A few specific old (and non-sports) foreign cars have a very solid Japanese fan-base. The Volvo 240 comes to mind, as does the Fiat 500, the Renault 4 or the VW Beetle and most of its derivatives. Ditto the global taxi that is the Mercedes-Benz W123. There are many other Mercedes models about, from the Pagoda SL to the V12 S-Class, but our dear W123 is ever so ubiquitous.
We’ve seen a lot of them on CC, as well. I’ve written two posts about these – one featured a saloon in Indonesia, the other a wagon I shot in Tokyo. Jim Klein recently regaled us with a W123 coupé junkyard find and Paul wrote a moving tribute about it just six months ago. And there are literally over a dozen other pieces to peruse, including COALs and vintage reviews (see list at the end of this post).
Some have even gone as far as calling the W123 a cockroach of the road. There really is no need for more information on the W123. If you don’t know all there is to know by now, you haven’t been paying attention.
However, the breed’s continued survival, forty-odd years after most were put together, never ceases to amaze. The montage above is a compendium of the W123s I’ve caught in Tokyo thus far, after a year of CC hunting. A modest haul, but it’s still the most common older Mercedes by a mile.
I came upon this nest of W123s last month. I first caught these two side by side, with one looking a bit worse for wear (and lacking license plates), while the other seemed minty fresh.
A few meters down the street, this sublime light gray one – curiously, it was the only one with US-style sealed beams.
Turns out I had stumbled upon Nada Engineering, a W123 specialist shop. It was a bit early in the morning, so they weren’t open yet, but if you check their website, it looks like they have a flourishing little business. So behind that W123, and close to those two other W123s, a bunch more W123s were asleep inside a corrugated iron building.
Talk about an infestation!
There were many opportunities to compare and contrast interiors, too. This is the blue car’s inner sanctum – immaculate, as per what we can expect from our Japanese friends.
The white car’s dash was obstructed by a towel on the steering wheel, unfortunately. But the rear quarters were up for a pic or two. It had doilies, just like an old Toyota Crown. Those must have been made to measure. The dash photo is the grey 280E’s sweet blue suite, which has extra wood, for some reason.
This encounter, lovely though it was, took place within a context. And that context was that I already had some W123s that had been bagged and tagged from a previous hunt.
One fine December morning, just a few weeks prior to uncovering this W123 nest, I had found a minor infestation in another part of town. In two different parking lots, just one or two blocks from each other, were two W123s. Which, I guess, makes this W12345.
This milder case was still cause for photographic action. Although I did not fully realize then that the invincible Benz was in such supply, I did have an inkling, after seeing two in under an hour.
Here’s the other one – drum roll please for the star attraction, the one and only 280CE coupé!
Much less common than its four-door stablemate, of course. I’ve been seeing a royal blue one around my neck of the woods for ages, but I’ve never managed to catch it. This silver one will do nicely.
More interiors were on offer. The coupé’s higher status and retail price was clear to see, what with all that wood on the centre console, though the grey saloon had that too. All cars were automatics, all were wrong-hand drive (for Japan, but that’s how they like their fancy foreign cars here, usually) and all were sporting fabric upholstery. No leather, not even MB-Tex – these Benzes are JDM as can be.
So that’s pretty much it. This was necessarily a pic-heavy (or text-light) post, as pictures tend to convey the feeling of helplessness associated with being overrun by W123s much better than words do.
