELL out of it, then the memories of all that could and would go wrong came flooding back and I walked away. No other vehicle have I ever had such a stressfull (and expensive) love/hate relationship with.
I find an interesting dichotomy in this automotive aging. On the one hand, ordinary cars from the not too distant past are considered “classics” and command high prices, at least asking on Craigslist. I’m thinking mid-nineties Acura Integra or Impala SS. Other cars from that era, like this MB, just seem old and not particularly desirable, considering the cost and complexity to keep running. On the other hand, even a 1980 Civic has disc brakes, rack and pinion steering, overhead cam, etc … that all seems quite modern to me. I’m considering a second car myself right now, and I’m struggling to find the right balance between being interesting, and being a manageable (reliable w/available parts, usable, safe) regular driver for local use.
There is a place not far from where I live which has become a virtual graveyard for the majority of the W140s imported into Barbados. At last count there were about six of them in that spot. As the commentators have said, this particular S-Class was truly “engineered like no other car in the world”, and cost about $400,000 in this market when new. When all that ‘gizmology’ went south, it would have probably cost as much as a new Toyota to repair, so that’s why they ended up scrapped. I actually see more W126s on the road than this model. It’s sad to see such a high end car end up in that state, but as I always say, “if you want to buy a Benz, you need Benz money to fix it, and if it’s going too cheaply, avoid it at all costs.”