I purchased this twenty year old beauty in Oct 2006 and as expected for a car of this vintage, Several items were attended to.
New tyres. The auto was shod with Continental Premium Contact 2 tyres to replace the very dead Yokohama Aspec Db.
Front two seats were replaced due to some bizarre extreme wear on the springs. Never have I been in a Benz of this age with such poor seats. The were replaced with used ones from the scrap yard at a cost of USD$47 each.
During the service all belting's were replaced, Thermostat changed, brakes replaced and all fluids dumped. That cost me USD$300.
The garage informs me that the following will need attention soon. Rear propeller shaft coupling (thud thud sound,) steering box is seeping oil. A/C blower needs to be looked at and some rust on the underside and farside D pillar window will need to be addressed.
There are some electrical gripes for the moment, I'll need to address them gradually. The full on high beams don't work, it shuts off all the lights. the rear wiper is unable to work in intermittent setting, the dashboard clock is not working. The Economy meter (though non electrical) is inaccurate. Other than that, all seems to be OK.
For a 20 year old car I am completely amazed that it starts first go everytime, the water temperature has maintained at less than 90 celcius, The gear box is very responsive and it is still very tight interior wise.
Performance
This motorcar appears to be oriented to higher torque abeit lower power. it move sufficiently well from standstill and cruises very nicely at 60mph. Only drawback there is that the ratios seem rather low at about 3000rpm @ 60mph. Thus there is a little more engine noise at cruising than contemporary cars.
Handling
Not quite the sharpest handling (worn steering box) there is now a lot of freeplay in the steering, one is still able to place the car through the corner to get the right line. Then again this is not the type of car.
Comfort
Top marks to Mercedes for having one of the best damping around. road humps are humbled. Small gripes are directed at the rear seats. the TE (estate) has a more opera style bench seat arrangement in the rear thus is not as cosseting as the sedan's rear seats. When I picked up the car there was some occasional body wiggle at highway speeds. That seems to have been disappeared. I don't quite know why.
Economy
As expected this 20 year old 2.3 engine pulling a 1.4ton body is returning about 7 km/l. Its high in todays expectations, but not too bad seeing that the factory specs of the car suggest 8.5 km/l in urban cycle. I'll be cleaning out the valves etc with those fuel additives and will be hoping to see some improvement. I'm also hoping that the new tyres which are narrower (original spec 195/65/15) than previous will also assist.
Space
I'm running the 7 seater version and it offers excellent versatility! Just about equivalent to the versatility of a modern Honda Jazz. Seats will fold flat or the seat bases can be removed to store large things in the rear seating area. Just excellent!
Street Cred.
Being my first Mercedes, its amazing the responses you get about the car. Most are impressed with how tight the car is after 20 years and more than 282000miles (that's 450000 km) Sitting in it is a rather serene experience. The older folks also tend to have a smile on their face as they acknowledge it's a Mercedes of a certain time and design. I haven't seen that acknowledgement with the contemporary Benz's like the A and B Class. Perhaps because they are not stately enough, perhaps they don't have the 3 pointed star at the end of a straight bonnet.
Summary
in my short living experience with the TE, I must say that I am very satisfied with what I have and the USD$2000 that I would like to spend on her over the next few months will last me for years to come. If, like me the smell of an older automobile and the prospect of tinkering and restoring appeals to you this is an excellent modern classic to purchase. To be extra special, i'd recommend either this TE or a CE.
Updates on the car will follow in the comments section.
Great review. Like you, I have just bought a used 230TE. It was manufactured in 86 and registered in Singapore 1991. The COE lasts til Sep 2011. Love the shape of the car and will have to drive it first and do the necessary repairs to get it to run tip top.
Hey there, great to hear from another new TE owner. I'd love to get in touch with you. I've seen a few TE's so far in Singapore during my search and would love to see yours. so far I've seen a body kitted blue one with Blue interior, a lovely lovely blue one with black interior and a silver one with blue interior. Is yours one of these? sms if you like. 90084094 we can do a Kallang MacDonalds one of these days.
