After greater than 15 years of recording intriguing cars I spy in automobile graveyards, I know which of those vehicles are most likely to show astronomical analyses on their odometers: Honda Accords and also Mercedes-Benzes. In my individual junkyard-odometer Top Ten, a Volvo 240 leads with 631,999 miles and a car requires to beat 411,794 miles to burglarize the list in any way. 1980s Mercedes-Benzes have three of those areas, 1980s Honda Accords very own 3 even more, Volvo has 2 overall, and also Ford and also Toyota have one each. Today’s Junkyard Gem falls short of this list, yet it’s still noteworthy for being a gasoline-engined Mercedes-Benz W124 in nice problem despite the average of 10,525 miles it went across throughout each of its 33 years on the road.
Keep in mind that many producers kept five-digit odometers right into the 1980s as well as usually (in the case of Detroit) right into the 1990s, and then nearly everyone mosted likely to unreadable-in-the-junkyard electronic odometers around the turn of the century. That indicates that I’m sure I’ve documented a lot of American pickup, Toyota Coronas, and also old Mercedes-Benz diesels with more than a half-million miles on five-digit odometers that passed on the 10,000 s digit from 9 to no a half-dozen times. Still, getting past 300,000 proven miles is quite a success.
The folks in Stuttgart weren’t making use of the E-Class classification when this vehicle was built (that came later, in 1993), but that’s what we’ve got right here. The “E” in this badge describes Einspritzmotor, for fuel shot.
The W124 car replaced its epic W123 precursor beginning in the 1985 model year, with production proceeding through 1995. The W123 was a tough act to follow, thanks to its well-known toughness as well as reliability, however the W124 was sturdy has its rabid aficionados today. In 1989, American Mercedes-Benz customers could obtain the W124 in sports car, car, or wagon type. The 300E sedan was the second-cheapest of the lot, with an MSRP of$45,100(concerning$110,535 in 2022 bucks). The entry-level 1989 E-Class, the 260E, had a 2.6-liter straight-six ranked at 158 horsepower, like the 190E that year. The 300E got this 3.0-liter six with 177 steeds. If you wanted a brand-new US-market Mercedes-Benz with a hands-on transmission in 1989, your only choice was the proto-C-Class 190E. A four-speed automatic was obligatory on the ’89 300E below.
The factory-issue first aid kit is still below, though junkyard consumers have actually rummaged around in it.
Mercedes-Benz set up motorist’s-side airbags as typical devices on U.S.-market W124s beginning in the 1986 model year. In 1989, you needed to pay $600 additional ($1,470 today) for a passenger-side airbag in your brand-new 300E.
The interior looks to be in really great condition, minus some stuff removed by junkyard buyers. This MB-Tex faux-leather upholstery is unbreakable.
The body looks good, also, yet a close-as-makes-no-difference 350,000-mile vehicle is a tough sell. Here it sits.
Zero to 55 miles per hour in simply 6.8 seconds!