Junkyard Find: Mercedes-Benz W123 Coupe
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?
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, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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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.
"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