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Originally Posted by autobalan Congrats DudeWithaFiat, your car looks absolutely gorgeous.I am also a W124 fan, and dreaming of owning one someday.Since you were behind this model,can you please share some recent prices for a well maintained car, i know its depends on mileage, but atleast give some reference prices in Kerala |
Thanks Autobalan. The cars I looked at ranged from 3.4 L (negotiable) to 5 Lakhs. As you can easily guess, the ones selling for less than 4 Lakhs are mostly poorly maintained cars with too many niggles to fix, which is, at most times, an instant turn off when you go see the car. Cars with service records will be virtually non-existant, but for a poorly maintained car you can easily imagine how the owner must have missed taking the car for regular services or to give the required oil changes. Another thing is odometer tampering. All the cars I checked had their odometer readings around 1,60,000 which means all of these cars, in all their 16 or 17 years life had been doing only around 10,000km an year? You think its true? If it was just one or two cars, okay, could be true, but what if its ALL the cars? Highly improbable. Its like the all the W124 owners have used their cars only for emergencies, so trust me, most of the cars that you would be looking at, will have done 2 or 3 Lakhs (or even more) km in most cases. At the service center, I saw a white W124 250D, which had 3,2x,xxx on its odo. It looked so pristine that it could pass of as a 1,20,000 km car in the used-car market. So when you start hunting for one, check for the signs of odo tampering.
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Originally Posted by FlatOut Keep the car as original as possible and fit OE MB parts wherever possible, its value would increase more with retro-fitment of headlamp wipers and washer rather than Chinese-made projector lenses. The originals work well, especially if clean. But it is yours, so you can do what you like! |
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Originally Posted by FlatOut The suspension will last longer if you don't fit larger diameter, lower profile tyres. |
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Originally Posted by vikramvicky1984 congrats,
I suggest buffing and restoring original headlamps and adding higher wattage bulbs with relay over adding new clear lens. Take away the looks
Alloys: Go for original Merc ( shouldn't be very difficult to find used) or replica AMGs only. Avoid up sizing unless you have really good roads |
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Originally Posted by arup.misra Congrats ...you little beauty.
What a machine and that too impeccably maintained. Clear her lamps out and get her a nice wax treatment and she'll be totally drool worthy.
Cheers!!! Drive Safe |
After much thinking, that is the way I have decided to take my W124 to - to keep this beauty as original as possible. I have also decided against getting clear-lens headlights and will be clearing and washing the current headlights in a couple of days.
Upsizing - a strict no-no.
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Originally Posted by FlatOut Enjoy the car! If it has the OM605 engine, the plastic fuel lines to and from the pump have a daft design which allows air in every few years. They're not expensive to buy and fairly easy to fit, well worth doing since air in the fuel is about the only thing which would stop the car from starting - the original two valve/cylinder OM602/3 didn't have this problem.
Change the engine......filter changes are as important as oil filter changes for the longevity of the engine) and maybe a injector pump vacuum cut off part.
Don't forget to change the differential oil, it's easy to overlook! |
I have read all your posts on this forum
. Yes, that is an OM605 engine. I haven't taken the car to the service center yet, but will be doing so in a couple of days and will keep this in mind.
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Originally Posted by i74js How easy or how difficult is to manage RTO when the car is more than 15 years old (the original registration expires).
Can you advise on fitness and registration extension in such cases? and certainly the ownership transfer of old cars? |
I don't think it is very hard to get the registration renewed. In my case, the car already has a renewed registration which is good till 2016. Two years back I didn't have any problems in transferring the ownership when I bought a Padmini which was older than 15 years then.
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Originally Posted by Viraat13
I think you need to check if the car is running mineral or synthetic oil. Whatever it is, DO NOT switch. If it is running on mineral oil, carry on using that. The car needs 6.5 liters, don't overfill it.
There is no way an oil change can cost that much even at the authorised MB centre. It'll be around 3000 bucks for the oil, and a few hundred for the oil filter. The air filter is for about a 1000 bucks (MANN). |
Its running Synthetic oil. Mobil 1. I'm planning to continue with that. Around 3000 bucks for 6.5 liters of Mobil 1? I don't think so
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Originally Posted by Viraat13 It's either 111 or 113. Not much difference though.
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Yeah. The service manual says its 83 Kw, which translates to 111 bhp.
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Originally Posted by Redline Shooter Congratulations on that lovely piece of machinery.
Every single picture of it emphasizes on the impeccable state of the car. W124 has all been one of my favourite cars from the Mercedes Benz stable. Even i hope to own one someday. As you have already mentioned that new sets of alloys are in the pipeline i will be hooked to the thread. Do share some more pictures of her on the road. |
Thank you. Sure sure, more pictures are coming. I am actually going out day after tomorrow with the car with the sole purpose of taking a few photographs
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Originally Posted by rosh_aveo1.4 Yes, I did explain that it was old school mechanics compared to the new age ones and so no problem but no use.
And to make things worse, my BIL got the A4 3.2 V6 petrol recently and it cost a bomb for the maintenance and everyone thinks the E would be worse since the parts will not be easily available.
So you are the perfect person to ask, have you checked the overall upkeep and availability of the spares? You are lucky to personally know Merc's owner, makes the maintenance bit easier.
And yes, once again, where are you located? I would absolutely love to see the car. I always had the dream for the E220 but the diesel is more practical I think. |
Hi Rosh. True. Everyone has that impression about the maintenance. When I shared my car's pic on facebook, the first thing they ask it about the maintenance and I don't think they really believe me when I say that if you can maintain a Vento/Skoda/Polo this is going to cost only as much.
About the spares, the Merc guys knows where to get them. The service parts and available in plenty. There are lots of W124 enthusiasts in the forum who can help you the parts in case of a lack of availability. There are also a number of websites that provides parts of anywhere in this world.
I'm located at Udayamperoor, near Thripunithura. Where are you located? I'm taking the car to trivandrum (where I work) next week and the car will be back to Kochi by the end of August. You are always welcome to come see the car
Ping Viraat from this thread. He owns an E220 and he would be the right person to ask about it. I have a thing for Diesel cars, so I did not even think about buying the petrol ones.
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Originally Posted by rosh_aveo1.4 I seen this black E class with clear lens lamps and also different tail lamps but somehow, I did not like the clear lens lamp as much.
And here are some pic of various E class pic I used to download (just like you again!) |
hehe. Thanks for the pics. If you still download the pics of W124, then you ought to get one buddy. Like Paulo Coelho says, "If its still in your mind, its worth taking the risk". Check out the fan's pages of W124 on facebook. There are loads.
And right, for some reason I feel that the W124 loses its majestic appearance when stylized headlights projector/angel eyes et all are used.