W124 Owners...

[Requiemdk]

... where do they gather? Anyone got a link to their forum? Searching for "W124" here doesn't turn up much at all.

 

While we're at it, if anyone here has a history of owning the W124 200E, it'd be great to hear about your experience, specifically what possible problems the car might have.

 

I just bought one with COE extended till 2019 you see. While everything in it works fine now, I'd like to know what sort of stuff the car can come up with. Also, it came with a set of really good looking (at least I think so) 18 inch rims fitted, but I'm contemplating sourcing for the original 15 inch rims for it because 1) I can't shake the feeling that this isn't good for its suspension's durability, and 2) is the improvement in handling really worth the sacrifice in ride quality?? I haven't sat in or driven a W124 on stock rims before, so I have nothing to compare this with.

[ER-3682]

I used to have the 200-E,M-111[16V],quite a good car,but may,oversteer in the wet,if using 15 inches tyres,the Autobox is very short life,just over 100k km,it started to 'slip',but repair is cheap.

[Kangadrool]

you can go to onemotoring forum. There is a dedicated thread for Marsili, mainly oldies Marsili.

[Civic6228]

www.sgmerc.com

 

This is the local website for merc....

 

W124 is a new classic, enjoy your ride ....

 

There are also some scrap yards around that you can find the old rims.

 

 

 

 

 

[Rangie]

I had a W124 Merc a few years ago, later changed to a new W203 and now a Volvo S80. But I still like the W124 for some of their unique characteristics.

Let talk about the bad points : very very underpowered. Mine was a 8 valve fuel injection 200E, version. Later 16 valve is slightly more powerful but my mechanic said more problems. The 8 valve is more durable. Going out of the slip road or overtaking can be very stressful. Need to step the accelerator all the way to the floor to activate the kickdown mode and you get a loud and violent kickdown, but not much power. The power comes at the high rev, which is not much use in our busy traffic. That was the only bad point I can say.

Good points : fairly cheap maintainence. I use the mechanic at SPC petrol station, Bt Timah (next to Chinese High). His name is Ah Foong, a Merc specialist. He has a very old but well maintained W115, which is more than 30 years old. His charges is a bit higher than normal mechanic but he does a good job. He is one man show, unlike other workshop which has many young staff. He does the repair himself.

The car is very comfortable and stable, nice for highway cruising. Petrol consumption is acceptable, about 8km/l for a mixture of highway and city driving. Very solid body, when you close the door, you get a solid thud, even better than the latest Merc. I like the single stock wiper, very very cool, but its not good enough if you encounter a heavy downpour.

The 15 inch tyre is just nice, dun get the 18 inch as it would be very uncomfortable ride. As the car is underpowered, no need to get low profile tyre as not likely you will drive fast.

Its a nice car to own, but you need to put in effort to maintain it, which means regular servicing. It cost me around $2-3k per year, inclusive of changing alternator, changing old suspension, change the belt driven fan to electric fan for more power etc.

[Requiemdk]

you can go to onemotoring forum. There is a dedicated thread for Marsili, mainly oldies Marsili.

 

Thanks! Found it. There're 2 threads. My god it's huge.. and it's mainly dedicated to the W124

[Requiemdk]

I used to have the 200-E,M-111[16V],quite a good car,but may,oversteer in the wet,if using 15 inches tyres,the Autobox is very short life,just over 100k km,it started to 'slip',but repair is cheap.

 

Thanks for the heads up dude. This car has about 300k km on it. It's the M102 8V engine though, and I was told that it's a bit more durable, but I'm not sure about the gearbox. Will get the mechanic to monitor it next time. Currently it shifts really smoothly after an ATF change. Doubt I'll be oversteering much since I tend to drive rather sedately with this car - it hasn't got that much power for its heavy body, and I doubt it can be more tail happy than the MR2 that I used to drive. Haha.

[Requiemdk]

I had a W124 Merc a few years ago, later changed to a new W203 and now a Volvo S80. But I still like the W124 for some of their unique characteristics.

Let talk about the bad points : very very underpowered. Mine was a 8 valve fuel injection 200E, version. Later 16 valve is slightly more powerful but my mechanic said more problems. The 8 valve is more durable. Going out of the slip road or overtaking can be very stressful. Need to step the accelerator all the way to the floor to activate the kickdown mode and you get a loud and violent kickdown, but not much power. The power comes at the high rev, which is not much use in our busy traffic. That was the only bad point I can say.

Good points : fairly cheap maintainence. I use the mechanic at SPC petrol station, Bt Timah (next to Chinese High). His name is Ah Foong, a Merc specialist. He has a very old but well maintained W115, which is more than 30 years old. His charges is a bit higher than normal mechanic but he does a good job. He is one man show, unlike other workshop which has many young staff. He does the repair himself.

The car is very comfortable and stable, nice for highway cruising. Petrol consumption is acceptable, about 8km/l for a mixture of highway and city driving. Very solid body, when you close the door, you get a solid thud, even better than the latest Merc. I like the single stock wiper, very very cool, but its not good enough if you encounter a heavy downpour.

