I spotted this W112 Mercedes just by the Brooklyn Bridge. How sad that the first W112 I ever saw would be in such an unfortunate condition, although it doesn’t look too far gone and it would appear (based on its location) that it is about to receive the help it needs. Has anyone seen such a peculiar pattern of rust before, though?
Here’s a shot of the front. Such a beautiful Benz, but one that needs some TLC. The white paint color exposes its flaws oh so clearly.
I spotted another rusty Mercedes on the other side of the East River in Washington Heights, just in front of my old apartment building. This one was a first-generation CLK, and it was rather surprising how much rust it had for a late-model car. Not quite as much as the W112, mind you, but still more than one would expect.
Even on New York City streets so heavily salted in the winter, it is quite rare to see a 1990s/2000s car with surface rust, especially a Mercedes-Benz!
I suppose the lesson is if you want a car that conceals rust, don’t buy a white car.
I’d take the older Mercedes-Benz, the W112. It looks like a good restoration project. Since the back of the car isn’t visible, one can only assume that it’s a 200D Diesel?
Actually, here in Denmark the W210 is quite notorious for its proneness to rust. Most of the ones I see have some degree of rust and quite a few are rusted all the way through the panels.
Meanwhile, I saw a worn but HARD working W123 200T today. A bit of rust but nothing you couldn’t fix.
That’s correct. Mercedes-Benz had recalled a certain number of W210 in Germany to replace the rusted out doors and boot cover due to the manufacturing defect, which promoted severe corrosion.
My father’s E280 was one of them that received the free replacement a few years ago.
I wonder if the CLK is a victim of Hurricane Sandy.
More likely that CLK is a victim of Hurricane Dieter(Zetsche)
Ever since he arrived on the scene with his cost cutting ventures, MB quality has taken a dump. If you took a 1995 MB W124 and put it beside a 1997 CLK, you will see that the CLK seems to be a regression in terms of quality.
Seems to be my elbow. It IS a huge regression in quality. I owned two W124s. They may have been the best cars Mercedes-Benz ever built or will ever build in terms of quality of materials, fit, and finish.
While I wouldn’t act as a Mercedes-Benz apologist here, let me offer some explanations what happened in the 1990s.
Keep in mind that Mercedes-Benz wasn’t only one affected by the severe drop in quality. Many large German manufacturing companies had experienced the same as well.
During the 1990s, there was a perfect storm happening that was unprecedented and unexpected. Four major occurrences that caught the German companies off guard was introduction of new luxury brands from Japan, worsening German labour market, opening and deregulation of market to the competitors from EU member states, and the world-wide recession.
Nissan and Toyota introduced their luxury divisions: Infiniti and Lexus respectively. They offered superior quality for less price, undercutting the price of Mercedes-Benz cars by tens of thousands of dollars. Not to mention better customer service experience. The sales nosedived, forcing Mercedes-Benz USA to offer more equipment as standard rather than extra cost option. That trimmed away lot of profit. The changing buying habit also forced Mercedes-Benz to expand its model range and offer more technological features as to compete better, spreading the engineering resource much further, namely A-Class, ML-Class, and smart cars as well as ESP, traction control, crash avoidance technology, etc.
German labour market was so bad after the reunification with many East Germans made redundant following the collapse of East German companies. They competed with younger people in the tightening job market. In addition, the unemployment rate of university graduates went up so much that the government feared the potential political shift to the left and fermenting anger if they couldn’t find employment sooner (a.k.a. May 1968 riot). A programme was instituted to retire as many employees at age of 55 rather than 65. This freed up the employment market more for the younger people.
Unfortunately, the unexpected consequence was lack of real-world experience amongst the younger graduates to spot the design defect or engineering issue early on. In the past, older employees would act as the mentoring for the younger employees, showing them different ways of solving the engineering problems.
Thirdly, European Union had decreed that the market must be deregulated and more open, allowing the companies in member states to compete with each other outside their home turf. This also forced the privatisation of public companies.
Consequently, the companies who had enjoyed almost monopolistic presence in their home countries were suddenly forced to compete with other companies for the same market. Many German companies had to change the way they operate, cutting down on less efficient products, divisions, and so forth. Not to mention reducing the spending as to survive.
The recession of late 1980s and early 1990s needed no further explanation. The Americans had changed their buying habit from more conspicuous spending of the 1980s to thrift shopping of the 1990s.
