Is a clean W115 worth much?

[James Rothwell]

I quite fancy having one as they look very, very cool.

Do they have much of a value?

 

[jaymanek]

in short.. not really... they rust like mad and most change hands under 1K... obviously mint ones will fetch a lot more..

 

[74merc]

£4K would get you a very good one.
They rust in the bulkheads, sills and boot floor. I think it's more a function of time rather than any inherent weakness, as most of them will be heading towards their 40th birthday!

 

[219]

They were known for rusting even when they were still current models ( before the W123 replaced them ) : my 220/8 was already showing rust around the wheelarches when less than five years old ! By the time it was written off circa 1980 there was quite a lot of rust despite remedial paintwork on more than one occasion . I knew lots of other owners with the same tales to tell .

Sadly old Mercedes saloons , of whatever generation , tend to be unloved and not valued highly - as has already been said you can pick most up for about £1K or less - only the coupes seem to command higher prices ( but sometimes not much higher ) .

 

[74merc]

They were known for rusting even when they were still current models ( before the W123 replaced them ) : my 220/8 was already showing rust around the wheelarches when less than five years old ! By the time it was written off circa 1980 there was quite a lot of rust despite remedial paintwork on more than one occasion . I knew lots of other owners with the same tales to tell .

Sadly old Mercedes saloons , of whatever generation , tend to be unloved and not valued highly - as has already been said you can pick most up for about £1K or less - only the coupes seem to command higher prices ( but sometimes not much higher ) .

In fairness though, there's still quite a few around, so they can't all have been that bad. The main problem is that it does not take much to economically right them off.

 

[219]

Hmmm , much as I liked those cars ( I learned to drive / passed my test in one , did well over 200,000 miles in another ) and grew up around them , I'd have to say that , out of the MILLIONS produced there are probably no more than a few hundred left in the UK , on or off the road . This was the first Mercedes that could claim to have been truly mass produced and used to be a daily sight on our roads , as common as any current model is now . Sadly , I can't say when I last saw one being driven , although I do know where one is lying not so far from me .

Even when they were only a few years old , the fact that they rusted just as much as the preceeding W110 and W111 series was all too apparent : I can well remember a friend with a 250 bemoaning the fact that his required sills replaced on both sides at a cost of £350 per side , and back then you could have probably still bought a new VW beetle for that sort of money . Now that even the youngest ones are past 35 years old , the inherent rust problems will be affecting even the best preserved ones to a greater or lesser degree , sadly . I'm currently pondering this same question with my 1963 Fintail which requires major surgery ( new front crossmember , new front inner wings , new front outer wings , new sills both sides , new floor , new boot floor , new rear wheel housings ......... and that lot is just from a visual inspection ) I already have a lot of the panels , but is is worth all the work ? Certainly not from an economic point of view , but if everyone takes the same view , soon there will be none of these cars left .....

The first Mercedes that seemed to have halfway decent rustproofing was the W123 series , and then only HALFWAY decent !

 

[Sorry Pete]

I saw one on Ebay in May, it was a 1972 220 w115 105k, show-car quality. Ivory with a red leather interior. It looked absolutely immaculate. It failed to achieve the £2500 reserve.
They are very cool. I love the clap-together wipers. I also searched ebay.de and they were achieving c.E3-4k.

This youtube video shows w114's being put through their paces. It's worth it just to watch at 1m30s to see one go airborne!

 

[bpsorrel]

And here's a way to spoil one!!

I remember these cars very fondly as my Grandad had one in the 70's and I thought it was the coolest car around!

 

[gaz_l]

I know a guy round here has an R reg one that he's owned since new (1976/77.. must have been one of the last registered). He taught me in junior school - and I'm no spring chicken - so he must be well past retirement age now.

The car still looks in excellent nick when I see him trundling around in it; I hope the dreaded tin worm hasn't taken hold.

BTW, "trundling" is probably appropriate - it's a 200D . Not many drag races to be won in that one, I think...

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[Fredhead]

Am I to believe that mercs have a history of rusting and that this is not just an issue with the cars from 1995 to about 2002? I'm totally gobsmacked!

 

[219]

Well , they're not (quite) as bad as Fiats , if that's any consolation .

Seriously , the 1950's models ( Pontons , Adenauers ) weren't so bad , most surviving unrestored examples tend to be substantially sound . However , by the time the next generations came along ( W110,111,112,113,108,etc) the rot had literally set in and all of these models were known to rot away underneath , even though they might look respectable on the outside . This persisted with the 'New Generation' models (W114,W115) and also with the original S Class (W116) - all of these cars rot in the same places : wings (inner and outer) , sills , floorpans , boot floors but can appear outwardly not too bad !

It was only with the introduction of the W123 series that Mercedes began to get their rustproofing act together ( these cars don't tend to rot just so badly as earlier models , but are not immune ) and further improved it with the W201 and W126 models which tend not to rot terminally , likewise the W124 are pretty good .

Sadly , after this , things seemed to downhill again with the W210 and some others , before being addressed in recent years .

 

[Tiff]

Well , they're not (quite) as bad as Fiats , if that's any consolation .

 

[74merc]

Well , they're not (quite) as bad as Fiats , if that's any consolation .

Seriously , the 1950's models ( Pontons , Adenauers ) weren't so bad , most surviving unrestored examples tend to be substantially sound . However , by the time the next generations came along ( W110,111,112,113,108,etc) the rot had literally set in and all of these models were known to rot away underneath , even though they might look respectable on the outside . This persisted with the 'New Generation' models (W114,W115) and also with the original S Class (W116) - all of these cars rot in the same places : wings (inner and outer) , sills , floorpans , boot floors but can appear outwardly not too bad !

It was only with the introduction of the W123 series that Mercedes began to get their rustproofing act together ( these cars don't tend to rot just so badly as earlier models , but are not immune ) and further improved it with the W201 and W126 models which tend not to rot terminally , likewise the W124 are pretty good .

Sadly , after this , things seemed to downhill again with the W210 and some others , before being addressed in recent years .

I wonder when they began salting the roads in winter. That might explain why the 50's models fared better regarding rust.

 

[219]

Although the Pontons were monocoque bodyshells ( Adenauers have separate chassis) , I think Mercedes still thought they were building a standalone chassis , judging by the massive sills that were part of the design ( this floorpan design was likened to a wartime 'Pontoon' bridge (Ponton in German) and gave rise to the name which was accepted and adopted by the factory . They just don't seem to have the weak spots of the later models .

Even if salting only started in the 60's , the salt would just have started to attack the earlier cars then if there wasn't something about the design that made them less susceptible ? I don't know why , but the earlier cars just always seem to be sound underneath . I re-undersealed mine in the early 1980's and have never had to do any welding , I've seen plenty of others and the only rusty one I ever saw came from Jersey where it spent 50 years by the seaside .