The 15 inch tyre is just nice, dun get the 18 inch as it would be very uncomfortable ride. As the car is underpowered, no need to get low profile tyre as not likely you will drive fast.

Its a nice car to own, but you need to put in effort to maintain it, which means regular servicing. It cost me around $2-3k per year, inclusive of changing alternator, changing old suspension, change the belt driven fan to electric fan for more power etc.

 

Thanks for sharing bro. Your W124 was the same model as my current one, and yes it doesn't move off from standstill quickly. It does overtaking at highway speeds well, but maybe that's because of the gear ratios? It's quite close for a 4AT. Already had some suggestions on how to "rectify" its underpoweredness, but nah... I like to keep such cars stock. That's why I'm looking for the original 15 inch rims to replace the current set of 18 inch ones. I think $2-3k per year for such a car is acceptable, though mine already came with new tyres, suspension, brakes, electric fan (I heard the car has overheating issues without this?), electricals (like bulbs and stuff), air con coil, etc. Got a trusty mechanic to check the car out thoroughly today and it checks out fine, and he said the 16V one had more incidences of things going wrong (not sure what he meant by that). I'm not a stranger to COE car ownership after all, but certainly new to owning a car like the W124. I've also heard that electricals on old continental cars have a habit of failing in our climate. Any truth to this? Or just old wives' tales as usual?

 

 

[Ladykillerz]

... where do they gather? Anyone got a link to their forum? Searching for "W124" here doesn't turn up much at all.

 

While we're at it, if anyone here has a history of owning the W124 200E, it'd be great to hear about your experience, specifically what possible problems the car might have.

 

I just bought one with COE extended till 2019 you see. While everything in it works fine now, I'd like to know what sort of stuff the car can come up with. Also, it came with a set of really good looking (at least I think so) 18 inch rims fitted, but I'm contemplating sourcing for the original 15 inch rims for it because 1) I can't shake the feeling that this isn't good for its suspension's durability, and 2) is the improvement in handling really worth the sacrifice in ride quality?? I haven't sat in or driven a W124 on stock rims before, so I have nothing to compare this with.

 

i got a friend driving a white W124 now.

when he bought, he faced a lot of problems like gearbox spoiled, power window spoiled, oil leak, meter light spoiled, unable to go higher than 80km/h, alternator spoiled, many problems lah.

it's like every week also got new story to tell me.

however, after spending so much fixing it for about three months, his ride is okay now.

 

another setback is the electronic stuffs, so be prepared on the change of electronic parts.

try to go www.sgmerc.com and see got any 2nd hand parts lobang or not.

 

my friend's W124 come with a set of 17" rims and i think that's the max. else surely under power.

since it is an old car, the engine sound is rather noisy.

 

the seats got this spring effect which can be quite comfortable.

 

end of day, it is a nice ride to own, you just need to take care of it, $$$.

[Requiemdk]

i got a friend driving a white W124 now.

when he bought, he faced a lot of problems like gearbox spoiled, power window spoiled, oil leak, meter light spoiled, unable to go higher than 80km/h, alternator spoiled, many problems lah.

it's like every week also got new story to tell me.

however, after spending so much fixing it for about three months, his ride is okay now.

 

another setback is the electronic stuffs, so be prepared on the change of electronic parts.

try to go www.sgmerc.com and see got any 2nd hand parts lobang or not.

 

my friend's W124 come with a set of 17" rims and i think that's the max. else surely under power.

since it is an old car, the engine sound is rather noisy.

 

the seats got this spring effect which can be quite comfortable.

 

end of day, it is a nice ride to own, you just need to take care of it, $$$.

 

Yah, I'm lucky in the sense that I managed to grab one where all those things were replaced less than a year ago. It's the potential electrical problems that worry me, but there shouldn't be anything major. As for the car being underpowered with 17 inch rims, can you imagine the previous owner of the one that I'm driving went to fit 18 inch rims on it?! (Then again I highly suspect that he didn't use the M102 engine in it too.... )

[Ladykillerz]

Yah, I'm lucky in the sense that I managed to grab one where all those things were replaced less than a year ago. It's the potential electrical problems that worry me, but there shouldn't be anything major. As for the car being underpowered with 17 inch rims, can you imagine the previous owner of the one that I'm driving went to fit 18 inch rims on it?! (Then again I highly suspect that he didn't use the M102 engine in it too.... )

 

since the current set is with 18" rims, let them be till deform until cannot deform then change lo.

ppl upsized, you downsized.

unless if the FC is killing you? my friend's W124 is about 7-8km/l.

[Chinablue]

W124 is one of the greatest model ever produced by mercedes benz, some said that it was a over-engineered mercedes of it's time.

feels that the 1 arm wiper is rubbish though, switch on at full speed and you will worry whether will it break, but the bodyframe are as solid as a german tank.

