During my bicycle commute to work, on many a morning I pass a very peculiar Mercedes W124 with a model designation that I had never heard of before: 230E 2.8.
I have seen this car so many times now that it feels like an old acquaintance. But with two kids to deliver at their daycare at 8 and a job at the other end of the city to start at 9, I am usually too pressed for time to shoot.
Today, however, I was late already, so what difference did it make; I hit my Shimano brakes hard, coming to a full stop from my 15 mph cruising speed. Then I took out my phone and went for it.
So I proudly present to you: “My” mystery Mercedes. Can the CCommentariat in its joint wisdom solve this one?
A few words on nomenclature on the W124. In Europe, things were fairly logical: There was a nice three digit number, standing for approximately 10 percent of displacement measured in ccm. After the number you had an uppercase “D” if a diesel engine was under the hood, an “E” was shown if the car featured a fuel injected gas engine and there was just a number if it came with a carburated gas engine, the sole version thusly equipped being the “200”. It was all pretty neat and simple. You had your 200, 200E, 230E, 260E, 300E and your 200D, 250D, 300D. Everyone is still on board I would assume.
Things got a little more complicated when Mercedes slapped those Turbos on the 250D and 300D. And yet, 250D Turbo. or 300D Turbo where by any means still very logical model designations.
The same held true when Mercedes offered its newly developed AWD system on all six cylinder engines, creating the 260E 4matic, 300E 4matic, 300D 4matic and 300D Turbo 4matic.
The trunklid became cluttered further when the big gas six received an additional cam and doubled its valve count for the introduction of the 300E-24. This all followed a very precise logic and accordingly what we now speak of often as an E-Class was back in the days in Germany known through most of the 80s as the Mercedes 200-300E.
Now as most of you are aware things were a little different in the United States. While it all seemed to start out like in Germany with your 300E that had a clear relationship between the number on the trunk and the ccms up front, and the 300D Turbo that followed the same logic, things became a little more confused with the introduction of the 300E 2.6 and the 300D 2.5 Turbo. In its own way, it was all fair and square, though. It was the Mercedes 300 which still stood for 10 percent of the displacement in ccm, unless another number followed and then that stood for 0.1 percent of the displacement. If you did your math homework every other time you shoul still be fine, right?
But then two different kinds of logic were in place all at the same time. With the introduction of the revised DOHC six with 2.8 or 3.2 liters, there were then the 300E (with 3.2 liters!) and the 300E 2.8. And I am not even taking into account that briefly the American 300E was technically a European 300E-24 (with the older 3 liter engine). And then Mercedes introduced the 400E (with 4.2 liters) and 500E (correctly labeled at 5 liters) and it all became a huge mess.
Possible sensing the confusion Mercedes turned it all around, creating the E320, E420, E500. They did this in Europe, too, and now not only did you have the same naming conventions in the US and in Europe, but also the number on the trunklid stood for 10 percent of discplacement again, like it had a decade prior! Talk about coming full circle!
And the “E” was no longer an indicator of the presence of fuel injection but now stood for the name of the car itself, which has since been known as the E-Class. An name that was retroactively applied to the entire W124 range and even the W123 which was in production when no one had ever heard of such as thing as an E-Class.
If you haven’t fallen asleep while reading, you might have noticed: Nowhere in all this logic did a “230E 2.8” appear. So what do we have here?
A hint to one possible provenance of this vehicle: This is most likely a flag-holder (hole for the willfull creation of corrosion) and that had me thinking, could the “230E 2.8” have been some sort of diplomatic special edition? A google search yielded no results. Curiously, a south American website offers break pads for a “230E 2.6” but that website is the only hint to the existence of such a vehicle. A 230E 2.8? Unheard of.
Looking deeper inside the mystery, I found a speedo that ended at 220 kmh which pointed towards a four cylinder gas-powered model.
What I also found was an amount of optional equipment that I had never seen on a four-cylinder w124. In Europe, these cars were sold as ultra-strippers, even the 230E came with a four speed manual well in to the nineties!