Here's an update of this Singapore TE. As yet the old girl is having some of her rust spots attended to. There seems to be a lot of little areas that need attention. I'm not quite ready to give the whole car and good going over so its just spot work for now.
I've also recently had the wheel bearings (front) go noisy on me. Must have gotten freaked out at my recent high speed jaunt up Malaysia. My odo died... I usually reset it at each fill up and when the trip meter dies, it take the odo with it too. Have gotten that replaced with a used instrument cluster (thanks Benny) I also found out that the replacement cluster had the light mounts burnt out (i am informed that mechanics often install incorrect high wattage bulbs behind the dash.) Nam Sing of Singapore has kindly converted it to LED. I have not seen the effect yet, but I hope its not too 'Pimp my Ride'
Had most of the underside bushings replaced including the prop shaft et all. and the boot lid struts. Now it doesn't slam shut.
Overall, my spirits are still high with the car. I am enjoying her (when I drive her) She has not been with me very long as I've tried to settle as much of the problems quickily. Will update soon.
Here's an update on my TE... By the way, I've named her Big Bertha for her huge carrying capacity. So far so good. There have been little niggles here and there, but there was nothing that has ever left me stranded by the side of the road.
So far, I have dealt with some superficial corrosion on the body and replaced the door cards and also done some other little bits. I do know that there is much more rust to be had as I've found more little holes as I went digging through the carpeting. Also I've found that the car is not too water tight and some areas of the floorboards have been getting damp after the downpour.
I had a small issue with one of my lights blowing and the 'light failure' warning lamp lit up. Strange thing was then when the bulb was replaced, the warning lamp refused to go away. The mechanic suggested something to effect of checking all the bulbs as even though all were working, If there was an anomalie in the current drain, the warning lamp would still light up. I'm not too sure about the theory, but after prodding all the lights sockets on the front and the rear of the car, the warning lamp did eventually go away.
Right now one of the more pressing items would be the eventual renewal of the suspension system. Don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but the previous owner removed the Self Levelling Suspension and the car now bottoms out when fully laden. I'm eventually going to have to source for new slightly stiffer springs.
Still a happy buy. Still getting used to all the 'heavyness'. Heavy brake pedal, heavy accelerator, Heavy doors and Heavy consumption!!!
Hey! Good to hear from Singaporeans. I'm an ex Singaporean now living in Canada. I bought a 1989 260E about three weeks ago for C$7,000. No need for COE or any of that stuff. The car only has 72,000km on it. Really tight and solid. Only things wrong: rear right window not working. I get slight whiffs of a strange burning smell sometimes - am keeping my fingers crossed this is not something huge. Also, interior lights do not come on when doors are open. Other than that, what a ride!
Just an update on Big Bertha, my 1986 230TE... She still starts first go everyday and am really pleased with her. But I will have to give fair caution to people looking for such an automobile. Numerous articles have written about the W124's bullet proof engineering, I do feel that that would be pushing it a little to far. True the car is engineered well, it has a lovely suspension design, I'm sure it's a safe car and all, but I've found her electrics not quite as robust as a similar aged Nissan. True they are small niggles and it will happen to cars of this age, but if you imagine buying one of these old Queens and expect to do nothing except put petrol in it.. you'd be mistaken. So let's see, what has she done recently. I've patched another rust hole I found in the spare wheel well. I've had to replace her exhaust pipe (from header to centre box) as it was severely fatigued and had cracked. I replaced it with an original part for about USD$170. I've also developed a short circuit with the boot hatch. For some reason when the boot is open fully, the interior lights go out and the licence plate lights go on and the instrument cluster lights come on... Go figure! I've also replaced both bumpers. The rears were original MB parts and cost USD$680 and the fronts are OEM's at USD$130. She still draws admiration and she's still a very very comfortable ride. Much better than similarly aged Nissans! Will keep this updated. Thanks for reading.
I have this 230TE for just over a year. It is now over 21 years old - originally registered in the UK in 86 and re-exported to Singapore in 91. For a car this age, one cannot, but be amazed how well built it is. Sure it has got little problems here and there.
