[RahulNagaraj]

A stunningly beautiful 1979 Mercedes-Benz W123 300TD model has been put up for auction at 'Bring a trailer'. This 42-year old Mercedes-Benz station wagon looks to be in pristine condition but has actually been driven quite a bit, having completed over 782,000 miles (close to 12.6 lakh km).



The Mercedes W123 can be seen finished in Medium Red with an original Saffron MB-Tex interior. The station wagon has been used as a daily driver by the seller since 2006, contributing around 150,000 miles (2.41 lakh km) to its total odometer reading.



However, the car has managed to stay in mint condition, without any major damage. Having said that, there is said to be a small amount of surface rust near the fuel-filler cap.



Similarly, the interiors of the Mercedes W123 wagon also seems to have been maintained extremely well. The interiors of the 42-year old station wagon still feature all the original components, apart from the front seats which are said to have been replaced on two occasions.



Some of the features still seen on the Mercedes W123 include roof rails, tinted & electric windows, a sunroof, self-levelling suspension (which has been rebuilt in the last five years), automatic climate control, Zebrano wood trim accents on the dashboard and central locking, among others.



Powering the 1979 Mercedes-Benz W123 is a 3.0-litre OM617 straight-five turbo-diesel engine. It is said to produce a modest 77 BHP and 155 Nm and is paired with a 4-speed automatic transmission, with power being sent to the rear wheels.

Source: Bring A Trailer

Link to Team-BHP news

[ChandraSekarMN]

Just wow.. To know MB had Turbo Diesel engines and AT in 1979 was my first surprise.
And to know that someone can maintain in pristine condition with most of the stock looks for so many years, makes me to think are we sufficiently taking care of our daily rides?

[norhog]

It is a ARIZONA plate car. Dry climes of the desert preserves metal and fabrics well.

[sreenivass]

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[Altocumulus]

Simply Wow. This example puts puts a shame to anyone's claim of maintaining their vehicles. It can never be possible without sincerity, dedication, hard work and lots and lots and lots of love for their machines. Maybe a few lots of love more.

[batish]

Well, 42 years is a long time. But if we consider the average kilometres per year, it's just 28.5K. Kudos for keeping the interiors immaculately .

Wish I could keep mine, if the government wasn't hell bent on keeping my possession off road after a fraction of time what this car has completed.

[GTO]

And here we are in India, creating halls of fame for 200,000 km cars

Originally Posted by batish

Well, 42 years is a long time. But if we consider the average kilometres per year, it's just 28.5K.

True, but look at it this way. It's no big deal to do 29000 km annually in a car that's 1 - 15 years old. But to continue doing that as the car ages....past 25, 30, 35 years is really something. This is also a pathetically slow car.

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

A stunningly beautiful 1979 Mercedes-Benz W123 300TD model has been put up for auction at 'Bring a trailer'. This 42-year old Mercedes-Benz station wagon looks to be in pristine condition but has actually been driven quite a bit, having completed over 782,000 miles (close to 12.6 lakh km).

People really wear the odometer reading like a badge of honour. Just look at the comments on the Bring A Trailer listing. That high odometer reading is actually attracting buyers!

Originally Posted by ChandraSekarMN

Just wow.. To know MB had Turbo Diesel engines and AT in 1979 was my first surprise.

Mercedes has always been the master of turbo-diesels.

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by GTO

True, but look at it this way. It's no big deal to do 29000 km annually in a car that's 1 - 15 years old. But to continue doing that as the car ages....past 25, 30, 35 years is really something. This is also a pathetically slow car.

So true. Infact post 10 years of ownership, if the car runs well for 10K KMs a year then too it should be considered epic! This is some insane passion for the car.

Originally Posted by GTO

People really wear the odometer reading like a badge of honour. Just look at the comments on the Bring A Trailer listing. That high odometer reading is actually attracting buyers!

Sometimes I feel it is more of an obsession than anything else. It's like we are focussed on the goal while missing out on the fun of the journey towards it. Let's hope we keep seeing such threads which imbibe our collective passion and keep amazing us throughout.

[akshay4587]

Originally Posted by GTO

And here we are in India, creating halls of fame for 200,000 km cars



True, but look at it this way. It's no big deal to do 29000 km annually in a car that's 1 - 15 years old. But to continue doing that as the car ages....past 25, 30, 35 years is really something. This is also a pathetically slow car.





Mercedes has always been the master of turbo-diesels.

Well 300D is not exactly that slow to be honest, compared to modern diesels yes, however 300D was okay, 200D/240D were the real snails.
Also having driven the W124 E250D extensively, these old MB diesel's are quite slow off the block, however once they start moving, the pick up pace in a fairly decent manner.
Also this car has MBTex, that fabric can outlast the whole car around it.
How, I wish, my W124 had MBtex instead of leather.

[Jeroen]

this is not a car in mint condition by a long shot. This is what, I would call a somewhat dodgy car.

