Car has small coolant loss, haven't traced fault yet.
Driver's side seat bolster (cloth) is wearing out.
Great performance from a non-turbo engine, the car has a flat spot around 2000rpm, but once it's wound up the engine pulls really strongly. You're not going to be burning off any boy racers at the lights, but it will happily cruise at 80+ all day and acceleration at speed is impressive.
Very quiet for a diesel, even at speed.
The Auto box generally works well, but needs shifting manually to get decent acceleration at times, usually on hills etc. A 5th gear would have been nice for even better fuel economy, at 70-80mph you're pushing 3500 rpm.
Good to very good fuel economy, recently did a 400-mile trip with 4 adults and luggage cruising at 70-85mph on half a tank of fuel.
This is my second 124, I loved my previous 300E, but not it's fuel economy. The diesel makes more sense for the budget-minded.
Build quality on this '94 car is still excellent, but doesn't feel quite as solid as the '92 model I had. This car feels more like a solid workhorse rather than a luxury vehicle. The estate version is huge. Trim level is a bit tight for a car costing this much new-the outside temp gauge was even omitted on my model.
Insurance is still a surprising group 14 for a 11-year old tank-I guess the name still counts.
Re. coolant loss- I changed the coolant brand and there is now no loss.
Update at 161,000. I now do pretty much all my own work on this car, and I've had no major problems since purchase except a broken front coil spring- common problem I found out.
I was a bit economical with the fuel economy figures- that trip was more like 280 miles, and the return per tank is about 450 miles at an average motorway speed of 90mph. So not too bad for a 4-speed auto.
Items replaced since purchase: Radiator- found to be source of coolant loss, leaking fuel return line, new w/screen after old one cracked and normal service parts.
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