James Taylor - Mercedes-Benz W124: The Complete Story

OTHER TITLES IN THE CROWOOD AUTOCLASSICS SERIES

AC COBRA Brian Laban

ALFA ROMEO 916 GTV AND SPIDER Robert Foskett

ALFA ROMEO SPIDER John Tipler

ASTON MARTIN DB4, DB5 & DB6 Jonathan Wood

ASTON MARTIN DB7 Andrew Noakes

ASTON MARTIN V8 William Presland

AUDI QUATTRO Laurence Meredith

AUSTIN HEALEY Graham Robson

BMW M3 James Taylor

BMW 5 SERIES James Taylor

BMW CLASSIC COUPS James Taylor

CITRON DS SERIES John Pressnell

FERRARI 308, 328 AND 348 Robert Foskett

FORD ESCORT RS Graham Robson

FROGEYE SPRITE John Baggott

JAGUAR E-TYPE Jonathan Wood

JAGUAR XK8 Graham Robson

JENSEN INTERCEPTOR John Tipler

JOWETT JAVELIN AND JUPITER Geoff McAuley & Edmund Nankivell

LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH Peter Dron

LAND ROVER DEFENDER, 90 AND 110 RANGE James Taylor

LOTUS ELAN Matthew Vale

MGA David G. Styles

MGB Brian Laban

MGF AND TF David Knowles

MG T-SERIES Graham Robson

MAZDA MX-5 Antony Ingram

MERCEDES-BENZ CARS OF THE 1990s James Taylor

MERCEDES-BENZ FINTAIL MODELS Brian Long

MERCEDES-BENZ S-CLASS James Taylor

MERCEDES-BENZ W124 James Taylor

MERCEDES SL SERIES Andrew Noakes

MERCEDES W113 Myles Kornblatt

MORGAN 4/4 Michael Palmer

MORGAN THREE-WHEELER Peter Miller

PEUGEOT 205 Adam Sloman

PORSCHE CARRERA THE AIR-COOLED ERA Johnny Tipler

RELIANT THREE-WHEELERS John Wilson-Hall

RILEY RM John Price-Williams

ROVER 75 AND MG ZT James Taylor

ROVER P5 & P5B James Taylor

SAAB 99 & 900 Lance Cole

SUBARU IMPREZA WRX AND WRX STI James Taylor

SUNBEAM ALPINE AND TIGER Graham Robson

TRIUMPH SPITFIRE & GT6 Richard Dredge

TRIUMPH TR7 David Knowles

VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTI James Richardson

VOLVO P1800 David G. Styles

JAMES TAYLOR

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2015 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2015

James Taylor 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 954 4

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Few cars have ever impressed me on first acquaintance as much as the 260E automatic saloon I borrowed from the Mercedes-Benz UK press fleet in 1991. J975 GNV was finished in beautiful metallic Malachite Green, with grey velour upholstery. It came loaded with extras, of course, which would have added nearly 4,500 to the base showroom price of 27,950. But the quality of its construction shone through everywhere, and I was completely sold on the driving experience as well.

Many years later, still a confirmed Mercedes enthusiast, I decided to buy a 1989 300CE to use as a business car. Though it was no longer in the first flush of youth, and at least one of its previous owners had mistreated it, the car was still absolutely superb. I kept it for seven years, and loved every minute of it. Well, almost: I also got to know quite intimately what goes wrong with these cars and how much they cost to repair. Anybody who read my reports on the car in Classic Car Weekly during 2012 will understand what I mean.

So it was more or less inevitable that I would end up writing a book like this. The vast complexity of the 124-series range at times made assembling its history more than a little challenging, and I dont doubt that one day even more information will be available to swell the 124 story. In the meantime, I need to give special thanks to some of those people who helped out along the way, even though they did not always know they were contributing to the store of knowledge that would one day become this book.

Thanks, then, go particularly to Mercedes-Benz Classic, both for information and for the majority of the illustrations. Thanks, too, go to Mercedes-Benz UK, whose press office kept me regularly informed about changes in the line-up of the 124 series in the 1980s and 1990s. I have absorbed a lot of information from members of the Mercedes-Benz Club in the UK and from its excellent publication, the Gazette, and I have made full use of such material as is available about the 124 range in German. Finally, special thanks to photographer Craig Pusey, who was able to supply a number of excellent pictures, which filled what would otherwise have been gaps in the pictorial record.

James Taylor

Oxfordshire

September 2014

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