W124 - still made in India?

[crammy69]

Picked up a copy of Autocar (or was i Auto Express?) last week and they have just bought a W124 estate for a grand to run for a while. Anyway, in the article they suggested that the rights to build the W124 were sold to India and that they are still made there. Is this lazy, ill-informed journalism or is it a known fact?

 

[aka$h]

As far as im aware the w124 is no longer in production, the w211 is no domestically made to fulfil their market. Come to think of it I dont think the estate was ever produced there only the saloon.

 

[SilverSaloon]

i think they probably think they mean the Chairman 1 - which was based on the W124 chassis. People keep going on about this meaning 124's are still in production, but in fact, the chariman has since been replaced by Chairman II so its all rubbish really....

bad ill-informed journalism based on hearsay without actually checking the facts

 

[Robbie T]

I would guess they a referring to CKD (Complete Knock Down) vehicles, although i haven't read the article. Certainly up until a few years ago they were still producing W124's in India amongst other places.

A little background of CKD's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_knock_down

 

[SilverSaloon]

wasnt there some "dodgy" indian-built W124 saloons with 51 reg plates sold around 2001/2002-ish. these were imports from india with (apparently) horrendous build quality.

some threads here:

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=53597&highlight=w124+india

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=8415&highlight=w124+india

 

[nick mercedes]

wasnt there some "dodgy" indian-built W124 saloons with 51 reg plates sold around 2001/2002-ish. these were imports from india with (apparently) horrendous build quality.

There's nothing wrong with the build quality of them, they date back to 1996 or so, some didn't sell until 2001ish so ended up as 51 plates.

Built from CKD kits from Germany, but with uprated springs to cope with rough Indian roads.

 

[crammy69]

Thanks everyone!, given they were kits I guess India isnt goig to be some cheap source of W124 parts then!, shame.

 

[nick mercedes]

Thanks everyone!, given they were kits I guess India isnt goig to be some cheap source of W124 parts then!, shame.

124 parts are cheap anyway.

 

[Vlad]

Having read the article I think it was saying that its still made, to a certain extent, in South Korea as the Ssangyong Chairman

 

[wemorgan]

Was it this Auto Express article that implies the latest Chairman is based upon a modified W126 E-class? Though I'm sure that's a typo and they meant W124.

 

[Vlad]

The article I read was in last weeks Autocar...the one on your link appears to be from 2006

 

[nick mercedes]

Was it this Auto Express article that implies the latest Chairman is based upon a modified W126 E-class? Though I'm sure that's a typo and they meant W124.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SsangYong_Chairman

 

[Robbie T]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SsangYong_Chairman

Ooooerrrr, that's a bit rubbish. It's got C140 headlamps in a Rover 800 body with a W124 platform, but is has got a M113 lump and a 7G 'box


I'd never seen that before, was probably for the best

 

[Vlad]

"I'd never seen that before, was probably for the best"


Couldn't agree more....nasty looking thing!

 

[KillerHERTZ]

The later ones even feature a BSG (thats Big Star Grill)

"Sinky 6 engine"


And you thought it couldnt get any worse