Just a couple of personal observations:
1. My only problem here in Singapore is more with mechanics rather than the car. I have yet to find anyone here that really knows the TE inside out. There are loads of mechanics who would be able to fix the W124 sedan, but too few who knows how the self levelling system, tailgate mechanism and sunroof of the 230TE or 300TE.
2. Because the car was imported into Singapore by an independent motor trader and not by the main dealer Cycle and Carriage - I do get this distinct bad after taste every time I visit the dealership. It is almost like a non-Cycle imported car is second class citizen despite they are bear the same marque. Go figure that.
3. Perhaps it is the age of the car, my view is that you need to keep running to avoid things breaking down on you. My job at one stage requires me to travel 4-6 weeks at a go and leaving the car in the garage. Despite it has been warmed up every other day, but just because it has not been run frequent enough, things will start breaking down now. My central locking packed up; power windows mysteriously dying on me; antenna going up, but not retracting properly and little stuff like that, but nothing too major. But I have to say, mechanically, it will start and stop every time without fail despite weeks of disuse.
4. Perhaps it is just the Singaporean penchant for anything new and novel, or perhaps it is just the oppressive tax regime here that does not encourage anyone to keep and run an old car. I just don't see that many TE on the roads and most of them have met their fate in the junkyard only to be re-sold as used parts. I am not even sure if there's even 20 TE here on an island with a car population of 600 thousands vehicles.
For a 20 year old car - I am impressed by its mechanical reliability, its practicality to haul people as well as goods or both and the comfort as a long distance carrier. This car will continue to do what it was designed to do as long as it has been kept in decent mechanical condition.
Dear writer on the 15th June 2007.
Sounds like we have almost identical cars! both from '86 and both imported into Singapore in '91.
In regards to your mechanic woes, you could try my machanic at Ang Mo Kio, Nam Sing Battery. you'll be able to find them on the yellowpages singapore site. They used to have a TE as their own personal transport and they service both mine and other TE's and MB estates. I have found them to be very efficient and since their company started life in Rangoon road doing electricals, they are very competant in this area. They have now diversified and do a decent job.
I do know they have repaired SLS systems before... as for that pesky tailgate, that is another issue! mine goes menstrual on me after heavy rains. Thankfully though, the previous owner of my car removed the SLS.
I've been compiling a list of W124 TE's (I'm getting a little OCW) but I've noted about 18 TE's already. I've been logging down number plates! Perhaps with yours, it will be 19.
Drop me an sms if you'd like a TE chat, paul 900 84094 owner of Bertha.
QUOTE:
15th Jun 2007, 14:58
I have this 230TE for just over a year. It is now over 21 years old - originally registered in the UK in 86 and re-exported to Singapore in 91. For a car this age, one cannot, but be amazed how well built it is. Sure it has got little problems here and there.
Just a couple of personal observations:
1. My only problem here in Singapore is more with mechanics rather than the car. I have yet to find anyone here that really knows the TE inside out. There are loads of mechanics who would be able to fix the W124 sedan, but too few who knows how the self levelling system, tailgate mechanism and sunroof of the 230TE or 300TE.
2. Because the car was imported into Singapore by an independent motor trader and not by the main dealer Cycle and Carriage - I do get this distinct bad after taste every time I visit the dealership. It is almost like a non-Cycle imported car is second class citizen despite they are bear the same marque. Go figure that.
3. Perhaps it is the age of the car, my view is that you need to keep running to avoid things breaking down on you. My job at one stage requires me to travel 4-6 weeks at a go and leaving the car in the garage. Despite it has been warmed up every other day, but just because it has not been run frequent enough, things will start breaking down now. My central locking packed up; power windows mysteriously dying on me; antenna going up, but not retracting properly and little stuff like that, but nothing too major. But I have to say, mechanically, it will start and stop every time without fail despite weeks of disuse.
4. Perhaps it is just the Singaporean penchant for anything new and novel, or perhaps it is just the oppressive tax regime here that does not encourage anyone to keep and run an old car. I just don't see that many TE on the roads and most of them have met their fate in the junkyard only to be re-sold as used parts. I am not even sure if there's even 20 TE here on an island with a car population of 600 thousands vehicles.
