“The Greatest” — it’s a title which carries with it great responsibility, and one that should neither be applied nor accepted lightly. Yet for some cars, proclaiming them as the greatest comes with relatively little difficulty. Yet, the Mercedes-Benz W124 series, Mercedes’ midsize range of vehicles from 1985 to 1996 and the first to be referred to as the E-Class beginning in as a 1994 model, is a car that this title comes easily to.
Of course, I’m certain many people will beg to differ, as in its over century-long history, Mercedes-Benz has produced many truly great vehicles, including the W124’s immediate W123 and W114 predecessors. Yet it’s important to address what is meant by “greatness”, a rather broad term. To me personally, greatness in an automobile is something that can only come with experience. Greatness is cumulative of both a car’s actual strengths and positive virtues that are evident at its launch, as well as its longevity and how it holds up over time.
At least in the past half-century, the Mercedes that instantly comes to mind as best exemplifying these qualities is the W124. From its introduction, it was an instant success and industry benchmark. It signified a new styling era for Mercedes, bringing with it numerous engineering, technology, and safety advancements to its class and the industry as a whole.
The W124 also quickly earned a reputation for strong build quality, reliability, and ultimately, long-term durability. This is something best exemplified by this near-pristine and completely rust-free featured daily driver, and the fact that W124s have been known to go over one million miles, including ones abused for much of their lives in taxi service. Unlike following Mercedes, which were much more technologically complex with far more electronics, the more “analogue” W124 proved easy to service and maintain, aiding to a generally longer life than Mercedes debuting in the 1990s and early-2000s.
While it may not be the most exciting, glamorous, or iconic Mercedes of all time, the W124 was a well-balanced, understated classy, dependable car that in my honest opinion best signifies what greatness is in an automobile and above all, in a Mercedes-Benz. Calling it the greatest of all Mercedes is a bold move, but as someone who often holds back, when I do make a claim such as this, I truly mean it from my heart. As Gottlieb Daimler said, “The Best Or Nothing”, and the W124 is truly the greatest among the best.
Photographed: Newbury Street, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts – March 2018
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1986 Mercedes-Benz 300E (COAL)
1989 Mercedes-Benz 300 TE estate
1994 Mercedes-Benz E320 cabriolet
Brendan,
For a 25-year-old car that lives in salty New England, that Benz looks remarkably rust-free. Did you see any signs of corrosion when you spotted it? Being from VT, I tend to cringe whenever I see any 20+ year-old car from up north driving around the DC metro area with rust spots or holes in the body.
Goes to show the very high build quality of these W124s.
I didn’t see any signs of corrosion/rust! Can’t say that about its immediate successor, the W210, beautiful as it was.
By gosh, we agree! Let’s add the coupe and wagon versions to the list, since they were every bit as good.
The only thing that could be more beautiful is a 500E.
I still think the Brougham grille clashes with the rest of the car, tradition be damned. It’s the one sour note in the design, and makes a car that was never offered under any other name look badge-engineered.
Considering there are few cars from the 80’s or early 90’s that are still in daily use that aren’t held together by duct tape and zip ties, I’d have no problem calling the W124 the “best built” car of all time.
I think a Volvo 200 series earns a close second place here.
Though for sheer driving pleasure, I’d still rather have an e30 with a straight six and manual gearbox.
Also add the W126 to your list of Greatest Mercedes. In my mind the three greatest cars of all time for serviceability and reliability are the W124 and W126 Mercedes and the first generation Lexus LS, the LS400. All three of these cars , based on personal experience, were and are still unbreakable, if given routine service. Wish we still had the 1986 W126 and the 1992 LS400, both of which gave many years of essentially unblemished service. I wish we had never traded them.
Aha – but you are also forgetting the Volvo 200 and 700/900 Series, which you can also add to the greatest cars of all-time regarding serviceability and reliability. My guess is that you have also owned a few Volvos in your past as well.
One of my Volvos is a 1989 740 GL with 306k miles, all on the original drivetrain. I bought it from the original owners’ estate for a song and it is now my daily driver. And it is so reliable it’s not even funny.
The Volvo 200 and 700/900 are probably the only similar-vintage European cars that could rival the W124 and W126 in terms of durability and longevity. Fewer electronics and thus, fewer things to break.
Too bad in North America, we don’t get Toyota Crown Comfort, which can last for long time. My favorite is 4 cylinders diesel engine coupled with 5 speed column shifter manual transmission. I think Toyota studied the design of Benz W123 when they introduced those Crown made from mid 80s to mid 90s.
Benz W124 is my all time favorite, others are 1984 Honda Civic Wagon, BMW E28, Porsche 944, 1st generation of Mazada MX5 and Toyota Crown Comfort. That may be my personal impressions only. I never drive any of them, they may be very dated by today’s standards. For instance, the standar inline six gasoline engine couped with 4 speed automatic in W124 has a 4000 rpm at 70 mph, that is not seen un today cars, and can be tire for long distance trip.
Much agreed regarding the W126. The primary reason I think the W124 edges it out is that the W126 was left in production for a few years longer, and by that point was far more outdated compared to its direct competitors, the LS 400 included.
