4 door Mercedes Benz car is in what class?

It really depends on what size of saloon you are looking for. Being in Europe, you got tons of choices to pick from. Diesel is the way to go.

240D is E-Class with chassis model W123 build 1976-1986

Thank you very much Tiger and Jens.

WikiPedia was right on the button :-) I had no idea that it was spreading its coverage so widely.

My task right now is to register this car and the particular model is not included in the Irish list -

The closest model they have to this is the E-Class Saloon (W211). My W123 has only 91,500 miles on it. The bureaucracy here is quite stunning - a large collection of nitpickers!

1984 240D is a W123 body... predecessor of W124 that begans 1985 is Europe.

W123 W124 is sucessor...

W211 is modern E class that begans 2003.

Perhaps you need to look in the "Classic" list or Historical category.

The car is in the list all right.

Choose Mercedes-Benz / 240 / 1984

Model 240 is by definition 240D.

If you have the chassis number, I can possibly give you exact details.

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I see, you were in the "Quick C02 Emissions and VRT Rate Calculator". That is provided by an independent third party, and it does not cover older models - possibly because the model is before the CO2 based VRT system.

That does not mean you cannot register it. You should be able to do it on the "VRT Calculator (Easy Complete)", which is also the one I referred to above. However, the system seems not to work.

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Thank you Tiger and Jens.

The chassis number for mine is WDB 123123 1A 124698.

The VRT people are often confused themselves. I guess they will make another guess.

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I found only limited additional information:

Engine: 616912 10 380735 (2399 cc diesel, 53.6 kW @ 4400 rpm, 137 Nm @ 2400 rpm)

Transmission: 717400 00 044185 (5 speed manual)

The VRT people should not get confused - it is a quite normal version and with the chassis number they will have all they need.

Just to reemphasize, the 240D precedes the present model classification, which was only brought in much later. It seems to me it happened, the then model designation already made complicated by the arrival of the 190 (baby Benz') needed to be reformed with the successor model to the 190, the first of the C Class. The old standard car -- of which the 240D was one -- became the E Class as Tiger and others have pointed out.

I haven't checked the numbers but I would not be surprised if the present C Class has roughly the length of the old standard car, W123. All cars seem to grow with each new model generation. And the manufacturers bring out new small models to fill the gaps left...

DAS

Right, the S- and SL-classes were called so for a long time. Others were just the "standard" class until the 190 came. Then they started calling the "standard" for the E-class and the 190 for the C-class. And then looking backwards, the W123 was considered E-class (I have seen a MB-poster lining up the various classes back in time).

When the "S" was a suffix on the number, did one actually speak of an "S Klasse"?

DAS

To reply directly replace 'nospam' with 'schmetterling'

Well, I am not an expert in these matters, but I looked i up.

The S stands for "Sonderklasse", which means something like "Outstanding Class".

It began back in mid 1950's. Although the term S-Class was not officially adopted at that time, it was used collegially when the suffix S was used to identify the luxury models.

The so-called "Ponton" appeared with the same look in 3 body sizes (W120-model180, W121-model 190 and W180-model 220). The S appeared only with the largest model W180. It is discussed that W120 could be considered C-Class, W121 E-Class and W180 S-Class of that time, but since these class designations were not officially adopted, anything or nothing is true or false.

The official adoption of the term S-Class came with the W116 in 1972

The official adoption of C- and E-Classes came in the 1990's when the letter became prefix to the engine designation.

Interesting. I recall when I was a teenager in the mid-60s we had a 220S (or SE?)... (My late Dad had a very senior job for a German company outside Europe. BTW we also had a large crate of spares shipped from Germany as they were not available locally. Now some Mercs are assembled in that country...)

Even from later times I only remember speaking about "an S", but it is too long ago to remember details, and you (Jens) did say that "S Klasse" as an expression was adopted in the early 70s.

Was it used in advertising?

I supposed the S in front was adopted at the same time when E, the suffix, for Einspritz/injection became E, the prefix, for E Class, a completely random designation but an elegant way of retaining the E, when the ubiquity of direct injection rendered the description redundant. BMW similarly droppped the "i" suffix.

DAS