[evo]

Most of 2018

I want a car older than me. Which car ? Oh.
I want a W123. I want a W123. I really want a W123.

So, give up my day job, or at the very least my evening joblessness and scoured OLX like a googlebot spider, looking for a w123 resulting in my phone contact list having more 123`s than 033`s :



From rust bucket ruins to a lovely thing owned by a single owner since new. From a lakh to 7 of them lakhs.

However, like the Government, much calling and much emailing (mostly whatsapping) happened without any net result.

Fast forward to 24th October 2018

Classifieds : W126, blah blah.
Me: Oh, this looks good.
Classifieds : Call me, Call me, Call me maybe, baby.
Me: (turning up nose) : oh, its just a 280S.
Classifieds : Dont be judgmental.
Me: (Through android) : Hi, I`d like to know more.
Seller : Video. Photo. Photo. Photo.
Me: Too much, how about a reduction.
Seller : Ok, lets do it.
Me: Ok lets do it.

Thats how I came to own this :



I did buy it remotely since the car was in Bombay and I was in Calcutta. Bombay is such a fitting place for an S Class, I've always thought. Even more so in 1984, considering you`d have had to bhave been a real bonafide Seth to have owned one then. And what better place than Bombay to find a Seth.

Though, Alex Hailey like, I`d like to trace the original journey of the car too. Which I`d assume was Sindelfingen-London/Southampton-Mumbai, but it could be anything else too.

I will detail more of the car including its frustrating and not so fascinating journey over 8 Months from Bombay to Kolkata.

But first, heres the Know Your Car stuff :

- All the alternatives that were considered, and why you zeroed in on this particular car

W123, W123, some W123`s. Did I say, W123?

- Complete booking & delivery experience with the dealership

Considering the car took a mere 8 months for delivery, there's lots.

- On-road price & discounts

Not really sure, how much it costed in 1984, though it wouldnt be too hazardous a guess to reckon it would be less than what it costs new now.

- Be sure to list the engine type & variant you opted for

Its the humble base model S class, if there can be a base model S class.

Is the Fuel Injected ?
No.

Does it have 8 Cylinders?
No.

Does it have the extra 9 inches of leg room and that lovely oversized rear door?

No Sir.

Its not a bird or a plane but a 280 S.

- The good and bad about its features

It had electric seats in 1984 ! Really ! Apart from that, its got all the stuff an i20 would have like power windows, central locking, a sunroof etc. And that amazing town/country horn, which an i20 wouldn't ever have.

- Safety & related equipment

No airbags.
Does have ABS, but since the light is on, the system isn't.

- Number of kms at the time of writing your review

It says 32,000 but I doubt the odo

- Comments on the exterior styling & design

She`s beautiful, timeless and badass, all at the same time. I also love the 3 Alphabet Number. Its my first non computerised plate. So yes, I`m giggly like a demure virgin.

- Overall build quality, fit & finish, paint quality and panel gaps

The build is really solid, though there is some rust (Drivers side footwell & junction of the boot and rear windscreen). The paint has some chips. Including one that shows the original colour a non metallic dark blue. Must be a chip off the old block, this chip.

- Wheels & tyres

The wheels are lovely. I get goosebumps just thinking that I have a car with these gorgeous Mexicanos.

The tyres are a little all over the place. Though the stepney does seem like an old Michelin. Chaps with keener eyes (& minds), will be able to enlighten us on the vintage of the tyres given the old Michelin Font.

- Interior design & quality (plastics, upholstery, fit & finish etc.)

A little worse for wear. But more on that.

- Interior space & comfort...front & back (seat support, legroom, headroom & width)

The front seats are good enough to rule countries from, the back seat not so much. Though they are square, springy and lovely. Like when the sofa`s took the so seriously.

- Driving position, ergonomics, controls & MID

The window switches are by the gear lever on the lower central console. The MID is a little less advanced than your average Tesla replete with non working odo, speedo and temperature gauge.

- Visibility & size of mirrors

Visibility out of the windscreen is great. The side view mirrors though are pathetic with a bogus blue haze over them for some reason.

- Air conditioner cooling & effectiveness

Really does its job. Keeps the temperature as cool as the car.

- Audio system & sound quality

An impostor. Ugly Kenwood system.

- Interior storage, practicality & boot space

The boot is mafia spec. Practicality wise though, the car hasn't delivered much as yet.

- Any other unique or noteworthy points about the interiors

The town/country horn ! Its one thing to read about it, and totally another to see it.
Also the ugly foot mats which are actually doormats. That two in differing colours.

- Engine performance & driveability in the city

In the city, she does great.

