Modern Classic: Mercedes-Benz W124

The Mercedes-Benz W124 debuted in late 1984 and ran until late 1995. Photos: Mercedes-Benz

One of my favourite cars of all time is the gorgeous W124 Mercedes-Benz, which debuted in late 1984 and ran until late 1995. 

The flush three-box shape of the W124, with its rectangular front lights and chiselled rear taillights, created a beautiful shape that has been copied by many car manufacturers since. 

While we know this "middle tier" Merc today as the E Class, the W124 actually only derived this name with the facelift in 1993 that switched the E to after the numbers in its name, ie 300E to E320.  

The classic shape of the W124 still looks fresh 35 years later today. The W124 began with a sedan first, then an estate, which landed in October 1985, a pillarless coupe in April 1987, and finally a convertible from March 1992.  

A coupe (front) and station wagon (top) were added to the line-up.

In all 2,562,143 were built mainly between four plants in Germany, but E-Classes were also produced in South Africa, India, Mexico, Poland, Indonesia, and Malaysia. 

As a young schoolboy in Australia, it was the W124 E Class that made me sit up and take notice of luxury cars. At the time, although my family had a bright red ketchup sauce-like Mitsubishi Sigma SE sedan, my eyes were tuning in to the local town doctor's metallic blue Mercedes Benz 230E sedan.  

My grandmother worked for a wealthy farming family and I would often see snow-white Mercedes Benz 300E when I visited the farm. This started a long-running game with my father, already aware of his son's uncharacteristic passion for nice cars, that it was possible to buy the E-Class cheaper directly from the German factory, go on a European three-month driving holiday, then bring it back to Australia at a "fraction" of the new price. 

The future family E-Class and the European driving holiday never happened, but just like the hope of Dad selling his VW Beetle and getting its ‘brother’ the Porsche 911, it kept my young mind busily hopeful of the family one day having a 300E in the garage.  

There was also a Mercedes-Benz W124 convertible.

Mercedes-Benz's planning for the W124 Benz began in late 1976 with the exterior being finished off in 1981 before its final release three years later. 

In its day, the W124 was advanced with features not yet seen on mainstream or even luxury cars. For instance, it sported a 0.28 coefficient of drag, which was the best in the world at the time, mainly due to plastic moulding for the underneath of the car to make airflow more efficient and reducing fuel consumption. 

Tricks on the W124 included an electrically-operated rear door on the estate that closed silently and was known as a "neighbour-friendly" door, which also reduced rear road noise protruding into the cabin.  

All models also featured a rather posh solo windscreen wiper that extended its reach all over the windscreen in a more superior fashion to if it had two swipers.  

The sedan, convertible, and coupe all had optional folding rear seat rests that improved the view out the rear window. The estate also had rear-facing "child seats" that went flush into the floor. 

The Mercedes-Benz W124 station wagon had two rear-facing seats.

The W124 was loaded with safety features, well ahead of its time that are now standard in all cars, including impact-absorbing foam that was strengthened with a thin aluminium to stop all sorts of engine parts and hoses flying into the passenger cabin in a crash. Even the glove box had a unique point of rupture to stop it from injuring a passenger. 

The seatbelts had electronic pre-tensioners, the door rests had deforming parts that minimised abdominal injuries in a side-impact and even the floor pedals were moved inversely away in a frontal impact.

Engines and models varied globally but in Australia and New Zealand, it was the 230E (with 2.3-litre, four-cylinder at 100kW), 260E (with 2.6-litre, six-cylinder with 118kW), and 300E (with 3-litre six-cylinder at 132kW) that were the engines available.   

The 300E also later spawned a 24 valve 162kW model. These evolved to the E220 (110kwW), E280 (142kW) and E320 (with the 162kW 24 valve engine now standard) with the late-cycle 1992 facelift that brought with it the clear front indicator lenses and the frosted rear taillights, plus new bumpers and subtle interior changes.  

A 500E was added to the range in Europe with a top speed of 250km/h

In Europe, Mercedes topped out with the 500E with 235kW (or 240kW via the facelift model) via a 5-litre V8 and a top speed of 250km/h. It could hit 100km/h in 5.9 seconds and some examples wound their way to New Zealand via import. 

At the time of the W124, Mercedes Benz saw luxury, in its interiors, as being about simplicity. In fact, there were fewer buttons on the entire dash than you might see on a steering wheel these days. The centre console was dominated by wood and just a simple radio/cassette and air conditioning/heating controls. The dashboard had a large tachometer and speedometer and that was about it.  

Seats were trimmed in "MB Tex" (vinyl), only the 300E got leather seats as standard and higher models got a sunroof. 

The transmission gate had the Mercedes-Benz saw-toothed pattern that required patience when moving the automatic transmission selector. Manuals were sold in Europe and were popular there, but most global markets only got automatic shifters. 

Such is the strength and durability of the W124 that many are still on the roads today. I remember being amazed as I backpacked through "the Stans", particularly Kazakhstan, how many examples I saw, some with well over a million kilometres. 

A pillarless coupe was added to the W124 range in April 1987.

In fact, Mercedes Blog featured a W124 that covered a verified 3.4 million kilometres, owned by a taxi driver in Norway.  

The same can't be said for New Zealand as no New Zealand-new examples are listed on TradeMe, although there are several tired imports. 

I'm sure there are examples sitting in garages and if given a chance, I'd like a 300TE wagon in the garage with the 24 valve engine. 

I did bid on a 1995 E320 cabriolet at Webb’s Auckland auction two years ago, which was imported from Hong Kong with only 73,000kms and sold for $27,000.  

Mint examples of the W124, especially pre-facelift models (i prefer the simplicity of the styling on these versus the facelift model) are becoming exceedingly rare.