 

[Fastfive1]

... where do they gather? Anyone got a link to their forum? Searching for "W124" here doesn't turn up much at all.

 

While we're at it, if anyone here has a history of owning the W124 200E, it'd be great to hear about your experience, specifically what possible problems the car might have.

 

I just bought one with COE extended till 2019 you see. While everything in it works fine now, I'd like to know what sort of stuff the car can come up with. Also, it came with a set of really good looking (at least I think so) 18 inch rims fitted, but I'm contemplating sourcing for the original 15 inch rims for it because 1) I can't shake the feeling that this isn't good for its suspension's durability, and 2) is the improvement in handling really worth the sacrifice in ride quality?? I haven't sat in or driven a W124 on stock rims before, so I have nothing to compare this with.

 

Hey there welcome to the world of the W124. Glad to hear that everything is working. If this car is maintained well can last a lifetime. As you know this car is one of mercedes best cars ever produced. I've owned the car (16v W124) for awhile now, the car has no problems what so ever although i did spend about 1-2k replacing parts, but nothing really major. In addition parts are relatively cheap and easily found. I think i might still have the original 15inch steel rims that came along with the car, you interested? I have to check though.

 

I personally think you should have gotten the 16v version because it's a newer engine which is more powerful. It's used even on the w210. Well the ride should be relatively smooth and comfortable. In fact if your car has been well taken care of with all the worn out parts replaced, it should drive like new. I'm guessing the current ride is rather hard? Well if that's the case you might wanna send it to the workshop to see if they can do anything about it. One thing you should note is that most of these w124s have been face-lifted to look like the 94 w124s so some of the facelifted parts may not be original mercedes parts but taiwanese parts (not that i have anything against the taiwanese).

 

The performance is relatively good for a car this old. If you floor the gas pedal from a standstill the car will rev all the way to 6000rpm and that's where the fun begins although it's naught to 60 timing isn't that impressive it can still go quite fast. Do remember to flip the switch at the gear selector to S if you wanna redline the car. The steering of the car is also quite good, you can do tight turns within a car park very easily for a long car. I feel that you should lose the 18in rims because your fuel economy would be adversely affected. The w124 should be running on 15 to 17in rims. I'm currently running on 15inch sport rims from the w210 and i must say that they're not bad for cornering.

 

Here's something extra, the car will go up steep slopes very easily without rolling backwards unlike other auto cars when you release the brake (well at least that what my w124 can do). Haha. Anyway if you plan on doing up the sound system, your options are pretty limited. 4in speakers in the front and 4-5.25in speakers at the back. The gas pedal is rather stiff so that kinda takes a while to get used to. When i drive other cars i make the mistake of putting too much pressure on the gas pedal because i'm used to the w124's gas pedal.

 

Have fun!

[Comnao]

... where do they gather? Anyone got a link to their forum? Searching for "W124" here doesn't turn up much at all.

 

While we're at it, if anyone here has a history of owning the W124 200E, it'd be great to hear about your experience, specifically what possible problems the car might have.

 

I just bought one with COE extended till 2019 you see. While everything in it works fine now, I'd like to know what sort of stuff the car can come up with. Also, it came with a set of really good looking (at least I think so) 18 inch rims fitted, but I'm contemplating sourcing for the original 15 inch rims for it because 1) I can't shake the feeling that this isn't good for its suspension's durability, and 2) is the improvement in handling really worth the sacrifice in ride quality?? I haven't sat in or driven a W124 on stock rims before, so I have nothing to compare this with.

 

https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_...=group_activity

 

and

 

www.sgmerc.com

[Fastfive1]

since the current set is with 18" rims, let them be till deform until cannot deform then change lo.

ppl upsized, you downsized.

unless if the FC is killing you? my friend's W124 is about 7-8km/l.

 

Woah that's crazy FC. I'm getting about 10-11km/l on my 15" rims.

[Chinablue]

the brake pedal also need some getting used to.because it got a feeling of 'it's not slowing down?' when you depress the brake the first few times.

[Requiemdk]

since the current set is with 18" rims, let them be till deform until cannot deform then change lo.

ppl upsized, you downsized.

unless if the FC is killing you? my friend's W124 is about 7-8km/l.

 

These rims aren't going to deform for years. I kept the original 14 inch rims on my Corolla too. I want to downsize for 3 reasons mainly - 1. more comfortable ride, 2. less underpowered feel, 3. I just plain like the stock look on the car. The whole car looks like it sailed in in pristine condition from the 90s, then someone robbed it of its shoes and slapped a set of modern rims on it. The rims look like they fit the new E-class better. For reference, this is how they look.

 

 

I expect my FC to be around 7 to 9km/l too, though it's not a factor in my consideration. I've driven around with a car that does worse anyway.

[Fastfive1]

the brake pedal also need some getting used to.because it got a feeling of 'it's not slowing down?' when you depress the brake the first few times.

 

Haha not exactly. It was like that before i replaced the brake pads and brake discs but after i replaced them, i didn't have this issue.