- Engine performance & driveability on the highway

Most of her travel on the highway has been on the back of a truck, so not much to report. One of the trucks though was a Bharat Benz one.

- Additional comments on the engine (outright power, refinement, revv-happiness, turbo-lag etc.)

Too early. Will report in the first service report.

- Overall opinion on the engine
Too early. Will report in the first service report.

- Gearshift & clutch (smoothness, effort required, short or long throw etc.)

The gear shift is just that : shifty. Like an unhappy driver who`s happily unaware of lanes, the gears do their own route, not bothering with things like gates.

- Overall NVH levels (including engine, wind & road noise)

It seems incredibly smooth for some reason.

- Steering (size, feedback, weight, EPS / Hydraulic etc.)

Like a government building. Ugly, huge and in poor nick.

- Braking (effectiveness, pedal feel...)

Like teenagers, they lock up and start smoking. Service is supposed to take care of that.

- Ground clearance

Huuuge. A midget can exercise underneath. Either some equivalent of the rough road package, or some rough stuff by the previous owner.

- Any particular likes (damped ashtrays, powerful headlights etc.)

The lovely horn, the lovely seats, the lovely car.

- Any particular dislikes (weak wipers, poor foglamps etc.)

Rust, baby, rust.
Apart from that, the number plate is particularly ugly. I am awaiting delivery of a fresh set.

- Any niggles, problems or part replacements

Tonnes. Coming up in a dedicated post.

- Quality of after-sales service
Not bad actually, and I got to see a most interesting workshop too.

- Cost of upkeep & maintenance
As of now, less than a fancy phone. But early days.

- Anything else you wish to add about your car (feel free to include your family's observations too)

Its irreverent of other cars on the road.



Yup, like a wood pecker pecked away at the rear decklid.


Fairly neat engine bay.


She got nicks baby! She was apparently a daily driver and has battle scars to show for it.


The bootlid with its hazard triangle. But this is prettier in the pictures, otherwise, not so much.


Like Brewer says, straight lines. The power antenna doesn't work though. Have heard that the one from an Accent is a bolt on fit.


Meravalablue?


Majestic, no?


Panel gaps, what panel gaps? Also, the three pointed star got stolen twice. Must keep extra supply.


The radiator had mostly water and little coolant in it. First Service should take care of that.


Everything is OE except the Bhagwanjee thing and the Stereo which are OO ( Old Owner).


Doorcards are in good nick.


The other side.


The base of the seat adjuster is missing. Any ideas where I can find one?


Lovely ashtrays with dedicated lighters. Thankfully though, the car doesnt smell like its been smoked in.


The massive Sun Roof area. Doesn't work though. Actually, it does, but just as a rain roof since it leaks more than your average Government`s coffers.


Seats are good, except wear. Any idea where I can get that Wheeler Dealer kind of leather paint that expands and contracts together with the seats?


The rear ones are more sofa like. Can`t wait to be driven in this too.


Nice full headrests.


Only the country horn works. The town one is Kaput

[GTO]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

Congrats on the mighty W126! We have several of them on the forum, including this other 280S (Mercedes: From a W123 300D to the W126 280S).

[ron_9191]

I love the W124's and the W126's particularly. Great choice and it seriously is a thing of beauty and elegance in excess. Congratulations! And may be you should get the 3 pointed star on the steering wheel pointing in the right direction. Sorry its my OCD

[shobhit.shri]

Congratulation on the car. And that ashtray design on the door is marvelous!

[evo]

@Ron_9191

Thank you!

What a keen eye ! Absolutely, the star pointing in the right direction is on the to fix list.

6th November 2018

Some chap said marriage is like going to a restaurant. You order, but when the food comes, you look at whats on your friends plate and wonder if thats not what you really wanted.

So, yes, I did have the roving eye. I lusted for this too. Though this was a 300D, but a facelift. Not so well specced either. In a perfectly green shade of envy too. But I said to myself that mine was better and moved on.

[Jeep]

Why will this thread have more readers than that new car ownership thread?

Drool stuff. You are living a dream. Congrats mate! Drive safe

[Shashwat B]

@evo,

Really love your way of writing xD Pretty sure this is one most uniquely written ownership experiences! Im sure this will gather tons of views, maybe more than the views of the curernt S class ownership!

To be honest, your car would the very few to have drank BS3, BS4 and soon BS6 fuel.

[evo]

Originally Posted by shobhit.shri

Congratulation on the car. And that ashtray design on the door is marvelous!

It is marvellous no, as if it were too much to ask one to bend to the rear centre console to light one`s Havana`s. Though come to think of it, in the Lang versions, it may really have been too much.

Originally Posted by Jeep

Why will this thread have more readers than that new car ownership thread?

