Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
As cars grow more complex each year, old iron like this late model Mercedes-Benz 300CD grow more and more appealing. This example for sale in California has lived on the west coast its whole life and its looks are deceptive, as it has 183,000 miles on its odometer. A testament, then, to how timeless and durable these diesel Benzes really are.
In the realm of German motorcars, it seems within each marque, a favorite has emerged as the standard bearer of each manufacturers’ virtues. The air-cooled Porsche 911s appeal to those hardcore P-car nuts who deem rear-engine sports cars as the only acceptable vehicle to don the Stuttgart crest. The BMW E30 has become a symbol of greatness and what initially drew thousands to the company in the first place: the ultimate driving experience. And for Mercedes, few classics capture the imagination more than the W123. Perhaps the most durable Mercedes-Benz ever, this car combines restrained good looks with over the top engineering that had customers coming back into showrooms for more. Admittedly, this wasn’t very often when you built a car that could easily cover half a million miles at a clip.
Given all the fuss surrounding the recent GM recall hearings on Capitol Hill, I can’t help but think that the probability of these sorts of issues coming from all manufacturers in the future is higher, simply due to the added complexity of cars and the technology they are packing as compared to years prior. I hate to be one that eschews technological advancements, but take a look at cars from a few decades back, specifically the 1980s and 1990s, and you’ll see that a good balance between technology and simplicity was achieved while retaining driver involvement. Mercedes-Benz has always been a bit ahead of the curve when it comes to technology, but one of their most revered vehicles of recent memory is the W123, if based solely on one factor: durability.
This 1983 Mercedes-Benz 300D for sale in New Jersey is one of the lowest mileage examples we’ve ever featured here on GCFSB. We’ve featured a lot of sedans, coupes and estates in varying states of condition and have noticed that prices are on the move, if not in an E30 M3 type frenzy. Look up durability in the dictionary and this car’s picture is beside that entry.
Is there any car more revered in the last half century than the Mercedes-Benz W123? Amongst the Mercedes faithful, this model stands head and shoulders above them all in terms of durability and timelessness. It is also known as quite the gas miser, with plenty of biodiesel conversions out there on the roads. Let’s take a look at three very different W123 models, beginning with this early 1977 300D sedan for sale in Florida.
The E63 AMG Estate we featured earlier isn’t an impractical car, but it’s hard to deny that it’s a bit over the top for most people. If speed isn’t your thing, you could always go the other direction and pick up a W123 diesel estate, such as this 1985 300TD for sale in Michigan from the same seller as the 300TE 4Matic we featured last week. With only 37,000 miles, this beauty is nowhere close to being broken in and is in like new condition, a superlative that is thrown about liberally but certainly applies in this case.