I checked the website, and it does not list any paperwork that can prove any of the claims. I don’t know if the mileage is genuine or not. I can pop out the speedometer of any W123 in about 2 minutes flat. I can change the reading to any mileage you would like within 5 minutes and 2 more minutes to put it back in. So without paper work we really don’t know.

Of course, whether from a buyers point of view such a high mileage has any value remains to be seen. It is not unusual and there are various W123 that have similar and even higher mileage and we know that they are genuine.

The good news, the website show a photograph of the VIN: WDB123190 12 00 84 64

So you pop that into a Mercedes VIN decoder and this what you get:

https://www.lastvin.com/vin/5ognYdmgllV2Ozr3W

It says no rust (other than near the fuel cap), but there is clearly quite a bit of rust visible in quite a number of the photographs. What is also very telling, is that there or no photographs of the rust-weak spots of the W123. Close up of the jacking points, the corner of the window sills, underneath the hinges of the bonnet. And of course, the sliding roof are an absolute night mare, when it comes to rust. The drains will block over time and that will cause all sorts of problems.

Look at the carpet in the drivers position, it looks quite dirty, but I suspect it could also be wet. Problems related to the sliding roof, the front window bottom corner and the hinge connections usually end up as visible wetness in the footwell. So you really need to lift the carpets.

Also, look at the image on the right hand side of this car. There is a very noticeable colour difference on the door and the chassis. Either a very poorly paint job or somebody just swapped a door and did not bother to get it repainted properly.

The problem is that car paint over the years deteriorates, not a problem for a professional car restorer/painter. They will match the new paint with the old. But if you just buy a door, or a fender with supposedly the same paint code, it will always show.

Under the hood I see plenty of evidence of non professional tinkering with none original parts.

It says the self levelling suspension had work carried out five years ago. Without invoices on what is done, be very cautious. This is a very complex system and there are not that many specialist that really know how to deal with it, overhaul it properly. Also, parts of these systems have become really scarce.

I think this looks like your typical W123. And I have said this on many times on several threads. W123 are still amongst the cheapest and most readily available classic car in the western world. They are, by and large, easy to work on. With exception of the Coupe and the T- rubbers and some of the T suspension components, parts availibility is not too bad.

But 9 out of 10 W123 are cheap. In the sense, they enjoy their W123, but they don’t like to spend much on it. So they tend not to care about rust, about some cracked paint (very obvious in some of the photographs). They don’t care too much about originality, certainly not an issue if it is not immediately visible.

I am not saying it is wrong, each to its own. The W123 is an extremely durable car, which is part of the attraction. You can keep them going on a shoe string budget for ever.

The last owner has obviously not spend any money on it. He doesn’t even have a tyre on the spare rim!

And more to the point; would you want to buy a car with this many miles? If anything you do need to verify if this is still the original engine. And if it is, it will only have lasted this long with extremely good maintenance, but even then, there comes an end to everything mechanical, obviously.

So W123s do have that reputation of living for ever and especially the diesels have been known to clock phenomenal number of miles. Whether this has, remains to be seen. Again, whether that is something attractive remains to be seen. I don’t think I have ever seen it push a price up.

Again, I am not that impressed. It looks, at best, run of the mill W123-T. The good news, if you buy it, you could probably drive off with it just like that. However, if you want it returned to mint condition, it is going to take a considerable amount of money. Concour condition an obscene amount of money.

Apart from all the obvious problems and short falls, this car lacks proper documentation and provence. Not unusual for a W123. Because most W123 don’t spend much money on it. When they do, it is often second hand (no invoice) and mechanics that work without invoices too.

Enjoy!

Jeroen

[mmxylorider]

Now that is a one quality build. 12L kms is equivalent to 3 time the distance between Earth and the Moon, 31 time along the equator and driving back and forth across ALL the roads in Germany! (had to google this data). I guess a lot of cars probably have it in them to rack such miles but get scrapped much earlier.
How much do the test cars for new models get run upto?

[Mafia]

Wow..! what a phenomenal achievement!

To keep the interiors that clean! he must have had a no children in car policy along with no eating, no drinking onboard.

I have seen Taxis in Oman with 1.2 million to 1.5 million km. They were Toyota Echos. Of course, the age showed though the vehicles ran as well as they could at the age. And no way of verifying if they ran the original engine and transmission.

[srh]

Beautiful car, maybe except for the rear overhang. How I miss such timeless, classy designs.

[Sudarshan42]

That's an incredible achievement for a car. What's even more amazing about this particular car is that it can run without an engine too, as evidenced by The Grand Tour.

https://youtu.be/tU6-V9s1KaE

[Rod]

Sorry, but this is not a Turbo Diesel. This is a naturally aspirated diesel. And the 3.0 litre has 88bhp.

If it was the Turbo Diesel, it would have had 125 bhp and it would have been called 300TDT and the badge at the rear would say 300TD Turbodiesel.

The T in TD stands for T-Modell Diesel. T-Modell means Touring-Modell (wagon).

Cheers
Rod