What started this love way back in 1992 was my Dad's first Mercedes Benz (or CHEDENG as he calls it) a Smoke Silver 1990 300E 2.6 (W124 chassis). He loved the thing and he spent so much of his time maintaining it's pristine condition. My Mom, brother and I were afraid to touch it as it was so immaculately clean. This car and it's care issues is what started my OCDness with my cars.
Fast forward 17 years to 2007, the 300E still in our possession but sadly, no longer in the same perfect condition as we now had newer, more expensive German steel to worry about maintaining. One fateful and sad night a drunk driver crashed into my Mom while she was driving home in the 300E, totaling it. Needless to say my Dad was devastated.
Since then he has been looking for another W124 to call his own, scouring Craigslist and Autotrader and sending me links to look at. Visiting cars and making offers to buy cars and never finding one.
The W124 chassis Mercedes is the codename for the mid-size sedan, coupe and convertible produced from 1984 to 1985. It is what became what is known as the E-class now.
Last weekend, on my way home from Las Vegas he informed me that he found a W124 and bought it the same day!
The car is a 1994 E320 sedan. The 1994 vintage of the W124 was the first for the facelift which consisted of new headlights, smoked euro taillights and a 3.2 liter 220hp inline-six cylinder engine. The engine is plenty powerful, and is really smooth. The car will be the perfect daily driver for my Mom once we sort everything out.
To my surprise during my first viewing of the car I noticed that it had a severely damaged fender. I started to doubt my Dad's sanity, but I found that the rest of the car was in great shape. The car only has 105K miles (very low!), the interior is impressively clean and the car drives super smooth. The car is still "rough" but that is the beauty in it, my Dad and I now have the chance to flex our muscles and restore the car to a condition befitting our collection. It is a great base to start on, especially for the low starting price. (half the market price for a similarly equipped mint E320!)
The car needs some work of course and we will address the many issues as soon as we can. First thing being the wheels/tires and the fender damage. The fender is the only thing damaged, and we have found a replacement, it just has to be painted.
I know it's not flashy or anything, but this series Mercedes will always have a soft spot with my Dad and I. I think my Dad would probably choose this E320 over my E55...
No comments:
Post a Comment