1985 Mercedes-Benz W123 300TD review from Australia and New Zealand

We have never had an incapacitating breakdown on the road, but the following malfunctions continue to annoy us.

The harmonic balancer on the short drive shaft fractured its rubber spokes at about 100,000 miles. The balancer cannot be replaced (new) without buying a whole new short drive shaft. I'm running a W124 balancer, but this is too light to remove all the vibrations.

We have never managed to eliminate a problem with pulsing brakes which also started at about 100,000 miles. We have replaced the brake disks (rotors) several times, but the problem comes back each time after about 1500-2000 miles of running.

Some minor problems:

The rear suspension pump valve has failed once.

The driver's seat required new padding some time ago to compensate for a broken spring.

The tailgate gas struts were replaced at 170,000 miles.

The internal handle on the tailgate door broke.

This wagon is a naturally aspirated diesel which means that it is hard to chirp the tyres at the traffic lights. It is a slug on the hills. But the manual transmission gives us great control over the engine.

This wagon was imported from Holland by its previous owner, so it has long legs (autobahn gearing). It loves open road running and is as smooth as silk at speed.

Unfortunately, the big gearing means that the wagon is not really very easy to drive around town: lots of gear changes to keep the revs up, and lots of serious, sudden vibration from the drive-train if revs fail too low.

It is surprisingly economical on the open road: 28-32 mpg (UK gals). Less so around town.

Carries massive loads with ease.

Comfortable, quiet and roomy.