For a 20 year old car - I am impressed by its mechanical reliability, its practicality to haul people as well as goods or both and the comfort as a long distance carrier. This car will continue to do what it was designed to do as long as it has been kept in decent mechanical condition.
BERTHA update: When you read on the internet that this car is bulletproof, take it with a slight pinch of salt. If you're thinking of buying one and running her for a few years (or till the COE runs out for you Singaporeans) just remember that you are still buying an old car and it will not be as simple as filling her with petrol and driving.
Though Bertha has NEVER left me stranded on the road (yet) and never failed to start and go (yet) she has had lots of little little things to sort out!
So recently I had a problem with the starter... it started fine, just didn't want to return the starter gear. That was USD$120 and the big one was the Fuel Distributor that was one the blink. That was a bit of an ouch at USD$820 or so. The symptoms were as follows.
At the high end of the rev range, the power would cut out. About 4000rpm and the idling was lumpy. I suspect that it began to die after my Malaysia trip as I did notice a slight loss of power at high speed at one point in the trip. This coincided with me putting in some fuel injection cleaner for the long drive. I suspect that the already ailing fuel distributor got clogged by dirt removed from the tank when I dumped injector cleaners in the tank. I've read this opinion on another forum too. There, this guy was saying that everytime he bought an old benz, it would run fine then the fuel distributor would die after he put injection cleaner in the tank.
Moving forward, the car drives really lovely now and I think she's a keeper (famous last words!) At the start of this review I anticipated spending USD$2000 to do her up. The figure is now closer to USD$6500.
So you bought this 20 year old car with nearly half a million K's under the wheels and expect it to be perfect?
What you have to understand is that everything wears out eventually, but at least if you spend money on a Mercedes at the end of the day you still have a Merc and not a cheap rattler.
In response to the post above this, I'd like to clarify to all who are reading this that I am narrating the events of Bertha not as damning evidence of a bad car, but instead as documentation of the realities of old car ownership. I love my car to bits and I am hoping that others could learn from the experiences I've gained. To some extent there are popular misconceptions that used benz's are absolutely bullet proof (and you can thank Fifth Gear for that too). Perhaps poor information and a reputation that is larger than the car itself. I guess my writings are suggesting that at the end of the day, its still a car like all others. things still fall apart and things still need mending.
So back to the Bertha updates!
She recently put a smile on my face as she completed a round trip 4000km+ journey to Bangkok. I'm happy to report she was 99% flawless! Two blown bulbs on the journey and some minor issue with the shock absorber mount that was done just before the trip. I know you must be wondering how an issue with a shock absorber mount can be relegated to 1%... It's a long story and I cannot blame the car. You'll have to take my word that it was fixed within 20mins at a tyre shop just outside of Bangkok.
She averaged about 10-11 km/l during highway drives and topped out at 200km/h @ 6000 rpm. In fact i got to meet a side of her that i rarely see. That is her love for driving over 140km/h. Bertha just wakes up and comes alive!
Her temperature stayed perfectly steady at just over 80c in Bangkok's famous traffic jams which I've sat in for over 2 hours and more in one sitting.
That's it for now.
Bertha update! She is now shod with Pirelli P6 tyres that I bought on discount. They work relatively well with the Benz but are significantly less sticky than the outgoing Continental Premium Contact 2's.
Can't remember if I mentioned this before, but she was an ex-UK car that came without airconditioning. When she arrived in Singapore, I am assuming that a local non original aircon was fitted. this caused two problems. Firstly the compressor was installed in an unusual part of the engine area that was not designed to carry the weight of the compressor. This led to stress on the bolts it was attached with. I don't know the specifics exactly, but the local garage advised me to move it to the original location. The other problem is that I found the ac unit not powerful enough to cool the entire car. This is especially important as the cooling unit up front has the heavy task of cooling the entire car interior including the large boot area (estate car). Well long story short, happy to say, I've now installed an original spec a/c system from a donor sedan car. I however did not hook up the heating system (which the car uses to regulate the temperature) with our weather the aircon is almost always working at maximum cooling.
I can now safely say that the factory spec airconditioning works rather well with the car in our hot weather.
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