Related posts:
Curbside Recycling: 1984 Mercedes-Benz 300CD Turbo Diesel – What, Me Worry?, by Jim Klein
CC Capsule: 1980 Mercedes-Benz 280 TE (W123) Wagon – Estate Of Ecstasy, by T87
Curbside Outtake: Mercedes 300CD Coupe (W123) – Let Us Pay Homage One More Time, by PN
Curbside Classic: 1978 Mercedes-Benz 280 (W123) – Born To Greatness, by T87
Curbside Classic: 1985 Mercedes 300D Turbodiesel – More Than A Fashion Statement, by Perry Shoar
Mercedes Purgatory: Where W123s Awaited Their Bio-Diesel Reincarnation, by PN
CC Capsule: 1980 Mercedes-Benz 300D – The Ultimate Professor’s Car, by Jim Grey
CC Outtake: A Mercedes-Benz W123 Taxi in 2016, by Robert Kim
Vintage Review: 1977 Mercedes-Benz 280E – Teutonic Triumph, by GN
COAL: 1980 Mercedes Benz 300D – Slow and Steady Wins the Race, by Importamation
COAL: 1984 Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel – One More Time, With Feeling, by Importamation
In-Motion Classic: Mercedes-Benz W123 in Heavy Traffic, by Yohai71
Corrugated taillamps were so impressive, until they weren’t. Were they just a sop to auto journalists, or did the Germans clean up all their dust?
About 20 years ago a Mercedes-Benz dealership opened in our area. The Mercedes-Benz owners’ club was treated to a tour of the new facility and, of course, the conversation was primarily about the cars. Probably to the chagrin of the sales force the dealership general manager, who had nearly 30 years experience with the marque, claimed the W126 was the “quintessence of Mercedes-Benz.” He may have been correct. Those cars were fast, comfortable, durable, and luxurious. That said, there is an argument that the W123 is/was the quintessential Mercedes-Benz. Even though they were not marketed as a luxury car they were built to a specification and not necessarily a price. I know of at least two W123s in my area that are still on the road and both are showing over 500,000 miles on their odometers.
To me, it’s the W123 for sure; that’s the model that springs to mind when I hear the words Mercedes-Benz.
I’ve reached a point where the US bumpers look like the right ones, and these look too small, like having a severe underbite. Clearly that’s from forty years of mainly looking at those.
The US headlighted one IS interesting, I wonder if it’s a case of someone choosing to go that route only because it’s different from the norm and thus desirable While I love the colored hubcaps on all of these it is surprising that none of them carry the Bundts, it seems to be about 50/50 over here.
“Because it’s different” is certainly a likely explanation. The pics attached to this comment show Volvo 240s in Japan customised with locally-made aftermarket round-headlamp conversions. These aren’t modified US-spec components, they’re kits available for between $2,000 and $3,000 (USD); Japan has some very hardcore custom-car devotees.
Another likely explanation: OE European headlamps for the W123 are nearing extinction, if they’re not already over that cliff. Rather than poor-quality knockoffs, this owner might have opted for a US lamp setup with their choice of 7″ round lamp units installed.
Are both types of Benz Euro-lights nearly no longer with us? By that, I mean the lower-spec Euro cars got four round lights, but unlike the US job, they look bigger and are covered by a glass panel.
The early W123s got the round-reflector lamps; the later ones got the rectangular-reflector lamps. There might’ve been some overlap for a few years with lower-spec cars getting the round ones (Edit: Oliver explains below). All of them—the legitimate ones, I mean, not the pathetic copies out of India and China—are extinct or nearly so. That’s for the RH-traffic items; I haven’t looked up the LH-traffic ones that would be needed for use in Japan, but they usually go away first because of their lower demand and lower production volume.
Very nice, thanx ! .
Those are mostly gassers, thir$ty beasts if speedy and amazinly well built .
Mercedes has been discontinuing W123 parts although they recently began selling the wagon’s rear hatch latch and inner handle again, these tend to break off the inside release handle easily .
-Nate
This is the inverse of Oregon, where it’s all diesels, except for one blue 280E not far from my house.
I wonder if that pristine upholstery in two of these at that shop is new. It looks absolutely new/perfect, and its pattern looks a bit less that original to me, but I could be wrong.
Also, wood trim kits were once extremely popular, as well as kits to change from the zebrano wood to burl or others.
W123 280 had different pattern, the japanese sure dont use their cars too much
Even here in Virginia these W123s are semi-common, so it’s one of the few cars from the 1970s/80s that I don’t make a special effort to photograph when I see one. But I still like them quite a bit, and that 280CE really takes the cake for me here. Even looks great in silver; a color that thoroughly bores me now.
