R&T fell over themselves with extensive coverage of the new S-Class in 1979, but now comes the Road Test.
Still an impressive car, after all these years. Taken from 1981 January issue.
Anyone cares to calculate how much would $45,453 be in current value?
Awesome article! This is the best looking Mercedes-Benz I’ve seen. My other favourite Mercedes-Benz car is the W123.
$45,453 in 1981 is equal to $118,675.83 today, according to this calculator:
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
The base price of a new S-class is $95,000. Options can run this up to $110,00 easily. A V12 model is about 170,000.
But the CPI index only tells you how your dollar has changed value over time, not what some thing should cost now vs then.
Kind of shocking how much more expensive it was than the competition. Half again as much as the directly comparable BMW? Wow. And almost double the cost of the Jaguar, though the XJ6 Series III was a much closer competitor to the E-class than the S.
These cars were great tanks, but look at the performance. A 10.1 second 0-60 is barely acceptable today, even in the cheapest econobox.
While the car certainly was not malaise, the performance sure was. The “gray-market” cars were brought over for a reason.
The 3.8 V8 did not live up to the hype of the preview drive. The weight loss was only 150 pounds, not enough to loose 40 pound feet of torque from even the late strangled 4.5. The four speed auto tried to help, and the car kept up with the cheaper 6 cylinder competition, but a new engine in a top of the line Benz should be state of the art. Porsche managed to get their 928 V8 federalized with much more power. The 3.8 even turned out to be unreliable with timing chain issues.
The quality is still there and it is a handsome car in and out. MB developed climate control seemed still below the best, from the article it was more designed to improve areo than cool the car. Once senses the rapture of the writers of being in their dream car, they did not seem to be looking at it with a detached eye. This after being burned on most everything they said the year before. It ends up reading like a brochure, not a road test.
I appreciated the cheekiness of Chrysler mimicking many MB design cues with the early K cars and variants. Even cheesier than the Granada and Volare.
That hood ornament should’ve become the merged Daimler-Chrysler logo.
But I gotta say, I liked the Cord-like treatment the Dodges had better.
There was also the shorter 380SE and the 300SD Turbo Diesel models as well. It seems that from 1981-85, the best selling W126 was the 300SD as Mercedes-Benz sold more diesel powered cars at that time than petrol (gasoline) powered one. After all, the Mercedes diesel has a reputation for reliability and longevity. I sometimes still see W123 240D and 300D cars on the road today.
Nice article and car. These MB’s was pretty good cars.
I really like this old “road test” articles. I’ve an old one from 1976 of a Lincoln Continental Town Car. Funny to compare:
Braking:
60 mph.
Lincoln : 191 ft.
MB : 167 ft.
MPG:
MB: 18 MPG
Lincoln: 13.1 MPG.
Interior Noise
Lincoln:
idle 45
max 1.st. gear: 65
40 mph 54 db
50 mph 56 db
60 mph 62 db
70 mph 65 db
MB:
idle 46
max 71 db
30 mph 58 db
50 mph 62 db
70 mph 67 db
Slalom: (speed at the end)
Lincoln 29.27 mph (!)
MB 56.3 mph
0-60 mph
Lincoln 9,5 sec.
MB 10,1 sec.
To very different cars, only 3 years between them. Yet they both where luxury cars. But in so different ways. The Lincoln with maximum isolation, an isolation no European car even can match today, quietness and floaty ride. But handling was of none interest, MB handles well, a little smaller, lighter, but you will be able to hear the tires once in a while, and maybe you will know when you hit a bump in the road. Then again you could actually feel that when you turn the steering wheel, the front wheels will turn too in the MB.
Are you referring to Motor Trend’s “Battle of the Silken Giants” test of the Lincoln Continental Town Coupe, Cadillac Coupe de Ville and Imperial Le Baron? Different magazine using different test procedures. The MB 380 SEL’s 56.3 mph was on Road & Track’s 700 foot slalom test while the Lincoln’s 29.27 mph was on Motor Trend’s 100 foot radius circle test. These are two very different tests hence the large discrepancy in speeds. However it’s true that the 75 Lincoln Continental would have been much slower than the Mercedes if it had been run through Road & Track’s 700 foot slalom.
http://www.imperialclub.com/Articles/75SilkenGiants/index.htm
Top photo: QUINTESSENTIAL Mercedes Benz!
Nothing before or since says it quite the same.
I always stop and watch one go by when I see it
(as a pedestrian not while driving!) same as I
do for early 70s era Cadillacs.
If one mistakes that for anything else, they must
be blind. LOL!
Thank you !