Even in its final year, the W126 was still a fine automobile, but its age was far more evident than the W124 in its final year, with direct competitors having been around for nearly as long.
I could never cotton to the W124 body. I have extra long legs and these cars have no rear seat room. Long-lived, indestructible diesel, nice handling or not, that no-legroom issue in a 4-dr or wagon is a non-starter for me! These were as tight as the 190 cars, but were supposed to be ‘full-sized’!
The 124s were, however, way more rust-resistant than the preceding W123 bodies, a car with rear-seat proportions I did find acceptable and buyable!
why as a long legged driver are you worried about the lack of leg room in the rear ???
or are you only driven around by a chauffeur?
Because long legged drivers more often then not have long legged kids or other family members that have long legs.
In my father’s case, he is 6 foot tall. My 2 brothers and I are also over 6ft tall. A car with not much rear seat room is a no go for a family that is over 6ft tall
Who called them full-sized, when the S-class existed?
Although I prefer the more traditional look of earlier models, I have to respect these as exceedingly well done cars. Of course, these marked the end of Mercedes’ essentially competition-free era in which it could charge whatever the market would bear, thus ensuring that there would be no shortage of funds to develop a proper car.
The only demerit I would assign to these is that they finally priced themselves into a place where few could go. This car brought the Lexus LS400 to America and showed the upper limit on what people were willing to pay for a quality car.
Our 1992 LS400 compared to our 1986 W126 was the better car, being driven as a daily driver for 20 years in the Great Lakes Salt Belt without the rust problems of the W126. That first generation LS was the car that actually outdid Mercedes, in our hands, in terms of longevity, reliability, and rust resistance, and had the service costs of a Camry. The first generation LS was the nail in Mercedes’ coffin.
The older first generation LS400 was a paragon of reliability compared to our concurrently owned 1998 W220 which became a relatively short lived car for us, a frustrating, disastrous ownership experience replaced by an infinitely better 2004 Acura TL
The LS 400 was driven year round by everyone in the family and by visitors staying at the house without fail, ultimately replaced in 2012 by a Chevy Volt.
In retrospect, I wish we hadn’t traded the 20 year old LS400, the best car and most reliable that I have ever owned. It was amazing to see how beautiful the LS was after 20 years of daily driving through winter salt. Simply amazing.
After the W220 (deadly sin?) I would never consider a Mercedes again. My current 2008 LS460L now owned for 10 years is a typical reliable Lexus ownership experience with great salt resistance like the earlier LS400.. This is the type of experience that used to be routine with the W124 and the W126, and made the Mercedes ownership experience delightful, but that is a wistful long ago memory.
Yes, the W124 was an excellent car. I would pick it over any current sedan.
Yet I think the W123 and the 1973-1980 Mercedes S-Class are the greatest Benzes ever.
They really STOOD OUT relative to their peers. The W124 did, but not as much.
Personally, I think the w123 is the greatest modern MB (though not at all my personal favorite). In terms of solidity and technological advancement, the w123 was yet more superior to its contemporaries than the still-excellent w124. The w123 deserves some extra credit for the turbo-diesel, too. The w124 gets dinged for leaky headgaskets, biodegradable wiring harnesses, and rust (for later models).
“Unlike following Mercedes, which were much more technologically complex with far more electronics, the more “analogue” W124 proved easy to service and maintain, aiding to a generally longer life than Mercedes debuting in the 1990s and early-2000s.”
I’ll make the argument that aside from poorer rust-proofing, the W210 that followed the W124 was the more reliable car overall. W124s of the 90s had a spate of wiring harness issues, the headgaskets go, timing chains go, transmissions can let go at higher mileage. The W210’s V6 is much less revered but it is a solid workhorse, as is the 5 speed auto. W210s mostly predated the Germans really jumping off the cliff into an abyss of black box modules and the fancy “STAR” brakes that made shade-tree work a pain. The W124s aren’t impervious to rust either, they’re just better than the W123 that preceded or W210 that followed. You have to be careful with spring perches rotting off, and the bodies ultimately do succumb near the fenders and such.
I agree, Brendan. This model, in my opinion, was an iconic Mercedes-Benz, along with the concurrent S-Class (W126, I think?). They had that bank vault solidity and those German good looks and stoicism. To me, they just didn’t have a bad angle; I even love the unique “V” cut to the trunklid. To me, Mercedes-Benz lost their way after the early 90s. In my book, they illustrated that when they abandoned the inline-6.
W126 and/or W123.
These may not be AS electronically complex as their successors but the brittle wiring troubles that plague them are in the W124s, and has sent more than a few otherwise fine specimens to the junkyard. That and they’re just tantalizingly simple to work on, yet complex enough where one can really screw something up if you get carried away DIYing, as my friend did messing with the fuel injection unit on his.
Rust is a thing too, Mercedes painted the rocker panels an industrial dark grey color, which very effectively camouflages it when it happens, even when visible it almost seems like rust on cast iron, no worries. And there is also a lot of plastic to cover problem areas as well – which many modern cars have copied, don’t be so sure rust is a thing of the past in this infallible era.