This all pointed further towards a diplomatic vehicle, though out of commission since it was not on diplomatic but on regular plates.
So this is all I have got as evidence. My best guess? Somebody created their very own W124, by name only or maybe also by substance. The “2.8” badge could likely be from the short lived W140 S-Class 300SE 2.8. Maybe they even went all the way and did an engine swap?
When I was done and about to rush off to work, a middle-aged woman, lloking both angry and curious, walked up to me and asked whyI took pictures of her Mercedes! Guess my excitement at the prospect of the mystery finally being solved!
But it turned out she was talking about her SLK 230 Kompressor that was parked right in front….
So I am as clueless as ever and therefore I ask: Please, share your thoughts and ideas in the comments, maybe we can solve this one together!
Another source if confusion for the W124 was the wagon that could be called 250TD or 300TD without having the turbo you would expect.
And now of course we have the 300de which is a total mess for someone who used to d meaning diesel and e meaning gasoline (with fuel injection).
In the true tradition of internet commentary, I do not know the answer, but shall, unburdened by actual knowledge, venture forth with an Opinion regardless.
Actually, I CAN venture this much: it’s not a six. Seems to me they all have dual exhaust pipes, (on one side at the outlet, I mean).
Still, that may turn out just to be an Opinion. I may be wrong: I have been before.
Once.
The exhaust verifies what’s pretty obvious and logical: someone added the 2.8 badge. The question is why 2.8, and not 3.2, or 6.9.
Cool find! One thing to add: for a period of time, including 1986 (when my dad had one), Mercedes sold the 2.6 liter six-cylinder version of the E-Class in the US as a 260E.
As far as I can tell, in the U.S., the Mercedes-Benz (W124) 260E was sold for the 1987 through 1989 model years. After that it was replaced the Mercedes-Benz 300E 2.6 for the 1990 through 1992 model years. Then, for the 1993 model year only there was a Mercedes-Benz 300E 2.8. For 1994 the model designations switched to the E-class and the E320 with the 3.2 liter six was the smallest engine available in the U.S.
Ahhhh yes it might have been a 1987. One of the items the 300E had that the 260E lacked was headlight wipers;-)
A MB.USA sales training video simply calls the 124 series the “300” series.. ” .
I missed your comment the first time I looked through this article, but I posted below that I saw a 260E last week here in Virginia – first one I’ve seen in a mighty long time. It’s always nice to see a W123 that’s more unusual than a “standard” 300E.
W124
Maybe the trunk lid was replaced or repaired and the bodyshop botched the badging. The owner probably never noticed or cared.
I thought that the German (or maybe European) thing to do with an underpowered Mercedes was to simply not display the “230” or “240” or “300” or whatever badge so that the car might be suspected rather as having a “400” or “500” or “560” or “600” type engine instead. I believe that “badge delete” was at one time an option on a Mercedes order form.
The plastic wheel covers on this car are disconcerting to these American eyes as USA 124s never came with steel wheels; they were always alloys. That alone makes me think bottom of the line car.
The built-in old-school phone suggests that something unusual has been going on with this car.
Very interesting – even if it’s simply a 2.8 badge from another car, the equipment level and the built-in car phone suggest this Mercedes has led an interesting life.
Just last week, I saw a 260E on the road — first one I’ve seen in ages, since the vast majority of W123s in the US were 300E models. The 260E was only about 10% cheaper than the 300E in the late 1980s (something like $40,000 compared to $45,000), and the 300 came with the more powerful engine, plus some other equipment like a power seat… so few buyers opted for the cheaper car.
These are W124s, not W123s
Oh, of course… thanks!
And of course now while the model levels still make sense with the class for size and then a GL prefix for the “SUV” models the numbers are back to having no relation to engine size, and more or less just denote a “grade-walk”! And with the coming increase in EQ models with EQ taking the place of the GL prefix on SUV’s you can have both an EQS that’s a car, and an EQS SUV!
I’m puzzled that someone would be angry at your for photographing her car.