1979 Mercedes-Benz W123 240D review from North America

A/C compressor changed for like $500.

Driver's window fell off of the tracks at one point, but this was fixed easily in our garage at home.

Rear seat needed to be re-stuffed, upholstery was perfect, however.

The car was in desperate need of a new stereo, so we added two Infinity speakers to the rear shelf and put in a Ken wood CD changer-compatible cassette deck. The original Mercedes speakers up front still worked perfectly and sounded great, so we left them alone.

Door lock vacuum system was sluggish in cold weather, but always worked.

The odometer broke, so I'm guessing that it had about 180,000 miles on it when we sold it.

The car sometimes would not shut off in the coldest temperatures unless you choked it down. You could remove the key entirely and it would still run like nothing happened.

This was a great car that served our family well. One of my relatives ordered it brand new and kept it sheltered and had it partially restored before we bought it. (New paint, some upholstery on door panels, not much was needed really).

The car was incredibly slow, but very dependable and comfortable. It cruised quite nicely on all roads at all speeds.

Ours was the victim of mis-fueling when it was not very old. Some clown put gasoline in it instead of diesel, so it almost destroyed the engine. The engine was repaired, but was never quite as healthy as it had been when new and it used a fair amount of oil between changes.

The car was excellent and we could depend on it to take us anywhere. It became my sister's car when we decided to retire her Volkswagen Golf at 230,000 miles. She loved this car and kept it until it too started getting too old and we all became weary of the slow acceleration.