I do get it with these, really, but mine (a 200TE I didn’t keep long) was painfully slow, not very comfortable, not at all inspiring to drive and far inferior to the E34 520i I owned later and still have today. Maybe these really need the six.
the first to be referred to as the E-Class beginning in 1995
Actually, one year earlier: 1994. That year coincided with facelifted W124, which included the superior ECE H4 headlamps for the US market.
Right-o… fixed
I am classic cars collector I Must admit that in my opinion the BEST classic Benz of all time is the Iconic 450SEL 6.9!
“It signified a new styling era for Mercedes…”
No, it did not, and a quick glance at this 1982 W201 will show that the W124 is an evolution of the former’s design, and even the W201 is a riff on Daimler Benz’s motto “evolution instead of revolution”; the styling era on which W124 evolves from is what Paul Bracq penned in Stuttgart beginning in the late fifties up to the early seventies.
My mom bought a W124 300TE wagon in the late ’80s, moss green two tone w/ saddle tan interior. That was a classy looking car.
I lived in a different part of the country at the time and only drove it on the occasional visit back home. But I remember it feeling and driving like the proverbial bank vault; fairly heavy, slow steering, and that weird MB throttle calibration where you had to really mash it to get any acceleration. Which was merely adequate from the modestly powered straight 6. BMW 5 series of the era were much more sporting.
She had that car for nearly 10 years before trading it on another new E-class wagon. At age 89 she’s now on her, like, 5th E-class wagon, a 2016 E350, but she says that green W124 is still one of her favorites.
The wagon version of this car was especially handsome as wagons go; simple yet elegant. I’d take one of those over an SUV any day of the week.
I drive a ’90 Mercedes-Benz 200E everyday. It almost looks like the the one on the photos above: black 4dr, exactly the same alloy-wheels – only difference is the Euro-spec headlights and indicator lights on the front wings (it began it’s life in Italy).
It’s a very reliable car, never broke down in the past five years since I have it. The main weak point of the petrol engined W124s is the KE-Jetronic fuel injection: althought it has some electronic parts it’s mainly a mechanical system and there are a lot of parts in it which could wear over the years. It wouldn’t be a problem but the trouble is that there are no mechanics who can repair these KE-Jets. (Professional car-restaurators can do it maybe, but it’s out of the budget for most W124 owners I guess).
If a W124 goes to the junkyard it’s either rust or a failed KE-Jet in most cases.
What are the symptoms of a weared KE-Jet? My car is for example is hard to start in hot summer days and the idle goes unstable in heavy city traffic when the engine’s getting hot. I’ve heard about a KE-Jet Merc 190 which doesn’t have idle at all in hot weather.
Apart from this issue I like my W124. Recently I’ve played with the idea that I replace it with a newer car but haven’t found a worthy successor for my black Benz.
Here’s mine, 250k miles, rust free, probably the cheapest to maintain car I have ever owned. Greatest car title works for me.
Best car the towncar
here’s the Fifth Gear test of the legendary W124:
This was an actual thing: an aftermarket headlamp setup, made in Europe, to put two large and two small round headlamps on a W124. Homage to the W123, or heinous disfigurement of the W124? I’ll just leave this here; you’re the judge.
I currently own three W124s: a ’93 300E like the subject of this CC, and two ’94 E320s. My grown kids and I use them as daily drivers. I do as much work on them on my own as I can (brakes, shocks, tuneups, any remove/replace type of item).
These are solid vehicles that handle well, are safe, and have the most comfortable seats of any car I’ve owned. That said, there are some areas where they do not age well.
– The ecojunk wiring harnesses, from ’93 on. The idea was to make the insulation biodegradable after the car is scrapped. But when subjected to a high temperature environment, such as under the hood of a car, the insulation crumbled away.
– Weak reverse gear. The clutch pack was designed to minimize lurch when reverse was engaged. These would fail early, with reverse taking longer and longer to engage until it would no longer engage at all.
– Head gaskets on both the M103 and M104 engines. Typically this involves fluids leaking out of the engine towards the rear on the right side.
– Window regulators. Cracks develop, eventually leading to failure.
– Blower motor. They would screech, then only work intermittently, then give up.
– Power antenna. An internal hub would fracture, making it quit.
– Odometer. If the trip odometer is zeroed while the car is moving, it can sometimes lead to both odometers quitting.
– Alignment. The car is very finicky about this.
– Fuses. The cars were built with tin torpedo-type fuses that oxidized and embrittled with age. Copper replacements solve the problem.
There are probably more I am forgetting. So while they are very durable cars, they aren’t like Camrys from the same era.
My 124 has close to 600,000 km on it, looks like 50,000. All of the horses have run away now though. Remarkable how much is still original – rear discs, exhaust, trim is fantastic, on third set of front discs. Little things replaced along the way, I’ve owned it over two decades, I did the transmission at 180,000 km and it’s still fine now. I plan a 560 conversion when I finally finish my current project.
W124 is certainly one of the best MBs made.
KJ in Oz
Ja!
Absolutely the finest car ever, consider such factors as quality, safety, your pick of currency spent for maintenance kilometer/milewise, overall cost vis-a-vi,,,
the W126 would like to have a word with you.