A couple of w126 questions - quick reply much appreciated!

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MJK 24

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Feb 24, 2007
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35
Hello,

I'm looking at a w126 on ebay (I know!)

Could anyone tell me approx. how much the Bumper Chromes are? Apparently the front is slightly pitted, I'm not sure if it can be saved or not - just trying to budget.

Secondly, the car I'm looking at is without Leather which is a little unfortunate. What's a sensible price from a Mercedes beaker for an interior?

Thanks for any prompt replies!

Mark
 
Bumper chrome is very expensive, complete trim for each bumper is £350+

The wings are prone to rust, they do require alot of money to restore properly.
 
Hi Mark,
I have been looking to source front bumper chrome for my 300se (it seems they all go rusty) It looks like I'll have to bite the bullet and go to the Mercedes main stealer! I am told that they can still get them.
What year is it ? because I read somewhere that they are slightly different before about 1986. I guess it would cost me about £300 for the three pieces.
I have seen leather intieriors with door panels and trim on ebay for about 400 quid.
There's loads of w126's about at the moment so you should be spoilt for choice!
Good luck anyway!
Duncan
 
Here's a link to the car:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1989-MERCEDES...oryZ9855QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I have sort of talked myself out of it now. There's no leather and a brief conversation with the vendor established that the wheel arches are starting their decline. Undecided if I should put a take it or leave it cheeky bid on there. He's had it 12 years which is surely a good sign.

I've been keeping an eye on this car below for about 6 weeks. The price has dropped by £800 now to £1,700.

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/128260.htm

If anyone has some links to any w126 se or sel I'd be most grateful. Ideally, I think I'd like a 6cyl to keep fuel bills vaguely sensible. Leather too I think.

Whilst we're here, what's the fuel consumption like, straight 6 and V8?

Thanks for your time!
 
I love the £1700 one, worth paying abit more for a better one in the first place!
I paid £1100 for mine and spent £700 on it in the first week!
Worth it though -lovely modern classic car.
I reckon I get about 25 average mpg but I take it quite easy as it can get silly if I put the foot down. I'd expect a little more on a run, maybe as much as 30 or 35.
The v8 motors use a bit more gas but you get more grin! The 300 is not sluggish , it can be surprisingly nimble if you want it to be.
I love it!
 

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Where did you manage to find yours from? Is there any rust in the arches?

Bumper chromes, although expensive are a lot easier than trying to get a good match on paint when properly repairing rear arches. Fronts - you'd probably do a better job fitting new wings I guess!

The £1,700 car was actually £2,450 in late Feb. He's reduced it and reduced it. I think it's now sensibly priced.
 
Yeah, I got a bit of rust on the very front of each wing, but I'm looking to have the whole thing done soon.
Mrs thinks I'm mad! (mid life crisis) We've had new cars for a while and she cant understand why I wanted an "old one"
I dont use it as an everyday car so im not in much hurry to have things done to it. The garage down the road from me seems to like working on it and he's very reasonable too.
 
Can't you have the chrome bumper trims shot blasted and re-chromed? Be a lot cheaper than £300.
 
My long-term average for my 300 SE is 24.65 mpg; I drive gently, and the car is well maintained and in good nick. Yesterday I did a 250-mile trip and used precisely half a tank of fuel, which must be 28 mpg at the very best or probably nearer 26. I have never approached 30 mpg, even in perfect conditions. I drove a 500 SEL on a 200-mile mostly-motorway trip (plus a couple of cold-start short trips) before acquiring my 300 SE, and the consumption was 22.17 mpg.

I'm very happy with the 300 SE. Great looks, adequate performance, relative simplicity of 6-cylinder maintenance. Any M103 (or M104) car that hasn't had a head-gasket change will probably need one at some point after 75k; look for dark staining and fresh fluid underneath (8-hour job, £500 at an independent).

Explain to Mrs W126uk the difference in depreciation between new and old cars, and that depreciation = real money.

