I bought an Mercedes E220 W124 new in September 2000 from Trade
Sales in Slough. The car had apparently been made in knocked-down form for
the Indian market in 1996. I was surprised that the wipers do not have flick-wipe
facility or the ability to vary the delay time. Is it possible to modify it to get
these facilities, perhaps by fitting a part or parts from another model?
Also, the car does not have a VIN plate or the chassis no. etched on the screen, just a
(partial?) chassis no. stamped direct into the metal in the engine compartment. I have been told that I will have problems when it comes to putting it through the MOT because of the lack of the VIN plate. Has anyone experienced this problem? I know that there was a previous batch of these cars sold by Trade Sales which must be past their due date for the first MOT by now.
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Hello Ian I remember these being advertised and was quite keen until I found out more about where they were from and the spec, however as I recall they were very cheap about £13k on the road brand new.
Whats it been like generally?
as ever
Mark
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I saw an X reg W124 E220 the other day and it had me puzzled. Must have been similar to yours.
If it's like the 190E wiper system up to 1993, it doesn't have adjustable intermittancy or flick wipe just three speed settings if I remember rightly.
Again, if similar to the 190E the chassis number should be stamped near the bulkead/fuse box. Also, two plates are located on the front panel above the radiator. One is an MB aluminium plate with paint/trim colour etc, the other is body coloured and stamped with a series of numbers (probably chassis number)
I would also be interested to hear your opinions on fit and finish and reliability of this car
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The same factory that assembled these E classes now assembles the latest E Class, the C Class and the S class. That says something. In India, no one has any complaints. MB quality audits find them almost on par with Germany (higher than South Africa) MB export components from here. The reason that Trade Sales are flogging these cars are because back in late 1995, MB started selling W124's in India forgetting that those who can afford w124, travel a lot and knew that a w201 existed so there were not many takers and too much stock - over to Trade Sales !!!! MB sacked the management (rather reposted them) and now bring in models within 6 monthsd of introduction in Europe
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Marc & Mark,
I wrote a long reply to this on Friday but it seems to have disappeared, so I'll make this short.
Fit and finish - paintwork is fine, trim is fine except for one item which I replaced. Panel gaps seem large compared with more recent cars from less prestigious makers.
Reliability - initial electrical problems traced to corroded fuses, no bother since. Clutch seems not to release completely when ambient temperature is high.
Gearchange is only fairly good but not a major aggravation except for the rare occasions when it baulks in second.
Engine is reasonably smooth considering it is a large capacity four and very economical considering the weight it has to lug around.
If this message is successful and anyone is interested I might add some more comments.
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Hello Ian
thanks for the info, I must admit I thought long and hard about buying one of these when Trade Sales advertised them. If I recall they were £13k on the road against a Trade Sales claimed rrp of about £28k the only thing being MB no longer listed the model so a comparison was hard to make. At the time I was planning to get rid of a Vectra DI and £13k was in budget. I had three lenghty phone conversations with TS and each time another nugget of information which put me off was disclosed. Amongst these items was the fact the cars had been standing somewhere for 2-3yrs, At the time I called most were manuals and I was trying to follow the suggestion that MBs were best as autos and again when I called they only had white ones left. This coupled with the fact they told me there was no way MB UK would honour a warranty claim and that various insurers sucked their teeth when I rang for quotes pushed it further and further away with the result I bought a new TDI Passat.
However for me it remains a big what if and I must admit after reading your post I do regret not getting one especially as the depreciation game would probably have been better than the Passat, who knows though how do you value one of these?
I am glad yours worked out well for you, any interesting tales or experiences to either make me feel better or worse about my decision at the time would be appreciated.
as ever
Mark
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