Drool stuff. You are living a dream. Congrats mate! Drive safe

Hahaha, yes, so much to be thankful to the big man upstairs for.

Originally Posted by Shashwat B

@evo,

Really love your way of writing xD Pretty sure this is one most uniquely written ownership experiences! Im sure this will gather tons of views, maybe more than the views of the curernt S class ownership!

To be honest, your car would the very few to have drank BS3, BS4 and soon BS6 fuel.

Wow, high praise indeed ! Thank you.

Shucks, I never thought of that. As if the car was really like a rags to riches guy. First he drank tharra, then RC, and now just Single Malts

Like I said some posts ago, the getting the car business was super painful before getting to the getting into the car business.

Heres more on that.

10th December 2018

Intehaan ho gayi. Intezaar ki. Waiting, waiting but no car macha. More importantly, no word either. Got in touch with the seller. He said all was well. Got in touch with the transporter, he said the car was in Odissa. Both of them sounded fishy. It would have been nice to do a Luca Brassi on the Transporter but that would just be a time machine Genre mix. (Though Statham would have been a good Sonny Corleone.)

22 December 2018

Christmas came early. But to Pune. My office managed to locate the car which had apparently mysteriously made its way from Odissa back to Pune. I`d had it by then with the transporter. Unlike Jason Statham they didnt believe that transportation was a precise business.

I called an old school friend of mine from Pune.

Me : Hi Man.
RD: Hi Man,
Me: Listen, theres this big issue. A transporter nearly stole my car. And its in Pune.
RD: You mean the W126
Me: Yes
RD : The *********
Me: Exactly
RD: So now?
Me: Err, what do you think of going to the Yard tomorrow to commandeer the car back.
RD: So, you want me to go 30 KM from here to some yard on a sunday to try and get your car back from a crooked transporter ?
Me: Ye...sss
RD : Wow man, this is exciting. Sure.

And thats why ladies and gentlemen, old friends are better than the new ones, even if they have Snapdragon processor.

[iceman7]

Congratulations! You are living the dream my friend. Like many others, I too am in absolute love with the W123/6, and dream of buying one and using it as a daily drive. I particularly do not use this word, but just look at the "SWAG" this car has!! She looks lovely. Amazing build up to the story. Watching this thread for inspiration

[.HEM]

Congratulations!

Man, what a car!! a Majestic ride for you. I'm still hunting for a W124

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your write-up.

[BANDHAV]

Hey Evo, this is a dream addition.

Your friend with Snapdragon processor is a friend of mine too.

I hope you won't mind me posting an image of your ride from it early days in Pune. RD's ride can be seen in the photo too.

[evo]

Originally Posted by iceman7

Congratulations! You are living the dream my friend. Like many others, I too am in absolute love with the W123/6, and dream of buying one and using it as a daily drive. I particularly do not use this word, but just look at the "SWAG" this car has!! She looks lovely. Amazing build up to the story. Watching this thread for inspiration

She does, even though this was the post recession understated design, she`s still got that personality.

Originally Posted by .HEM

Congratulations!

Man, what a car!! a Majestic ride for you. I'm still hunting for a W124

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your write-up.

Tonnes of W124`s on OLX and a nice one in Chennai too. Suddenly theres a deluge, maybe great time to pick up.

Originally Posted by BANDHAV

Hey Evo, this is a dream addition.

Your friend with Snapdragon processor is a friend of mine too.

I hope you won't mind me posting an image of your ride from it early days in Pune. RD's ride can be seen in the photo too.

Hahaha, lovely ! And what a a nice pic too. She`s gleaming. RD is the reason why I have the car!

[evo]

23rd & 24th December

RD wrested the car from the clutches of the crooked transporter who has more Bhaiyajee than Blofield.

What was interesting was even after days of manhandling by the transporter, the car started up and RD could drive to his hideout in the city.

So far so Good.

But you know, that saying that means you are just listening to God chuckle !

Leaks for dinner.


The leaky sunroof was discovered by RD when the car was getting washed. I distracted myself from the sorrow of having received that information by sending RD pics of some W126`s with big chrome wheels. He did the whatsapp equivalent of coughing and pretending that I was a nice person.

New Years Day

The car saw her 35th New Year and I saw month 3 without her after having bought her. But no shiny lights for her, infact no lights at all. The battery died. Then there was a din about the DIN about the battery. Finally settled at DIN 80. Interestingly, the original spec of the car had a high power Tropical Battery. But after vacillation between 88 and 80, the 80 won the battery battles.

The surprisingly not so friendly battery guy fixing it.



Now that she was back to being powerful and sparks were flying again, my excitement about the car (which was waning) got rekindled.

