Junkyard Find: Mercedes-Benz W123 Coupe

by Murilee Martin

Published: March 7th, 2011

The agonizing downward spiral of civilization continues; you saw a Mercedes-Benz W126 coupe sacrificed to China’s hunger for scrap steel, and now there’s this even cooler Benz coupe counting the minutes until it, too, gets crushed. At least some of this car’s parts will live on.

Back when Mercedes-Benz products were known for incredible build quality— yeah, it’s been a while— most of the marque’s customers went for sensible four-door machinery; if you wanted a sporty Benz, why, you picked up a shiny new R107. That makes the beautiful W126 coupes quite rare today.

This one, located in a Denver self-service wrecking yard, appears to have suffered a small engine fire, but otherwise seems fairly solid. Why, Car Gods, why?

#1970s #1978 #1978Mercedes-Benz280CE #1978Mercedes-BenzW123 #DownOnTheJunkyard #Junkyard #JunkyardFind #Mercedes-Benz #Mercedes-BenzW123 #W123

Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.

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3 of 26 comments

Getacargetacheck on Mar 08, 2011

The Benzes from this era seem so unremarkable to me now. Yet compared to what was being built then they really were special in the build quality department. The climate control panels on these cars always seemed overly complex and crude, like an afterthought. The Subaru next to it brings one thought to mind: Inexpensive, and Built to Stay That Way.

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- Diesel Fuel Only on Apr 04, 2011
  
  The ride these cars offered still amazes me. So solid. I knew of one woman around here who replaced all the rubber parts, hoses, etc. on her black on tan 300D, I'm told it's just immaculate. Another lady has been seen driving her silver on black 300D on my street from time to time. Immaculate car, the paint looks showroom. It idles down the street at a pretty good clip, sounding just as good as it did new. Yes, the lines do seem unremarkable, but they're so clean, that one piece of trim that goes along the sides from the front all the way to the back, and they're surprisingly small by today's standards, just look at one next to a contemporary camcord. Yet inside their legroom seems more than generous. And what other well-equipped, tightly built, four-door sedan suitable for comfortable highway cruising available in the early eighties got 25-30 mpg? They've got good brakes, too. Even today. A friend's brother had a 300SD with 445,000 mi. on the clock when it was wrecked. Find a Lincoln/mercury or Buick from that era that could do that and I'll detail it for 'ya. But yes, as another commenter noted, the vaccuum system that controls the HVAC dampers requires removal of the dash to repair (might as well replace the whole thing these days). A friend of mine did it once, what a mess.
  
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Primerdust360 on Aug 16, 2013

"Nardi to steer with, Alpine deck was glowin'" - Ice T http://www.ebay.com/itm/NARDI-WOOD-STEERING-WHEEL-MERCEDES-300D-300cd-300td-300SD-W123-500SEC-380SEC-280-/161084731460?hash=item258165f044&item=161084731460&pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr

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Forward Observer Tesla cash on hand is $45 billion. That is a large mattress.Ford Motor Company market cap is $46 billion. Wait, forget I said that.
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