1985 Mercedes Benz W123 230E - The Taxi

And, I remember riding in these taxies as young lad. I used to look with amazement how quickly the meter would rack up the fares..

I do get the diesel "thing" but.. I believe the best examples of these fine motors should be preserved. If not "us", the enthusiasts these old barges would end up at the scrappy sooner rather than later. I will not be doing hundreds of thousands of miles in any classic therefore the damage would be very limited. If I needed a daily-daily I would surely get something more frugal and green. I commute on a scooter, I need my car to be my pleasure.

For me, driving, owning these old Mercs is very much a visceral experience. From looking at the rectangular, decisive shape, its proportions to the sensation of integrity it creates. Its the "viewfinder" badge on the bonnet, the sofa like seats, square dash and.. the clatter of the diesel motor. They are many things to me. All these things need to be there, together for the experience to be complete.

If manual was what I wanted I would drive a straight six BMW (I do actually have one but it needs work). These Mercs are about comfort, pleasure and this is why I need them in auto form. I do appreciate coupes but they just do not fit w123/4 shape in my opinion. For the same very reason as you mentioned, they need to be simple, four door saloons or estates (ideally early models with thin side boards). I love W114 coupes, by far my favourite coupe with a star on the bonnet.

Really like this thread.

W114/115s have lots of rust traps which makes them expensive to put right. Eg the heater fan drain area in the firewall is not at the lowest point so water and grot build up and rot out the bottom. Water then sneaks under the carpet into the floorpan and rots that too. Sorting the firewall is an engine and dashboard out job. Once they're out it's not complicated to restore but labour intensive. You think of Mercedes being quality and everything clicking together but nothing went back together without a fight when I did this. I digress.

I had a poverty spec W123 200 until last year and some years ago a 124 diesel estate that got me into these Mercs in the first place. I drove around Europe in the estate sometimes living in the back and drove to and from Berlin in my W123 without incident. It didn't like veg-oil. Even at 33% it sometimes just wouldn't start.

I think I'll get a mid spec W124 as my daily in the next year or so so,

mercedessl500 is there much difference between the M102 200 and 230 engines? I know yours are in different cars but engine-wise do you notice the extra 300cc?

I quite like MB Tex and the cloth seats but not leather which always seems to age badly. Don't care about electric windows, sunroof or manual/auto but want air con (even retro-fitting in my W114) but the poverty spec cars I prefer never seem to have air con. I've also noticed that the 1 owner poverty spec manual window and gearbox cars seem to be the best looked after. I imagine that someone stretched themselves to buy their car back in the day so appreciated and looked after it.

With the W123 200 it was nice to have so much space in the engine bay. Is the 260 or 300 much more difficult? Those engines are more likely to have air con I've found.

The replacement exhaust clamp arrived the other day. Here they are, the old (top) and the new (bottom), spot the difference.



Fitting took about two minutes. Job done.



On the subject of the exhaust system, I noticed the other day whilst walking away from the car that the rear box tailpipe was starting to look rusty again. I think it's part of the original system and thus almost 30 years old. Getting a square peg into a round hole is easier than making a cheap EPC exhaust fit a W124 (been there, done that) and a proper replacement is over £100, which I am not prepared to pay out until the exhaust starts to rot through and blow.



So I gave the tailpipe a lick of Hammerite. From a distance, say from the cockpit of a traffic police car, the exhaust looks nice and fresh now.



I keep checking the coolant reservoir tank for signs of more mayo and sludge. On a couple of occasions, post longer drives, I did see very slight deposits of mayo on the underside of the cap but I do mean slight and the coolant has stayed clean.



As much as I like the look of a phase 2 W124, with the side cladding and sill covers, the plastic trim can cause rust issues on neglected cars. General muck tends to accumulate on top of the plastic trim, within the rear wheel arch, to the front of the wheel.



The easiest way to remove the muck is to remove a single 8mm fixing located to the underside of the sill trim panel.



With the fixing removed, the plastic trim can be bent down to release all the muck. Even on my well maintained car, a lot of curse word dropped out. If left for longer, the curse word gets wet and just sits there, holding moisture, which over time causes issues with adjoining metal.



The same thing happened on the other side.





With the curse word removed, I noted some surface corrosion on the bottom lip of the sill, which I promptly covered over with Hammerite.



Finally, I had a look at all four jacking points - a common issue on all W124s. Fortunately, mine were solid when I bought the car and have remained so since I cleaned and painted them a couple of years ago. I spotted minor surface corrosion in a couple of places, which.... I painted over with Hammerite.

You are asking which is my favourite child?

From a coolness / classic point of view, definitely the W123. But the W124 drives much better and is better suited to daily use. I’m keeping both, thank you.

This is a great thread. I love these early W123 and W124 models.

Only had one W123 - a 200E manual, 1985 on a B Reg in Arctic White. It was a slow as a glacier, often being overtaken by HGVs. But it was smooth and had a sublime ride.

Had most iterations of W124, my first one was a Silver K Reg 200E 16v Manual, which was quite fun to drive. Had an E200, E220 16v Facelift Estate, E280 Estate, 230TE (that was Rupert Vansittarts old car), a one-owner Rose Gold 220TE (rare engine), and a Thistle Green 300E with 77k miles.

I would like to own an E320 petrol and an E300 Multivalve Diesel at some point, as well as a C124 coupe. Bournite is a cool colour in these cars. Back in about 2012, I was offered my Dad's boss' E300D, a 1990 model, for about £600. I didn't have the space at the time, so politely declined, but in hindsight, should have snapped it up.

Your W123 was a 200, fitted with a carburetor. In old Mercedes terms, the E stands for Einspritzen, which means petrol fuel injection. Mercedes never made a W123 200E, only a 230E and the six cylinder 280E. All great cars.

There is no bad W124. For Father's Day I got a copy of Autocar magazine from November 1991. It features a three way test between a W124 200E, a Rover 820 and a Toyota Camry. The Mercedes was the slowest, had the least equipment and was by far the most expensive and it failed to beat the Toyota and Rover. However, 30 years on, the W124 is the big winner, at least it is for me. If you check out one of earlier posts, you'll see my whole history of Mercedes ownership. I've had various incarnations of the W124 and one way or another I loved all of them. I wouldn't have a diesel now due to environmental issues, however I can see the very long lasting appeal of a derv W124.

Sorry, yes, it was a 200 and not 200E.  It was painfully slow and had no grunt to get up hills where HGVs were right up my back side.  I picked it up just outside of Edinburgh and had to drive it back to Blackpool, as I was there for work.

Took so long on the local roads, and wasn't helped by the fact the dashboard lights were not illuminated, so had to use my phone light which was rather distracting.  That was a very interesting journey!

But, it was such a nice, softly sprung and cosseting drive.  And whilst it was basic spec, it still oozed quality.