All of those occurrences had largely changed how German companies invested in their technology and engineering during the 1990s. The result was so disastrous that it cost the companies much more to fix the quality problems later on and to reform their images. Like W211 that had been extensively reengineered for its mid-cycle revision.
Back to Mercedes-Benz, its parent company, Daimler-Benz AG, went on shopping binge, acquiring as many diverse companies as possible, that had little to do with its core product. That was assumed that more diverse the company’s portfolio is, more ‘guaranteed’ the company would survive the economic downturn better. Guess where that money earmarked for better engineering work went…
The older Benz reminds me of my mom’s former 1986 Monte Carlo. It started getting spots of surface rust in the middle of body panels where there was no sign of damage and along creases such as those on the hood. The paint was just thin or not durable against the elements.
Being a bit pedantic here, but isn’t that a W110? The fintail range was split three ways–the W111 was the “base”, with I6 engines and stacked quad lamps. The W110 was the entry-level version with 4-cylinder engines and a slightly different front clip (shorter fenders, dual lamps, less chrome). The W112 was the top model, with all the luxury features and extra chrome/trim/detailing.
And that is a very unusual rust pattern. Hopefully little/none is structural and we’re seeing the beginning of a restoration.
Chris, you are correct. The feature car is a W110, The W111 (which included the coupe and cabriolet body as well as the sedan) does have longer front fenders and, later, different tail lights than the W110. The W112 wore the model designations 300 SE and also came in a standard and long wheel base version. Some of these also had rear air suspension.
The W110 could be had with either a Diesel or gasoline 4 cylinder engine. The W111 came with 6 cylinder engines only until near the end of the run when the coupes and cabriolets were available with a 3.5 liter V8.
The stacked quad headlamps were for the U.S. and its silly laws. In other countries the W111 and W112 had a single, oblong lens in each headlamp bucket.
I had a W111 sedan (1967 230S – dual carburetor, 6 cylinder) that was anthracite gray with a red MB-tex interior. My neighbor was an older lady from Hungary who probably saw similar cars driven by government officials. When she first saw my fintail Benz she looked a bit startled but then, to compliment my choice of recreational transportation, said that the car looked “stately.” I have to agree.
Interestingly, the ‘tombstone’ headlamps performed poorly. Some owners in Europe retrofitted their W111/112 with stacked headlamp set from American vesion and used the H4 and H1 headlamp capsules from Valeo or Cibie.
The CLK is not related to the W210- it is much closer to the W202. I had a W202 in green, and at less than 10 years old there was serious rust along the doorframe under the rubber gaskets. My car was garaged, too, its entire life. Mercedes was starting to experiment with how to build a car to a price, without a dozen coats of paint. Their lack of experience showed.
I’ve been to that very spot in Brooklyn many times where the Benz was photographed. They always seem to have a CC or two there!
I like all of the NYC street scenes, William.
My Uncle’s wife had a ’70s Torino wagon, white. This being in Georgia, I doubt the truck that passed her on a city street was spreading salt, but whatever it was throwing, it pitted the paint pretty badly all along that side of the car. He and I repainted it before the rust started, but the random pattern on the Mercedes made me think of that story.
Strangely enough, I saw the same rust pattern earlier today, on a 2006 Mercedes Sprinter, although to be fair, I often see “scattergun” surface rust on white panel vans from other manufacturers too.
I can back up what others have said – based on what I see in the UK, apart from some Fords and Mazdas, nothing rusts like a late 90s/early 200s E-Class or C-Class.
I don’t see anything particularly peculiar about the rust pattern on the W110 – the rust is located mostly where water collects, which is typical for cars that have been exposed to the elements for a long time in areas with snowy winter. In fact, it reminds me of the car on the picture below – but in a somewhat earlier stage of deterioration.
And – don’t want to disappoint anyone, but the corrosion on the Benz looks pretty bad to me. Most of the rust spots you can see on the photos are most likely rust-throughs going from the inside surface of the body panels where mositure collects, not surface corrosion on the outer surfaces which is typical for dry & hot climate, and from my experience I can assume that the floor pan of this car should have a lot of perforation due to corrosion as well. A pity, eventhough I never liked this particular model too much.
