How is parts availability and price over there? From what I understand MB judt doubled the prices on (some? many?) parts here in the past two weeks and dropped prices on parts for newer cars. The examples I was given were a dash for a 123 went from 480 to 1000$ while some ML part went from 380 to 200. "They want us to buy new cars" is what I've heard.
There atr 32 113 headlight doors (at $500) in north american inventory but no blue 123 dashes left.
The 123 has been designated a "classic" here now so parts go through the classics center withcommensurate increaes in price.
IMHO chances are big it will stay the leader in terms of production figures - nowadays car's life cycles are shorter (typically only 7 years with MBs) and there is many more models available than at the time of the W123.
Today there is less than 100.000 W123s left in Germany and of that are less than 10.000 240D, numbers are (still) shrinking fast: Year W123 240D
Point with the 240D was it was more powerful - yes, yes, talking about W123 diesels and power in the same sentence... - but didn't consume (noticeably) more diesel than 200D or 220D.
No, that is 230 (196.185) and 230E (245.876) combined (442.061)
Yes, 378.138
Next are 200 gas (376.087) and 300D (331.999).
Aaaaaah - time for extreme nutpicking ;-))) Production began in 12/1975 (280, 280E) and ended in 01/1986 (200T, 230TE, 280TE).
I have a short article about the W123 as coming classic car on the site at
formatting link
Oh, and YES, serious collector's tip is the MB Vaneo (W414) whose production will stop in summer - only 55.000 produced so far from all variants within 4 years...
480 or 1000, that is _much_ money for such old and basically worthless cars so the dash price is of no real siginificance as owners will seek for ways to repair/cover a broken dash.
The blue ones are the ones which cracked first (and that started _many_ years ago) - so no wonder there is none left.
Parts availabilty for technical parts here in Germany is _excellent_, one has the choice of brake pads, rotors, lights, filters etc. pp. but some interiour parts are already sold out (means specific parts in specific colours).
Here in Germany it will become an official classic in late January 2006 as premiere of the W123 series was at the end of January 1976 in France and so in 2006 the W123 series will turn 30.
Coupe and T total 299.608 (1) ==========================
Production was 2.696.962 (1) (includes all, sedans, sedans LWB, coupes, T-models, partly bodied chassis, partly bodied chassis LWB, China assembled sedans) so it were 2.397.354 (1) sedans (incl. sedans LWB, partly bodied chassis and partly bodied chassis LWB).
So one can say:
2,7 million total, 2,4 million sedans,
200.000 T-models and 100.000 coupes.
Regular model with lowest number produced is 280C with 3.704, lowest special model is 230 partly bodied chassis with 265 vehicles, highest figure is 240D sedan with
454.780 followed by 200D with 378.138 and
300D with 331.999, highest gas is 230E with
245.876 followed by 200 with 217.315 and
230 with 196.185
Coupe and T total 299.608 (1) ==========================
Production was 2.696.962 (1) (includes all, sedans, sedans LWB, coupes, T-models, partly bodied chassis, partly bodied chassis LWB, China assembled sedans) so it were 2.397.354 (1) sedans (incl. sedans LWB, partly bodied chassis and partly bodied chassis LWB).
So one can say:
2,7 million total, 2,4 million sedans,
200.000 T-models and 100.000 coupes.
Regular model with lowest number produced is 280C with 3.704, lowest special model is 230 partly bodied chassis with 265 vehicles, highest figure is 240D sedan with
454.780 followed by 200D with 378.138 and
300D with 331.999, highest gas is 230E with
245.876 followed by 200 with 217.315 (M102) plus 158.772 (M115 - so total of both 200 is 376.087) and 230 with 196.185
seems about half the number of T's built are still on the road in Australia. was the wagon released long after the sedan? Huge fan of this model, and the wagon has a huge following here as you can't kill the mechanicals and our dry climate is kind to the bodies.
BTW, I did round the figures to make them easier to read; the article did show the exact numbers (since most people probably don't care about a few up or down). And, you may nitpick with DC as the production dates were given by them... :-)
DAS
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
250T production 05/1978, pre-series 09/1977, ended 08/1982
280TE production 05/1978, pre-series 09/1977, ended 01/1986
300TD production 05/1978, pre-series 09/1977, ended 01/1986
240TD production 05/1978, pre-series 02/1978, ended 01/1986
230T production 05/1978, pre-series 02/1978, ended 04/1980
230TE production 04/1980, pre-series 10/1979, ended 01/1986
300TDT production 10/1980, pre-series 11/1979, ended 01/1986
200T production 11/1980, pre-series 05/1980, ended 01/1986
Cast in order of appearance ;-)
First sedans appeared in 12/1975:
280, 280E Followed 02/1976 by 200D, 220D, 240D, 300D, 200, 230,
T was not built in Stuttgart-Sindelfingen as sedans, but in the old Borgward factory in Bremen. That was more sort of a large-scale hand-build manufacture than a normal serial production - yearly total production number peaked at ca.
30.000 cars, original schedule was 18.000.
The 123 T-models still seem to exist anywhere in the world in numbers, but that is a fallacy.
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