In looking through these pictures, when I find most intriguing is looking at the various patterns of fabric upholstery. I think that fabric was theoretically available in the US market, but I can’t begin to tell you what patterns were offered because I’ve hardly ever seen one. I’m pretty sure that the only cloth-upholstered W123s I’ve laid eyes on have been European imports.
Some of the photos in this post show little red reflectors hanging down below the rear bumper bar. For quite a few years, Japan’s requirements were unusually stringent for rear retroreflectors: they had to be round ones of a specified diameter, even if larger ones were already integral to the taillights. The pic attached to this comment shows a mid-’70s Mercedes W116 and a late-’70s Oldsmobile Toronado equipped with Japan-spec retroreflectors (and we see amber rear turn signals crudely bolted onto the Toronado, as well; Japan stopped allowing red ones for 1973).
As with Japan’s requirement that sideview mirrors be visible through glass area swept by wipers, enforcement was very inconsistent—some importers were made to modify their cars; others were not.
The retroreflector requirements were gradually relaxed; non-round ones were authorised sometime around the end of the 1970s or early ’80s, and eventually Japanese-market cars came to use retroreflectors much the same as those in Europe or North America.
Daniel, it’s always interesting to see your input into discussions like this. Always!
I can understand the amber indicator requirement (coming from a country which likewise requires them), but the JDM-spec retroreflectors? That does seem odd. Were there any specific JDM guidelines with regard to reflectivity (I guess you’d call it) that the manufacturer’s ones don’t measure up to? I’d have thought Mercedes-Benz ones from that time period would be as good as you could get. And I wouldn’t have thought of the Japanese people as adopting a “You must do this because we say so” mindset; at least, not the ones I know.
But that Toronado – fancy paying out all those millions of yen to get one, and finding it came like this! Surely it could have been done with a view to the rectilinear theme of the rear-end styling. At least they are chrome-bodied though. Like the little dingbats fitted to the Aussie ’59 Chevy – used to love those things as a kid, and still do!
I’m sure there was a nominal explanation (excuse) for the special reflex reflector requirement, but there was no merit to it. The performance requirement was not different, just the shape-size requirement. I think it was pure bloodyminded protectionism, just a trade barrier disguised as a safety regulation. I’m pretty good at recognising those when I see them; I grew up in the States where that’s a way of life.
Strange:
All bumpers are non-280-bumpers on 280/280E/280CE.
/
No idea what you mean.
I noticed that, too.
Mercedes-Benz chose the full chrome bumpers with smaller rubber inserts between bumpers and body as well as chrome windscreen cowls for 280 and 280 E and for the coupé models (230 C/CE, 280 C/CE, and 300 CD) only. The saloon and estate models (except 280 and 280 E) have the full rubber covers at the side and larger ones between the bumpers and body as well as black windscreen cowls.
For 1982 Series III revision, the rectangle headlamps (originally exclusive to the 280, 280 E, 280 CE, and 280 TE) were standard across the board.
Not different pattern on 280/280E but different door armrests in the back and on drivers side. (Jockey-stick).
Remarkable car, really. The only cars coming close are the Volvo 240 and Saab 900. Neither of those two fine cars matched the supernaturally invincible plastic that Benz used and both of them are superb products from a quality point of view. The cloth Mercedes used seems grenade proof. I believe it is a wool-nylon twill which takes colour very well and has fantastic wear-resistance. I don´t know of a single modern car made with these kinds of ultra-high quality materials. They may have smoother and more intregrated assembly concepts and have more features but they are not made as well.
As far as I know nobody has explained how Benz dreamed up this concept. It´s not obvious. A lot of lesser materials are apparently quite alright. You need imagination to think of such high standards. It can´t be drawn if it does not exist. You have to think “I want brilliant stuff” and then go looking and then recognise it when it finally turns up.
Amazingly, this didn´t seem apparent at the time.