The rare, high-performance Porsche-Mercedes 500E continues to garner increasing recognition on the collector’s market, pushing prices for nice examples toward $40k. But if you have champagne tastes on a beer budget and want a V8 in your W124, you’d do well to consider a 400E instead. Produced between 1992 and 1996 (it would be rebadged as the E420 and lightly facelifted in 1994), Mercedes intended for the 400E to sit underneath the 500E in the model range. They created it by dropping the 4.2 liter, 32v version of the M119 block into the W124 chassis, beefing up the brakes and suspension while leaving the exterior identical to the more humble 300E. Power output was a healthy 275 hp. While the car was not in the same league as the 500E, this proved more than adequate for high-speed autobahn cruising, which is what these cars do best.
Tag: w124
The W124 wagon is a Mercedes-Benz ‘young classic’ that is loved by many near and far. Wonderful build quality, handsome styling and a very reasonable to live with everyday car are the highlights everyone knows and have made the W124 a perennial favorite. But now that the youngest W124 is over 20 years old, finding a nice one for sale is becoming a little more difficult. When you do, be prepared to pay a premium over the sedans. Today’s 1995 E320 Wagon for sale in Florida is a great example of that – but is surprisingly more affordable than you might think.
CLICK FOR DETAILS:Â 1995 Mercedes-Benz E320 Wagon on eBay
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Last week I looked a CL63 AMG in a nice shade of green and a few weeks before that I looked at a very nice W124 Cabriolet. So today we’ll combine the two and check out this seasonal 1993 300CE covered in Spruce Green for sale in California.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1993 Mercedes-Benz 300CE Cabriolet on eBay
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The 500E was an M5-baiting super-sedan built on the W124 platform in joint collaboration with Porsche. Offered between 1991 and 1994 with a 5.0 liter V8 generating 322hp and a subtly flared bodykit, these cars earned the clichéd (but accurate) moniker “wolf in sheep’s clothing.†Somewhat forgotten about until recently, not too long ago neat examples could be had for around $10k. Not so any more. As the market has woken up to these cars we’re increasingly seeing more of them for sale at the $30k price point. This particular example breaks that barrier and then some: the seller is asking for a bold $54k.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1993 Mercedes-Benz 500E on eBay
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One thing that amazes me about the W124 cabriolet is how expensive it was when it was new. In 1995, when you drove into the lot at your local Mercedes-Benz you didn’t have a ton of choices. You only had the C, E, S and SL compared to the 16 different models now in 2016. If you made your way to the E-Class lineup, you had the E300D, E320 and E420 in sedan form. (Sadly the E500 was axed after 1994). If you needed to haul some stuff, there was the E320 wagon. If two doors were more your speed, you could either go E320 coupe or cabriolet. Now you think the prices would all be somewhat comparable since hey, they are still all E320s, right? Well, not so much. The standard E320 sedan came in at $43,500 while the coupe was $63,000. Now the cabriolet, you ready for this? The MSRP price was $79,000. Just for kicks, the 1995 SL500 was under $90,000. So why did the cabriolet run almost twice as much as the sedan? Cost.
To make this car perfect, it’s not just as easy as chopping the roof off and adding a soft top in the trunk. Over 1000 parts had to be changed or modified from the coupe to be at the standard Mercedes wanted. The A-pillars were welded together with metal inside the pillars to form a stronger unit in the area that is prone to buckling. To combat vibrations, there are a system of dampeners in the front and rear of the car as well as the roof frame. In addition to all that, fitting an automatic top was no easy task as the roof mechanism has 27 linkage parts and 34 joints. Mercedes manged to make a perfect top and still left you with a generous amount of room in the trunk. All of the designing, all of this engineering and all of these materials combined with labor made this car so expensive. Clearly, Mercedes has figured out a way to keep costs down now because a 2016 E-Class coupe is only $2,400 more than the sedan and the cabriolet is only $8,000 more than the coupe.