WHAT IS IT?
Mercedes W124s have an incredibly enviable reputation for engineering and durability, not to mention safety and reliability. They’re popularly referred to as the last E-Class that was built like a Benz. Cars exported to the U.S. tended to be higher-spec, more heavily-optioned cars, this one is more like a Frankfurt taxicab, minus the beige paint. E-Class wagon buyers reportedly also had the highest average wealth of any Mercedes model for decades. With a 2.0-liter M120 engine making around 130-hp, this car is going to be almost diesel slow, and the manual window winders, five-speed and cloth upholstery are things almost never seen in the U.S.
WHY THIS CAR HAS BEST ONE ON THE PLANET CHOPS
While it shows the equivalent of about 85,000 miles, it could easily pass for 30,000 miles. There is almost nothing to fault on the car–the wood, the upholstery, paint and carpets all look positively pristine. The interesting phenomenon with Euro cars is the fact that very often the base models tend to be better preserved. We can only speculate that they’re often bought by older pensioners on a budget–this one has all the hallmarks of a mature, careful owner.
Manual window winders, five-speed and cloth upholstery are things almost never seen in the U.S.
Also known as ‘The Tel Aviv Taxi’ back in the day (along w the 190 sedans)! Well chosen as this looks to be in impeccable condition with hardly a curl on the ribbed trunk liner. And only 138k- oh my!
My green ’90s-era Benz bias comes on strong for this one; manual windows, no badges and three pedals seal the deal. Sign me up.
I’m with Basem and Fadi on this one. I love it. At about $26,000 (prolly $30K or so shipped to the East Coast), it’s not exactly cheap, but it totally makes sense to me. For new Mitsubishi Outlander money, you get the best body style, of the best E-Class ever, in total Luddite spec. I love this thing, I’d daily it in a heartbeat and I’ll bet it would be cheap to run.
And the cloth seats! Definitely a contender for Best One in the School Drop Off Line as well.
The W124 wagons are one of my favorites as I owned a ’93 300TE here in the U.S. for several years. Finding TBOOTP is tough as these practical semi-luxury “estates” were tough and as a result stacked up many miles/kilometers without dying.
Finding a well-preserved example that remarkably rarely left the garage is a task. However, they do exist, especially on the West Coast of the U.S. where empty-nesters frequently bought these for local town run about errands. In fact, I purchased my W124 from an octogenarian in Palm Springs who bought it new. It only had 30k miles and actually looked a slight bit better than this example. However, it wasn’t this rad mid ’90s emerald metallic shade that was all the rage back then. Ours was the famous Platinum Metallic (aka JRG) over Palomino leather, which would perfectly blend into the desert background. It seriously couldn’t be more beige blandness.
This example is a good one, but IMHO, not the best. Regardless, I still wouldn’t kit it out of my garage.
JRG 🤣
Other than the poverty spec, what’s keeping this out of TBOOTP territory? I can’t find anything cosmetically wrong here.