I’ve got a 1/24 model of one of these Stanislav. Thanks for the picture
Yes, I agree on the rust. I once went to look at similar white Benz … “no rust,” said the ad. When I got to the car I realized that was true because the rust had fallen off the car and there were fist-sized holes you could put your hand through both in the doors and body. Back in the trunk area, the inner fenders were so far gone, there was, well, nothing! Just a clear view to the pavement. No rust!
Actually, compared to other northern cities, NYC cars used to rust less often, or less completely. There were fine examples of 50s and 60s cars well into the 1980s that were surprising well preserved, nicked and dented they might have been.
I agree on the W110 – my recent and ongoing experience with a very tidy W111, and a pair of project W112s here in Australia where road salt is not an issue would suggest that what you can see on this poor old car is but the tip of the iceberg. And if it’s going though the outside of the panels, then anything close to the floor pan/sills is going to look like lacework.
It’s really nothing compared with this fairly new Volkswagen Transporter T5.
Eye-catching from 20 feet away, but also a good demonstration of how a wrap isn’t convincing when texture is needed!
I do like the owner’s sense of humor though.
I hate it when my plastic bumpers and mirrors rust out like that!
Wow indeed!
Mercedes is too cheap to galvanise their cars.
A neighbour has a ’99 CLK convertible that is not a great example of M-B longevity.
It has several areas of (probably) non structural corrosion, a generally tired look and makes a string of non M-B noises.
I hate to think when the roof was last opened, assuming it actually does so.
That CLK reminded me of what I thought when seeing a Mercedes-Benz TV commercial earlier in the week:
“Why do the new Mercedes look like TOYOTAS?”
The CLK didn’t, yet…but Mercedes was already on that slippery slope.
And BMW’s headlights look like what we politically-incorrect kids did to make our eyes look Japanese: pull them outward on our faces so they looked distorted.
This is a good demonstration on why old cars, IE cars without plastic covering a third or more of the surfaces, age better than newer. The W110 is a Mercedes I never really cared for, I never particularly found them good looking, well appointed inside or technically notable for the era. BUT I know which one of these two I’d rather be driving and it sure as hell isn’t the CLK, which looks less like a cool old car with patina and more like an old cell phone from the late 90s you find cleaning out the junk drawer.
Good point about the aging–plastic does not age well. It just warps, cracks, and fades. There’s a penalty for that lightness. (“No free lunch” as an economist would say.)
As to the CLK, I still like them when I see one in good condition. I think it was a nice design and I think it’s mostly held up. This one, on the other hand, does look rather trashy. Clearcoat paint has for the most part killed the “classic” patina.
My old boss had a 2004-5-ish C series sedan (I forget the exact model) that had through rust in the doors (Boston is a very salty area in winter) and he sued MBz USA and won; the damages included a new MBz. Apparently their 10-year corrosion warranty was worthless.
Soon after he was driving probably the last manual-trans C sedan they sold in the US, I think it was a 2012.
A friend has a white W116 300SD that has lived most of its life by the ocean. It does not look good. Even the aluminum hood and decklid are starting to go away.
I know that when Mercedes started selling cars in the U.S. they were sold through Studebaker dealers. I’m seeing a lot of Studebaker in the w110 or else I’m seeing a lot of w110 in the Studebaker from the same years. Would anyone know who copied who?
Well, this is rust.
Picture was taken in 2013, somewhere in Michigan. And by that time, older corolla/civic was fading pretty far already.
That sure looks like a W110. The W112 were just bigger automobiles. In college I had a 1962, 190C with the same turn indicators on the fender. After 15 years it was rusting through the $200 paint job I had applied that summer. For it’s time, this was a very modern 4 passenger car. Overhead cam, I think it was a 4? on the tree, good MPG, while slow, it handled and drove well. Parts were expensive then in the per-internet years. FYI, Pinto radiators would fit behind the signature grill and were much cheaper.
Compared to the Southern Tier New York City does not Salt their roads that much unless they started going nuts in the last few years. When I used I was surprised at the number of older cars I would find in the boroughs including some cool 1980s cars on Staten Island. My first car came from Long Island and while it was close to being really rusty it was much more solid than 1980s Caprices that had lived in the Southern Tier their whole life. That newer Benz just looks sad and surprised it does not have more dings as well as scratches from parking on the streets.
The white W112 Mercedes has been sitting there for at least five years. The last inspection sticker on the windshield is a 1992 Connecticut.