E-CLASS W123

About the E-Class W123

The W123 is probably the most overbuilt car Mercedes ever made, and they made it for ten years. The OM617 turbodiesel five-cylinder would run for 500,000 miles with nothing more than oil changes and valve adjustments. The gasoline sixes were refined in the way only Mercedes managed in the late '70s. Build quality was the real product. Double-layer zinc coating, thick paint, body panels that fit like they were machined rather than stamped. The W123 wagon became the default airport taxi across Europe and Africa and refused to stop working. Today, clean examples command prices that would've been absurd ten years ago. The market caught up to what owners always knew. Mercedes hasn't built anything this durable since.