The Mercedes-Benz W114/115 walked so the W123 could run. Maybe not, but you know what I mean. The chassis marked a way forward into real mass production with almost 2,000,000 units built compared to just 620,000 of the previous W110. You had both automatic and manual transmissions paired with handfuls of engine choices over the nine-year production run and that laid the groundwork for one of the most legendary cars in history, the W123.
Today, these are often overlooked as the W123 is a far more livable car in almost every way, but that doesn’t mean they should be totally written off in terms of owning one. Yes, they are slow and you probably aren’t going to be regularly using one in today’s traffic. Still, these are immensely satisfying in a simple way a 1960s Mercedes-Benz product can offer.
