The best car ever made
Let me tell you why the Mercedes Benz 300te is the best car ever made
Disclaimer this post is written by a 16 year old with little patience for good post writing
Let me tell you why the Mercedes Benz 300te is the best car ever made
Disclaimer this post is written by a 16 year old with little patience for good post writing
To start off this car can be as old as 31 years old. Production ranged from 1985-1995 with a large selection of engines and drive trains. There were many modified versions of this car which are really f’n cool. Mercedes claimed series of car to be an over engineered masterpiece, I 100% agree with this.
The Chassis
The chassis of the Mercedes Benz 300te made the e30 touring estates look really stupid. Like I said, this car is very over engineered. But being over engineered means it had a huge ton more features than competitors. Unlike the rounded lights of the e30, the S124 has squared headlights with really cool looking and very functional headlight wipers. The photo above has smoked out signal lamps that look absolutely sweggin. The hood release latch on the W124 is so absolutely genius. You yank the latch under the dash and out through the grill appears a grey plastic tab which you pull and lift the hood. There is no hood holder upper thing either which is very nice. When the engine bay needed work the hood moved up past the 45 degree point to a straight up and down 90 perpendicular to the engine. The chassis of this car is a 5 door station wagon which steel beemed doors. This car comfortable seats 7 (two rear facing). The mirrors on the w124 were different shapes and very small. The drag coefficient of this car is rather low which helps with the alright fuel economy you do get in this 3L powerhouse.
The engine
When I said 3L powerhouse I was joking. This car does have lots of hidden power though. The 3.0L m103 engine makes around 180hp in this day and age. The engine is a N/A 3.0L straight six (which believe it or not the 2JZ was copied off of). If you know how to drive this car (like myself) it can be pretty fun. The automatic transmission is a 4 speed paired up with the rear wheel drive or 4matic transmission. The engine does really like oil but thats okay because it’s a mercedes and its not supposed to be cheap so that everyone can afford it, only those who can love a car despite its expensive requirements.
This car gets about 16-18mpg in the city (if you drive responsibly) and about 22/23/24 on the highway.
I’ve pulled on non vtec civics with this car before and I can out run a 2013 Mazda 3 hatch too.
Features
This car (mine being 26 years old) has so many unbelieveable features for it’s time, (they all still work too). Honestly it makes for a better winter car than summer car. So mine specifically has 4matic AWD (the pioneer of AWD systems). Distributing 100% of torque to rear wheels (mode 1), 35/65 torque split when slip is detected (mode 2), 50/50 torque split in mode 3 when 2 or more wheels have started slipping and mode 4 where the speed is lower than 40km/h and more than 2 wheels have lost traction, the computer will lock the rear diff and send 50/50 torque spilt to all 4 wheels. I’ve never had to scrape the windshields either, being that the car has a mono wiper in the front which does a little shimmy in the middle to reach the top of the front windscreen and has rear window defrost along with another wiper blade in the back. The car also has automatic heated mirrows for outside. Power windows, power seats, heated seats, dual zone climate control, child safety locks, a power opening roof and very very comfortable recaro leather or cloth seats. This car has cruise control which adaptavely switches gears or applies more gas pedal when road conditions change.
Oh and the best part of this car is that it has a gorgeous little hood ornament which reminds you that you drive the best car ever made.
On road handling
The turning radius of this car like I said is very tight which is nice for parking lots and parking, the low speed handling is pretty bad, the car has alot of body roll considering it has lots of ground clearance and is kinda heavy (3800lbs). At higher speeds the suspension is really nice and soft but not a blown strut kinda feel its just like, “Oh look a dip in the road OMNOMNOM burp“. The power in 4th gear starting from 60mph is pretty good it pulls decently and can definitely outrun a civic in that speed zone. Low speeds though, this car is painfully slow.
Off road
This car off road is awesome and has a lot of potential. There is a decent amount of ground clearance paired up with 4matic AWD that it can hold it’s own in a mud puddle or snow bank.
There you go, that’s not all, but frankly im very tired of typing. That’s why I think this is the best car ever made.
Thanks to all your positive feedback and getting editors pick i’m going to write another post right now about adventures in the TE. and what a great f’n adventure mobile this thing makes.
Michael
Comments
One of my cars is a W124 Coupe. Yes, these things are built to last. Yes, their suspension is very comfortable. The rear axle feels sublime over road imperfections. Parts are dead cheap and readily available. The car still looks good after all these years(especially the Coupe)
What REALLY grinds my gears are the heater controls, they make no sense at all.
Hey nice tank! Man I love old Mercedes wagons!
From an engineering point of view yes the car is really over engineerd but lets not forget that the 4 matic system in the late w124 was one of the first 4wd systems mercedes produced so it was prone to breaking down but nontheless i agree with you the w124 is a great car i own a w124 and a w201 (190e) and I think when mercedes designed these cars they were really trying to make them last.
Disclaimer: im drunk but i think im pretty on point on this but correct me if im wrong
As much as I am an enthusiast of retro mercs (I own a W202 with an M104.028 myself).
You need to chill a little bit.
W124’s suffer from horrendous wiring failure, which affects nigh on every model that didn’t have the costly engine harness replaced in the early 2000’s.
ASR is terrible.
4Matic was a very primitive 4WD system for the time.
The SLS in the W124 is prone to failure and will only work properly if you have in-depth knowledge of how it works and how to fix it when it does invariably fail catastrophically.
It has more body roll than a cruise ship.
Your Combo Switch/Wiper relay WILL burn out, at which time the wiper motor will deliver enough power to snap the magnesium assembly of the monoblade wiper, which will be the most complicated and frustrating job you’ll do on the car.
Any amount of water on the road can potentially send you spinning and kill you very effectively, since that generation of E Class’s Acceleration Slip Control can’t help you in any situation other than spinning off the line.
In short: Calm down. 80s Mercedes Benz’s are fantastic cars, but they are far from free from the endless pitfalls of owning an old car. A price-equivalent modern car is better in almost every possible facet, especially for an inexperienced driver such as yourself.
The e320’s suffered from wiring failiure not the 300e,ce,t. The SLS in this wagon is uh, 26 years old, works like new. Body roll is comforting roll, the best handling cars on the road have insane body roll… Again the wiper is 26 years old, why would it fail now? I hardly even use it to be honest. Hydro planing would be caused by tires and speed, not drive train or AWD.
Inshort, This is a 90’s mercedes benz, and they are the longest lasting, most indestructible cars ever made. I’m proud to drive one despite what people might think about it being old and more advanced than new cars. Obviously a price equivalent modern car is better because it’s new. This car 26 years ago was equivalent to an e400 estate now-a-days.
Thanks for reading my article.