[stormsearcher]

Hey guys
I have been looking around for a W123 for a while now, and now i have widened my search to W124s too.
I saw a W124 car (1986 200E petrol) this weekend, Have attached pics of the car. Its not really in great shape. Some things of note-


-The door side panels are coming off.



-Small bits and pieces are missing.


-The dashboard padding is cracked in several places.


-The front bumper is damaged.


-Inside the boot, the right side panel has been removed for the LPG conversion kit.


-The car is pretty much rust free, but the part where the panel in the boot is removed, there is a fair bit of rust.


-The paint is beginning to crack in some places.


-The OE seat covers are done with and has been replaced by thick fabric which i would like to burn.


-It has a gas kit fitted to it.


The head area of the engine looks a bit strange in that am not sure if it should be looking so crude.


This cant be the original 200E letters. Seems like home grown variety.


Some interior pics





The engine bay-



-There is a very slightly play in the steering.
-The engine sounds smooth on idle but the tone completely changes past 2500 rpm


Can the gurus guide me on what kind of damages i can expect in terms of cosmetic build up of the car and some engine fine tuning (as am sure it will need).
The asking price for the car is not much, but If the repair work is going to break the bank i rather wait and look for another car.

Mods-- If this has been put in an inappropriate section, please move it to the right one. Couldnt find a section where i can get advice on a used car.

[Mr.Boss]

Condition seems fair for her age, but a Merc should have been handled and maintained with 'Love' instead of 'Care'.
Cosmetic upgrade will be bit costly for this old beauty. IMO you will have to spend around 2 lakhs (bare minimum & basic)

BTW what is the asking price? If that is reasonable / cheap go ahead and the amount that you are about to spend on repair is worth.

[ajmat]

I would walk away. It is not worth the cost to restore. There are plenty of w124's around that too with more powerful engines. This car has been around fro a while.

There is a black w123 in the classified. I have looked at it. PM me if you want my impressions

[stormsearcher]

The asking price is 2.5 lacs (negotiable). The car has not been given any love. Its plain to see. There is no service history either.
2 lacs to restore at a bare minimum is a bit much when we add things up. Looks like i should give it a pass.

The black 123 has turned up on other websites too i think. Its condition (in pictures) seems to be outstanding. But at 4.5 its a bit high for a 123. No?

[ACM]

This feel "yuck". It is in poor condition and you would require to replace a lot of the interior stuff, even the exterior is not really in even good shape.

Suggest you look for a 1996-1998 model - preferably diesel and up the budget a bit.

[amrisharm]

I would seriously walk away. Otherwise you will be spending most of the time repairing it and then it wont be original anymore. When you are looking for a niche product like this you need to look for it all over india and not just your town or state. If you look at team-bhp's classified section you will find a few W123's itself:

http://classifieds.team-bhp.com/sear...qs_button=Find

Try other car sites, like carwale, gaadi, carsalesindia etc etc. Also try OLX, sometimes you find the craziest things on this free advertisement portal. The best way to look for one is to look all over india and be prepared to travel. After all there arent too many of these around in good condition. And if you put in the effort now to look for a good car then you will be rewarded with a trouble free ownership experience. The consequence is dire if you are stuck with a lemon, so chose wisely. This more true in the case of calssic Merc's as parts are hard to find and very very expensive. Look out especially for the electricals of the car and the wiring.

Happy hunting and good luck!

[stormsearcher]

@ACM-- yeah, it does look like it needs a lot of TLC. I was given to understand that the post 95 models were problematic and hence were going at throw away prices. Am not sure of the authenticity of the statements though.

@amrisharm-- yea buddy. Its become my homepage now. The merc hunt websites. Keeping an open eye. Not in a hurry. Will wait to get a good one. Have already experienced burning your fingers on picking up something on impulse. So being careful.

[infotech58]

the condition is really bad; better walk away from this deal unless you are getting it for very cheap (50-60k). look around and have patience, and there are many good examples of W124 available at reasonable cost.
Good Luck!

[nandishpal]

i bought my 140 much above the market price & i am very happy with it for ever a year now.i had read on the benz forum,the biggest mistake a man can do is to buy a cheap mercedes.
stay away from this car.you can never build it.the trim of the interior is in very shape & beyond repair.you will spend all your hard earn money only to the customs by importing new parts.there are many 123's in bangalore.keep looking.i know of a very clean 123 240D LHD.pm me if you are ok with lhd

[stormsearcher]

Originally Posted by nandishpal

i bought my 140 much above the market price & i am very happy with it for ever a year now.i had read on the benz forum,the biggest mistake a man can do is to buy a cheap mercedes.
stay away from this car.you can never build it.the trim of the interior is in very shape & beyond repair.you will spend all your hard earn money only to the customs by importing new parts.there are many 123's in bangalore.keep looking.i know of a very clean 123 240D LHD.pm me if you are ok with lhd

Thanks Nandish. I dont think i have the priviledges yet to PM any member. If you give me your email/phone, i will get in touch with you.

[vikramv007]

The door pads and the B pillar trim will alone cost you 1.6L. I got the quote from Mercedes Benz India. The dashboard will set you back by another 1L. Please stay away from this piece. I have two W124 s, a 1996 E250 and a 1989 300D.Both have been non problematic. I would advise you to get a 300D if you find one. The straight six is silky smooth. If you want only a petrol 124 PM me there is a top notch E220 with genuine 34K Km on the odo.

[rakesh_r]

If i were you i would walk away.I would hunt for a better one which needs minimal restoration.2.0 lacs for this merc is an overkill as you have to throw in another 2-3minimum to bring it back to shape.And it has been converted to Gas.Who knows whether the previous owner had installed a good kit(as you mentioned no service history).The head doesnt look happy to me.

[moralfibre]

It has been pathetically kept. A CNG / LPG converted Merc has to be owned by someone with a very low budget for maintenance. I would give this car a pass and not dwelve into estimating restoration costs. There might be a lot of things wrong with the car that cannot be seen.

[flipsyde]

Are you seriously considering buying this car? For 2.5L that too? There was a nice looking petrol Merc W124 E220 for sale here in Chennai in very good shape. Walk away from that car its got "neglected" written ALL OVER IT!

[Ravindra M]

@stormsearcher


Nandishpal's comments are 100% true.

I got my W124 E250 Diesel after a wait of 2 years, a search spanning Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai and Chennai, and almost 12 test drives. You are welcome to have a look at my car to know what a well kept W124 means.