MJK 24, check out the buying advice at:

http://www.s-klasse-club.de/gb/index.html
 
Morning!
Yeah, This one is nice!
But £4700 is a fair price if the car is that good! I reckon i've spent about half that so far on work and I need to spend a load more. It will be a while before it looks anything like this one!
As far as rechroming goes, the trim on the w126 gets so bad that large holes can appear! So it will be new ones for me.
Mrs w126uk is ok with the car now and she enjoys being driven around in it! She only has a two seater convertable so we have to use the merc quite often.
 

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I was haveing a browse on the Autotrader website last night and there was a place called (I think) Ironside Garages who had two for sale. I think one was a V8, the other a 6. However, he wanted £8,000 for them!

They were excellent but I'd be thinking that £3,000 would be closer to the mark or do exceptional cars make exceptional money?
 
there was a place called (I think) Ironside Garages who had two for sale. I think one was a V8, the other a 6. However, he wanted £8,000 for them!

I have fond memories of my W126, but 8K is just silly. Remember that nice as they were, they're still 80s car technology. That is not all bad of course, they will be far easier and far cheaper to maintain than a modern one.
 
I think that for 3 grand you can expect to get a really nice w126. One that needs nothing doing to it, I should of spent a bit more buying mine but I bought it on the spur of the moment and the car has been in Torquay for the last ten years.
I can remember seeing it being driven around by a local business man when I had a w123, I aways liked it, so when it came up for sale I just bought it!
 
Charles Ironside seems to get away with super-premium asking prices on all his cars. You can rely on him to ask the maximum conceivable price. However, who knows what they do actually go for? I guess he's located in an area of plentiful soft money.
http://www.charlesironside.co.uk/

The average asking prices in the MB Club Gazette over the past six months or so are £3400 for SELs (range £2500 to £3995; almost all 500s or 560s) and £2350 for SEs (range £800 to £5500; mostly 300s, but some 420s and one 500). Note: "asking prices".

I reckon it's worth paying up to £5000 for a real cracker on which everything really has been done (including head gasket and rot under the back window -- both certainties) and there are absolutely no perceptible imperfections. But I wouldn't part with that sort of money without having an expert go over it in painstaking detail (cost up to £200). In most cases, I'd be targeting the £2000--£3000 bracket, but again with fairly high expectations about the condition. Anything cheaper is sure to require four-figure work before long.
 
This is my problem.

Monday-Friday I'm working away from home and I'm only back at the weekends. I do have a problem with cars - I have too many. I have a Lotus Elise, Volkswagen Scirocco (immaculate) and an Alfa Romeo Alfasud (concours).

The poor Alfa only does sub 1,000 miles a year. The Scirocco ferries me to work and back and does all the moving of 'stuff'. I've had them both for 8 years. The Elise is for bombing about in come rain or shine and does the majority of the miles. I'm looking for something the complete opposite of the Elise which is where my 126 thougts have come from.

In addition, I;ve just got on the property ladder and I'm living in a house that needs plastering plus a new kitchen and bathroom!

I was hoping to spend about £1,750 on a w126, pref. 6 cyl. Spending any more than this just doesn't make sense as the car is likely to be doing only 3k miles per year. If anything cheaper was available that needed minor fettling, then that would be fine. My knowedge of mechanics is sound and head gasket problems could be tackled without bother with a little forward planning. I also have a friend who runs an excellent bodyshop should arches etc need metal cutting out and replacing. He does however normally tell me to replace where possible as he thinks it's invariably cheaper to fit a genuine new wing than trying to repair an old one!

Regretably, should I buy a w126, I'd probably have to part from my Scirocco after many happy years.
 
30mpg on a 300SE? Not likely... I struggled to get past 25mpg on average. Would do 26-7 on a long run @ 70-80mph. Worst was 22.24 during winter with lots of ancillaries on.

Realistically low twenties/high teens for the v8's.

You can't run these big old beasts on Golf money, but just regard it as being offset against depreciation on any tinny new Euro-box and you won't be able to wipe that self-satisfied grin off your face :)

Good luck!
 

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