RD did the whatsapp equivalent of saying 'there, there' and assured me that the car would be with me soon.

[evo]

Fully Loaded et al.

Whenever I've bought a new car where I could tick options, I have savoured the feeling of anticipation, gingerly going through the list and agonising over the cost to happiness ratio of each option. An options list does tell you that money can buy happiness. Incase of a CBU, buying a pre specced car already ordered by the dealer seems like such a waste of that tingling feeling. And you know, you should never waste a tingling feeling. As a rule. Its important, they should teach it in schools. And for all kinds of tingling feelings.

Anyhow, in this case, the tingling feeling presented itself in a more exciting way. Like listening to your favourite songs on the radio by serendipity. The feeling is amplified when you listen to somebody else's favourite song on the radio, and you have that mera-vala-blue feeling, or should I say the mera-vala-blues feeling?

And whats more, which is an important whats more, the radio doesn't cost you nada baby. So its free, and serendipitous and beautiful.

Well this wasn't exactly free. It costed money, and boy did it cost time and aggravation and red blood cells. But you know, it all came as a package. And I am ashamed to say that I didn't run the full decode to check the options list until after I'd bought the car. Yes, I know thats not to be expected out of a bhpian.

But it did have the joy of being pleasantly surprised by the Dining Hall menu at boarding school.

Yes, ok, I'm coming to the list itself.







First, the thousand words that the images don't say :

588 KOMBI CODE 581+584

Combi is fine, even though it`s with a K and is not an Octy RS Estate. But what does it mean? Combination of what?

581 is the Automatic Climate Control

And which came in from 01.01.1970 apparently. Till 1977, the same code stood for a ThermoKing air conditioner.

584 is the Electric Window Lifters (Four fold or Sixfold)

One, that is the most beautiful name for Power Windows. Imagine the quiet luxury in saying Electric Window Lifters vs PW/CL/ABS. Time, my friends, time. Only time gives you time to change and it changes with time, time and again.

As must be evident, the four fold meant 2 switches in the centre console and one each on both the rear doors. Six switches meant 4 on the centre console plus the rear chaps.

615 611+613

611 were the COURTESY LAMPS - FRONT & REAR DOORS, WITH V124, ALSO FOR CENTRAL DOORS.

Which is interesting since I didn't know till now that the W124 too had a factory long wheelbase version. Look it up, its way more fun than a standard Lang version. Why? Its got six doors for one! Do you really need the second reason?

613 LAMP UNIT, ASSYMETRIC, LH TRAFFIC.

No idea what this means. Tell me all those who hold such knowledge within themselves.


930 U

This is the colour.

Silver Blue - Metallic

And I stand corrected. I did cast aspersions on her purity and whether she was darker underneath than her bright blue exterior. Well, I'm happy to say, I was wrong. She came out of Sindelfegen wearing this very bright blue.

I was all for changing the colour on her before, now I'm leaning towards a respray in the same colour. I was ignorant enough to think that all these 123/126`s just came stock in non metallic colours.

It says earlier in the decode that the colour was 930 Silver Blue - Metallic but actually its 930 U.

930 in fact,

was the code for the battery in the rear ( 1962-19750 )

or

Taxi - Help Call ( from 1996 onwards)

452

This was the seminal moment in the Sethji's life when he specced it, if he did.
452 is the two tone horn. In a volte face from the languid poetry of Electric Window Lifters, this banal description was a disservice.

A mere, two tone horn ? Its actually the super cool town and country horn I think. It may seem like hyperbole, my tooting about horns. But you know, in hotel school, we were taught that real luxury is when simple things are well thought of. I know electric seats in 1984 was amazing. But two different horns for the city and the country/highway, thats cool even now. And so logical.

Now that the gaps are filled, some interesting things from the list :

505 Electrically adjustable Left Side Outside Rear View Mirror.

Its interesting that even for something as opulent as the S, the engineers were frugal enough to have only the far side mirror electrically adjustable. ( I'm sure it would have been the Right one in LHD cars).

But maybe, it wasn't frugality. But a kind of admission that wifi wasn't still able to match the precision of a CAT 5 cable. Thus, the driver side manual adjustment perhaps allowed a more exact adjustment of the mirror for the discerning S class Sethji.

But, we'll never know. (cue mysterious music)

[evo]

5th January 2019

The power equation having been fixed courtesy the Battery Man, the car was ready to leave RD's lair and proceed with flair towards my care.

Not that my care would have been Superior to RD's. He was super nice to her and oh so smitten. But he knew that it was just a winter fling and it was all to end.

He sent me this and with a heavy heart sent off the car to the transporters, this time a different one.



I waited. And waited.